Death by a Thousand Cuts: Souveniring, Salvage and the Long, Sad Demise of HMAS Perth (I)
Author(s): Kieran Hosty; James Hunter; Shinatria Adhityatama
Year: 2018
Summary
In May 2017, maritime archaeologists affiliated with the Australian National Maritime Museum (ANMM) and Indonesia’s Pusat Arkeologi Nasional (ARKENAS) conducted a survey and site assessment of HMAS Perth (I), a modified Leander class light cruiser sunk by the Imperial Japanese Navy during the Battle of Sunda Strait in March 1942. When discovered in 1967, Perth’s wreck site was almost completely intact, save for battle damage and subsequent deterioration caused by natural transformative processes. Since that time, the site has been detrimentally affected by episodes of small- and large-scale salvage and souveniring, as well as natural degradation and collapse. Salvage has clearly had the greatest transformative effect on Perth, and an industrial-scale operation between 2015 and 2017 wrought the most devastation by far. This paper addresses the results of the 2017 investigations, and outlines ongoing collaborative efforts by ANMM and ARKENAS to establish a mechanism for the site’s future protection.
Cite this Record
Death by a Thousand Cuts: Souveniring, Salvage and the Long, Sad Demise of HMAS Perth (I). Kieran Hosty, James Hunter, Shinatria Adhityatama. Presented at Society for Historical Archaeology, New Orleans, Louisiana. 2018 ( tDAR id: 441527)
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Keywords
Spatial Coverage
min long: 112.952; min lat: -43.648 ; max long: 153.606; max lat: -10.71 ;
Individual & Institutional Roles
Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology
Record Identifiers
PaperId(s): 616