Protected Wreck Sites: 40 Years of Protection

DOCUMENT Citation Only Martin J Read.

  The Cattewater Wreck was the first wreck to be protected by the UK Government and was partially excavated in the 1970s. The Tudor wreck is believed to be an unidentified armed merchantman. The Cattewater Wreck Archive Project, funded by English Heritage, recently improved the long term care and management of the archive held in Plymouth City Museum. Modern tools and techniques have been applied to the archive, such as stable isotope analysis of fish remains, allowing new interpretations to be...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Roger Crook.

The Coronation, a 90-gun second rate, is a protected wreck site off Plymouth. In 1691 she foundered in a violent gale. Like the majority of protected wrecks in the UK, there is a wealth of history and archaeology to be gleaned most often by archaeologists. To regular sports divers, the 61 in the UK have often been deemed off limits, encouraging the notion of "ivory towers academics". Not any longer: Ginge Crook, the licensee of the site, has significantly changed this attitude in just...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Garry Momber. Julie Satchell.

The Solent area has been witness to many hundreds of shipwrecks. The most significant of these are protected. Each wreck presents different challenges when managing and preserving the remains. Over the last two decades the Hampshire and Wight Trust for Maritime Archaeology has been working with licensees to record the wrecks and bring information to the public. The results have included the creation of displays, videos, publications and a web geoportal. Two wrecks that have been a particular...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Douglas M McElvogue.

The wreck site of the Kennemerland represents the remains of the earliest identifiable Dutch East Indiaman to be protected within UK waters. The character of the Kennemerland is known from extensive historical sources. It was involved in deep sea international trade to the Far East as part of the trading activity of the largest contemporary mercantile concern, the VOC. The Kennemerland also represents a key site in the development of the academic study of Maritime Archaeology, the Protection of...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Robert Peacock.

The purpose of this paper is to stimulate discusion with in the maritime archaeological field. The discussion is focused on the situation with ih england (uk). Over the last 25 years we have moved away from an era of discovery and learing through sensible investigation of sites to a position where we largly do nothing. By using my personal experience as (licencee and direction of operations) over the last 25 years while working on the Stirling Castle, (a 3rd rate man of war) that adopting a...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Graham Scott.

"This morning is brought to me to the office the sad news of the London, in which Sir J Lawsons men were all bringing her from Chatham to the Hope…but a little a-this-side the buoy of the Nower, she suddenly blew up." So wrote the great diarist and naval administrator Samuel Pepys about the tragic loss of Charles II’s warship London. The wreck site in the fiercely tidal Thames Estuary is now one of the most vulnerable and yet important in the United Kingdom, yielding evidence as diverse as the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Alison James.

In the ten years since English Heritage assumed some responsibilities for the historic environment of England’s seabed, many advances have been made in the physical management of submerged heritage.   It is an exciting time forEngland’s Protected Wreck site with many new initiatives. A recent development has been the implementation of the Heritage Crime Initiative in the marine environment which is enabling better protection of the sites. The work of Licensees has long been recognised as...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Christopher TC Dobbs.

The new Mary Rose museum opens in early 2013.  It is the latest phase in the story of this remarkable ship built 500 years ago, sunk in 1545 and raised in 1982.  In 1974, it was the second ship to be designated under the Protection of Wrecks Act.   But how and why has this ship been able to progress from a small scale project starting like many others in the UK to being one with international impact?  This paper will start by looking at the vision behind the project and its evolution - from the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Mark I Beattie-Edwards.

In 2012 in the United Kingdom there were 61 wreck sites protected under the Protection of Wrecks Act (1973). These wrecks are identified as being the most important historical and archaeological wrecks in UK territorial waters.  Since 2005 the NAS has worked to not only facilitate access to these heritage assets but to also contribute to the research aims of the volunteer custodians. This paper will highlight the opportunity that a diver trail on the Norman’s Bay wreck launched in 2011, offers...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Peter R. V. Marsden.

This is a personal view of the beginnings of maritime archaeology in the UK. Having discovered that two Roman wrecks in London, found by me in 1958 and 1962, could not be protected as historic monuments, and that neither could wrecks found by divers on the seabed, I called an archaeological meeting in 1964. The Committee for Nautical Archaeology was established then, and its campaigning resulted in the Protection of Wrecks Act 1973 and wrecks being included in Ancient Monuments law. The Nautical...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Chris Underwood.

The Protection of Wrecks Act 1973 was passed to protect the UK’s most significant wrecks. In 2013 more than sixty sites are designated under this legislation. Recreational divers continue to enjoy licensed access to them, with amateur archaeologists surveying and in some cases excavating under the direction of their nominated archaeologist, which also remains a voluntary activity. However the relationship between amateurs and the profession with respect to these sites has not always been an easy...

DOCUMENT Citation Only David Parham.

Evidence for a submerged middle Bronze Age site close to Salcombe in South Devon was first discovered in 1977 and worked on by Keith Muckelroy prior to his untimely death in 1980. In 2004 the South West Maritime Archaeology group discovered more Bronze Age material close to the 1977 finds and work by the group in conjunction with the British Museum, Bournemouth University and the University of Oxford and led to the discovery of over 320 Bronze Age finds which includes tools and weapons,  metal...

DOCUMENT Citation Only David Parham. paola palma.

The site of the Swash Channel Wreck is that of a large armed merchant ship wrecked in the approached to Poole Harbour on the South Coast of England. The site consists of the almost entire port side of the originating vessels including the bow and stern castles. The site is subject to on going natural erosion that has exposed much of the hull of the vessel since its rediscovery in 2004. The paper will discuss the innovative use of students as part of a taught unit in maritime archaeology to...