"Encouraging and Daunting": The State of Marine Archaeology in the United States and Canada Today By Peter Throckmorton Curator-at-Large National Maritime Historical Society Ten years ago Peter Throckmorton told the editor of SEA HISTORY that the most important thing we could do was save the hulks of old sailing ships abandoned or turned to use as hulks in the Falkland Islands. Then in Greece, he said he would come home to be part of any effort to accomplish this. And this he did. His reports on the Falkland Islands expedition run with South Street Seaport Museum in the spring of 1976 appeared in SH 4 and 6. A second expedition is planned next \\linter. This report on the state of marine archae ology today in North America is exce1pted Ji-om his new book, Diving for Treasure, to be published this fall by Viking Press. Marine archaeology is a small enclave in the story of modern man 's scientific exploration of the sea. There are treasures in the sea- unimaginable ones from mineral nodules and galleons full of gold to sunken Russian submarines. In the twenty years since I became interested in ancient ships in the sea, I have experienced an interesting progression. When I first approached the editors of a national magazine with photographs of ancient ships on the sea floor, the first question put to me was, "Did you find gold?" In their minds, the only interesting aspect of a wreck was its treasure. Eventually I traced the whereabouts of the Gelidonya wreck, which, up to that time, was the oldest shipwreck ever found. That discovery was spectacular enough to receive the support needed to excavate a Phoenician trading vessel of the thirteenth century B.C. Modern marine archaeology was, at last, launched. Unfortunately, we came full circle and ended again at the point where we had started when, in 1975, we found the Cycladic ship at Dhokos, Greece. Political pressure on the Greek Archaeological Service forced them to excavate the wreck with teams of untrained Greek Navy divers , who retrieved a heap of broken pottery and little else. Like Cinderella's jewels that turned to coal at the stroke of 24
midnight, the oldest shjpwreck in the world was reduced to junk by treasure hunters who were blind to the true treasure: a record of a seagoing vessel of four thousand years ago . There are literally hundreds of underwater expeditions in progress throughout the world today. Most of them have been so distorted by the newspapers that it is very difficult to get an idea of what is really happening in the world of maritime archaeology. Those of us who are obsessed by what we think is the true treasure form a rather friendly group. Once a year or so we meet to exchange gossip about who is doing what. The last such meeting took place in Ottawa, Canada , in January 1977. Sponsored by the Indian and Northern Affairs and Parks Department of the Canadian government, it was an open meeting which any diver could attend for a small fee. I left the conference with an impression that what is going on in maritime archaeology today is both encouraging and daunting. Amazingly, the countries furthest ahead in their work in maritime archaeology- that is, in underwater excavation-are Canada and Australia. The Western Australian Museum has a budget of perhaps three quarters of a million dollars per year for activities relating to maritime archaeology, a firstrate program in the field directed by Jeremy Green , and a modern conservation department. At present, they are working on five known East India ships that date from 1622 to 1727. In addition, Western Australia has instigated a Maritime Archaeology Act to protect its maritime archaeological heritage.
"On the American side these wrecks are rapidly being destroyed by treasure-hunting skin divers. " Canada's conservation lab in Ottawa is the most advanced in the Western Hemisphere. The 1967-1968 excavation of the Machault, a French frigate of the 1760s, brilliantly carried out by Walter Zacharchuk and Robert Grenier, prompted the Canadian government to support surveys throughout the country . Walter Zacharchuk and his team have seen some extraordinary wrecks in the Arctic, notably an almost intact schooner of the early 1700s. The icy waters of the far north and the far south seem to preserve ship timber, and
modern diving suits, especially Swedish unisuits, allow diving in these frigid waters. Walter and I agreed to form a totally informal , unsponsored information exchange organization POLAR CH - for those e nthusi asts interested in polar archaeology. Dr. Daniel Nelson of the Royal Ontario Museum is developing a system whereby the intact American schooners Hamilton and Scourge, lost in Lake Ontario in 1812, will be rescued. He and his associates hope to raise each schooner in one piece and preserve them in refrigerated tanks of water, where they will be on public exhibition. The freezing waters of Lake Ontario harbor hundreds of intact wrecks that date back as far as the 1600s. On the American side these wrecks are rapidly being destroyed by treasure-hunting skin divers. There is even a commercial company in Chicago that is searching for wrecks with side-scan sonar, and salvaging bits of them to be turned into coffee tables. No one in the states bordering the Great Lakes seems to care. In Canada they do: one of the most inspiring projects described was the discovery of two nineteenth-century schooners near Prince Edward County in Lake Ontario by two dedicated women , Barbara M. Carson and Audrey E. Rush brook of the Kingston (Ontario) Maritime Museum. Andre Lepin, of the Quebec Ministry of Culture, read a fine paper at the Ottawa conference, describing the recovery of objects from Admiral Walker's lost fleet of 1711. It seems that these wrecks are being saved from treasure hunters of carefully explored, and the finds are being preserved and placed in museums.
* * * * * Compared to that m Canada , underwater archaeology in the United States is suffering. Although the National Trust for Historic Preservation started a maritime section in the fall of 1976, it seems that it will be some years before we have an operative national program whose aim it would be to preserve o ur historic shipwrecks. One problem in our country is that these matters are left largely to individ ual states. Some states, particularly Texas, have passed legislation that is sensible and constructive. The Texas Antiquities Committee has taken title to all historic wrecks in Texas waters, and has chosen a compe tent crew to work on them. The group is being led by Barto Arnold, who has successfully carried out a '.'Jell-
SEA HISTORY, SUMMER 1977