Page 82 - Kennemerland VOC ship, 1664 - Published Reports

NAUTICAL ARCHAEOLOGY, 6 . 1
1965, Dumas asserted that: ‘reports of under- water work, if they are to be useful, must include at least, a geological analysis of the site and its marine environment’, among other items (Dumas, 1965: 16). Any report, no matter how minor or preliminary, which ignores this body of information must be regarded as incomplete
and inadequate.
This survey has dealt with the survival of
factors involved predictively would be the final test of the validity of any conclusions reached.
In the meantime, the ideas presented above now await confirmation, refutation, or, most likely, modification in the light of future finds around the coasts of Britian. Whether there are any grounds for reconsidering the classic state- ments on this subject with respect to Mediter- ranean sites remains to be seen. Certainly there is a need for such surveys in other situations, notably in other enclosed seas such as the Baltic, where the survival of whole ships proud of the sea-bed is apparently common, and on coral covered shores. The survival of a substan- tial section of the stern of the Batavia buried under dead coral heads on an extremely
archaeological material underwater only in
general terms, considering only ships as units,
broad categories of materials, or overall distri-
butions, and relating these only to the sites’
physical environments. However, current
experience suggests that there can be consider-
able variations in detail in the survival charac-
teristics of various sites; pewter is in a poor exposed shore in Western Australia (Green,
state on one site, and almost perfect on another; silver seems to have decomposed entirely in someplaces,andisperfectlypreservedinothers; and so forth. These variations can even take place between different areas of one site. The explanation must lie in variations in the compo- sition of the objects concerned, in the chemistry of the sea-bed deposits, in the quality of the sea-water in the area, and other such chemical or biological factors. More work on these sub- jects is required. Another area demanding further research, and which has already been
alluded to a couple of times, is the question of how to identify whether a historically docu- mented wreck is likely to have left any remains at all, and the factors which determine this. This is a more complex question, and involves factors other than the purely environmental, but a start has been made into trying to organ- ize a programme of research to this end (Brooks & Muckelroy, 1976). As in the present study, the ability to use any analysis of the
References
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Acknowledgments
This study has emerged as a result of many dis- cussions I have held with a wide range of per- sons, including both maritime archaeologists and other marine scientists. In particular, I should like to thank Dr R Earl1 (Manchester University), and my other friends in the Under- water Association, for their many stimulating ideas and suggestions. I must also acknowledge my great debt to the sponsors and Council of the St Andrews Institute of Maritime Archaeo- logy, and in particular its Director, Colin Martin, who has contributed extensively to this paper, both through his many helpful comments and criticisms, and his unceasing support and encouragement for me in my researches. I hope that all these people find something in the above presentation to serve as repayment for their kindnesses.
Adnams, J. R., 1974, The Dartmouth, a British frigate wrecked off Mull, 1690. Znt. J. Naut. Archaeol., 3: 269-74.
Bax, A. & Martin, C. J. M., 1974, De Liefde, a Dutch Indiaman lost on the Out Skerries, Shetland, in 1711. Znt. J. Naut. Archaeol., 3: 81-90.
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