A Lot Harder Than It Looks: Conservation Of A Worst Case Scenario

Summary

Piecing together and conserving weathered timber skeletons of shipwrecks is a daunting undertaking in the best of circumstances. But, when those timbers are ripped from their resting place during a massive construction project, displaced, left exposed to the elements and general public, for weeks before being locked away, untreated, in storage for over a year, that undertaking can become a near impossible challenge. In the flurry of massive multi-agency infrastructure projects undertaken to repair the damage from Superstorm Sandy, historic preservation practices had to be adapted to fit disaster recovery priorities, and timelines. On one project, conservators, and maritime archaeologists employed modified conservation and recordation techniques to make those adaptations work for a badly damaged wreck site. Can these adaptations be used in the future not just on similar projects, and disasters, but as lessons in the planning of projects long before the coming disasters hit?

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Paper / Report Submission (General Sessions) 2017   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2017

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 572