Page 8 - TVH 2000 Anniversary Shipwreck Project

Project History Rex Cowan Introduction The search for the Vliegent Hart began in 1977 when Gunter Schilder, Professor of the History of Cartography at the University of Utrecht, came across a dramatic text in a cartouche on an anonymous chart whilst researching manuscript maps at Leiden University Library. The text described the wrecking of two VOC ships, the Vliegent Hart and the Anna Catharina. Crucially, it revealed “the place where the two ships were found to lie is where the name of each is written on this map”. It went on to give the alignment of the sandbars, buoys and beacons. The map had been prepared for an English diver, James Bushell of Harwich who had requested it to enable him to pinpoint the wrecks on which he had been contracted to dive by the VOC. Tides and poor visibility lead to the failure of Bushell’s attempts. Subsequent English barrel divers James Mitchell and the doughty William Evans were hardly more successful. Evans did bring up a few pieces of silver, some cannon and a number of full wine bottles in 1736 before quitting the site and the job. Bas Kist, a curator at the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, had a long friendship with Rex Cowan, arising from the latter’s discovery of the VOC ship Hollandia (wrecked 1743 on the Isles of Scilly) and over the many years of work on the site. In addition, the two had exchanged information, and had collaborated over the acquisition of artefacts recovered from the Hollandia by the Rijksmuseum. The Dutch could not at that time mobilise the money, resources or expertise required to find the Vliegent Hart. Cowan was approached to muster a team of experts and divers, and to find the financial resources necessary for a major search operation. This inspired an elaborate venture. The North Sea Archaeological expedition was established, led by Cowan and John Rose, a diver and businessman, together with Anthony Lonsdale, an inventor and operator of the proton magnetometer, which was rapidly becoming important for the remote sensing of shipwrecks. Kist and the Rijksmuseum obtained local help from Albert Veldkamp, an experienced pilot at Vlissingen, and the blessing of the City Museum with it’s enthusiastic Director, Wilbert Weber, was to be (and still is now) at the heart of the venture. The task of exploration began in February 1979 from a chartered tug – it continued with two further long periods of exploration in that year, three in 1980, and one in 1981. Each of these periods lasted for up to two months, and three boats were employed, all supplied by John Rose. These varied craft sailed across the North Sea, often in adverse and dangerous weather. The craft included the Compass Rose which was a 45 ft ex-Royal navy pinnace, the Desert Star, a 35 ft vessel which unluckily developed engine failure halfway across the North Sea in a gale, along with the Flying Hart, a new 50ft steel catamaran purpose built for diving recovery and the passive storage of artefacts. During the search for the vessel, a proton magnetometer and side scan sonar were used linked with a Decca Navigator and track plotter. At the end of 1981, the site was discovered in the seabed at a depth of about 70ft on a soft mud bottom covered with a broken shell layer and shallow silt layer over the top. The visible features such as cannon with VOC markings, dated coinage, and various VOC artefacts immediately and definitely identified the wreck as the Vliegent Hart. The discovery of a wreck of this nature and scope requires a commitment to supply finances and resources over an extended and indefinite period, together with the continuity of personnel and expert support required to fulfill the attainable archaeological and historical goals. Work of this character defines the essential objectives and justification for disturbing an historic wreck site. From 1981 to 1985 various teams of experienced archaeological divers worked on the site during seasons lasting often more than three months, often twice per year. The team from the Rijksmuseum included both Bas Kist and Jersey Garownski during 1982 and 1983. In the first two years, a conservation laboratory with trained conservators was set up in dedicated buildings supplied by Zeeland authorities. From 1984, the Vlissingen City Museum offered its basement, together with storage areas and a permanent laboratory with freeze dryers and circulating tanks. They also offered their documentation facility and personnel. These are still fundamental to the project today, with assistants under the direction of the project conservator, Ton van de Horst. -6-