CALL TO ACTION: Thanking all our hosts in Norwalk, Milford, Stratford, Bridgeport, Stamford, New Haven, FallRiver,New Rochelle, Portsmouth and Newport for a great summer of '88.
Now planning an exciting 1989 schedule on the North Atlantic seaboard and the Great Lakes. The new Coast Guard Certified "HMS" Rose, largest operational wooden sailing ship in the world, embarks on educational voyages. Diverse programs range from grade school age through executive development workshops for business and industry. For information write or call :
ROSE is a US documented vessel
"H.M.S~'
R~E
1 Bostwick Ave. • Bridgeport , CT 06605 • 203-335-1433
Oil Barging 20,000 to 115,000 BBLS Dry Cargo Barging
12,500 DWI World-Wide Service
National Maritime Historical Soc iety
Shipdocking - New Haven, Bridgeport, Port Jefferson, Riverhead, Northport New York, New York 10036
At the Annual Meeting of the National Maritime Historical Society held May 6 at Norwalk, Connecticut, resolutions were adopted protesting the sale by such auction houses as Christie 's and Sotheby 's of artifacts looted from historic shipwrecks, and calling on citizens to boycott such auctions. This followed the action by the Society for Historic Archaeology last fall barring the presentation of a paperon the Wydah excavation off Cape Cod, on the grounds that work conducted under sponsorship not devoted to archaeological purposes should not be recognized or condoned. The National Maritime Historical Society agrees with that position and supports it. In thi s we are joined by the Council of American Maritime Museums , the Institute of Nautical Archaeology, and the Maritime Alliance. In the letter to the Society defending Sotheby 's involvement with the auction of Wydah material s (at thi s writing they are making a study of auction potential), Sotheby 's president, Michael L. Ainslie, said: " In my view, the responsible excavation of the Wydah is conservation , not destruction. Without venture capital and its incentives, theWydah materials would never have been di scovered and restored. " We know of no responsible archaeo logist who agrees that the Wydah excavation is "conservation," and we do not believe that the urge to go out and dig things up shou ld be allowed to override the conservation of these priceless, irreplaceable evidences of our voyaging past. If it cannot be done properly, it should not be done. I believe that is the essence of the Society's position and that it is one the public will come to share as it comes to appreciate the values at stake, and the annihilation of those values by excavations undertaken for any but educational and hi storical purposes. P ETER STANFORD, PRESIDENT
Tugs - 1,500 to 4,000 HP
1185 Avenue of The Americas
Save Historic Wrecks
212-536-3800
NOTE: On May 11 , a campaign was launched in Britain ' s House of Commons by Richard Onnond , Direc tor, National Maritime Museum , lo sec ure act ion to stop "selling hi storic wrecks to commercial salvors" and 10 discourage the pub Iic sale of antiquities. For further information on this , and the text and background of lhe NMHS resolution , write NMHS , 132 Maple St., Croton NY 10520. J,
SEA HISTORY , SUMMER 1989
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