Kingsley Sean A. - Oceans odyssey : deep-sea shipwrecks in the English Channel, Straits of Gibraltar & Atlantic Ocean

We dedicate this book to all those who have inspired us, encouraged us and contributed so much to the mission of Odyssey, but who are no longer with us to share the excitement of our discoveries:

Victor Barton, Robert Blumberg, Romaine DeFrain, George Dettweiler, Norman Walker Dobson, Sophie Theresa Graca, George Knutsson, George Lackman, Dean Mirghanbari, Donnie Morris, Olive Morris, Robert Morris, James William OBrien Sr., Jack Painter, Emma Riemer, Peter Throckmorton, Peter Tolson, and Doris Winckler.

Published by
Oxbow Books, Oxford, UK

Oxbow Books and Odyssey Marine Exploration, 2010

ISBN 978-1-84217-415-9
EPUB ISBN: XXXXXXXXXXXXX

This book is available direct from:

Oxbow Books, Oxford, UK
(Phone: 01865-241249; Fax: 01865-794449)

and

The David Brown Book Company
PO Box 511, Oakville, CT 06779, USA
(Phone: 860-945-9329; Fax: 860-945-9468)

or from our website

www.oxbowbooks.com

A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Oceans odyssey : deep-sea shipwrecks in the English Channel, Straits of Gibraltar & Atlantic Ocean /
edited by Greg Stemm & Sean Kingsley.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-1-84217-415-9
1. Underwater archaeology--English Channel. 2. Underwater archaeology--Gibraltar. 3. Underwater
archaeology--Atlantic Ocean. 4. Shipwrecks--English Channel. 5. Shipwrecks--Gibraltar. 6. Ship
wrecks--Atlantic Ocean. I. Stemm, Greg. II. Kingsley, Sean A.
CC77.U5O24 2010
930.1028'04--dc22

2009050937

Printed and bound in Great Britain by
Butler, Tanner & Dennis, Frome

Preface

I clearly recall the bright April morning in 1989, sitting on the deck of our research vessel in the luminous green Gulf Stream waters between Cuba and Florida. My business partner John Morris, my brother Scott, Graham Hawkes and I were still trying to get our arms around our recent shipwreck find. We were preparing to steam home, elated at having just found the first colonial Spanish shipwreck ever discovered in the deep ocean using one of Grahams Phantom Remotely-Operated Vehicles (ROV) that we had recently purchased.

The long-term implications of our discovery were not yet clear, and all of us viewed the next step in dealing with this amazing site from significantly different perspectives. John looked at the economic issues, Graham and Scott looked at the technical challenges and I was wondering how we would conduct an archaeological excavation at a depth of 500m using robotics.

During the following year I met with many different archaeologists and deep-ocean technicians in an attempt to develop a system that could replicate best practice shallow-water fieldwork using a deep-ocean robot. The process was complex, yet we were fortunate enough to be at a place in history where billions of dollars were being spent by oil companies and the military to improve the capabilities of deep-ocean technology.

After the better part of a year, our team had developed a framework for employing a work-class ROV with some newly developed manipulators, advanced optics and long baseline acoustic technology that we felt would be able to accomplish what no one else had ever tried the complete archaeological excavation of a shipwreck using robotic technology. Lost in 1622, the Tortugas shipwreck, as it came to be known, was a technical success that proved it was possible to conduct archaeology remotely. A comprehensive report on this groundbreaking project is currently being prepared for publication by Odyssey.

It was a very expensive endeavor far beyond the budgets of academic archaeological institutions. To meet the financial requirements of deep-ocean archaeology, we developed a business plan that featured a new model for funding and managing shipwreck resources. We planned to adhere to the most stringent archaeological protocols, respecting full documentation, contexts and sampling. However, we also allowed for generating profits by either making large quantities of duplicate artifacts such as coins available to the public after thorough study and documentation or by charging governments a fee based on the value of what we discovered, excavated, conserved and documented on their behalf.

Looking forward optimistically, we felt that we would find many well-preserved shipwrecks in the deep oceans of the world, that governments would be pleased with a model that allowed underwater cultural heritage to be protected and documented without any cost to the taxpayer, and that archaeologists would be delighted that the long-lost knowledge of shipwrecks in the deep ocean would finally see the light of the day.

Reality did not quite work out like that. We found that even in deep water, shipwrecks were being destroyed at an alarming rate and that the politics of underwater cultural heritage were so complex that some government bureaucrats were happier to see shipwrecks being destroyed in situ than to consider a new private sector model for managing cultural heritage. In addition, a handful of archaeologists in positions of power were dead set against the private sector coming into their territory, a perceived threat to their funding sources and monopoly on underwater archaeology. In short, our concept for a new model for the management of shipwreck resources came face to face with the real world, where reason and reality do not always go hand in hand.

Fast forward nearly two decades to 2008 and Odysseys discovery of Admiral Sir John Balchins HMS Victory in the English Channel. After nearly 20 years of perfecting our deep-water survey and archaeological techniques, we were able to locate and thoroughly document the surface features of the shipwreck site and thus identify the Victory. In the process we solved one of the greatest mysteries in maritime history. Sadly, this discovery was accompanied by the reality that the site had already been severely damaged clearly by trawling activities, but also as a result of natural causes. Our preliminary observation of the damage was the catalyst to undertake a massive study of all the sites that we had discovered in the English Channel and Western Approaches some 267 shipwrecks and to conduct an investigation into the impacts we observed, layered on fishery data in order to correlate this information and try to make sense of the destruction of what were once believed to be potentially intact sites.

Interestingly, while some specialists with a vested interest in the in situ preservation model initially questioned our research about natural and man-made damage to shipwrecks in the Channel, they found it increasingly difficult to argue with the clear, unbiased hard data the verdict was obvious. All the sites in the English Channel are without doubt in danger, and the notion of a pristine collection of shipwrecks awaiting study by future generations was a pipe dream.

So, where do we go from here? For Odysseys part, an important initiative in our mission statement is to share the knowledge gained from our finds with the public. In the past, we have achieved this through hundreds of popular articles, our television series and documentaries, our traveling exhibits and popular books. With the first volume of OME Reports, we have taken this a step further and are specifically addressing the interests of the archaeological and academic community. We are pleased to present a detailed archaeological analysis of some of our projects from a broad range of perspectives, reflecting the many different disciplines that we bring to bear in our study of shipwrecks.

We are already well underway in planning our 2010 publication schedule. Our archaeologists, technicians and historians continue to tease fascinating information from our finds and we welcome researchers of all types to access the voluminous data that we have obtained through our investigations of hundreds of shipwrecks.