Maritime in the 21st Century by James P. Delgado

he art and science of archaeology is now more than a century old, and the practice of it underwater and in the maritime world spans about half that time, or some fifty-five years. While interest in maritime finds dates to the nineteenth century, with discoveries of buried —either in land-filled harbors, or the famous disinterment of the Gokstad and Oseberg burials in what is now Norway— what lay under the seas awaited a new century. The 1900 discov- ery and recovery of a trove of ancient bronze statues from a first Tcentury BC off the Greek Aegean island of Antiky- thera sparked interest in undersea exploration. The invention of SCUBA, along with a growth in the number of divers in the 1950s and 1960s, led to the birth of archaeology practiced under water as well as . The first scientific excavation of a shipwreck in its entirety from the seabed took place in 1960 when George F. Bass and , working with , Frédéric Dumas, Claude Duthuit and others raised the scattered remains of a wreck dating to around 1200 BC from the waters of ’s . institute of nautical archaeology institute of nautical In 1960, George Bass—often referred to as the Father of Underwa- ter Archaeology—and his colleague Peter Throckmorton led a team in a full archaeological excavation of a Bronze Age shipwreck off Cape Gelidonya in Turkey. (above) Bass and Throckmorton examine bronze ingots raised from the Gelidonya wreck site. institute of nautical archaeology institute of nautical

In the decades that followed in the twentieth century, a virtual explosion of technology, interest, and opportunity—as well as controversy and conflict—brought and mari- time archaeology increasingly into focus for both the archaeo- logical profession and the public. The initial was a spate of discoveries, some of famous ships, while others ultimately proved to be insignificant in terms of name recognition or historical fame; however, these wrecks yielded forgotten or lost information about ship forms, construction, or aspects of trade and life at sea. The big-name discoveries and recoveries included the Swed- ish , a 1628 loss in harbor that, when raised intact, became an iconic poster child for the new discipline and yielded a trove of artifacts that documented not only the vessel, but also life (and lives lost) during its brief career. Viking ships excavated from a shallow grave at Roskilde, near Copen- museum vasa hagen, greatly expanded knowledge of various types of these Vasa broke the surface for the first time in 333 years when it was craft, hitherto limited to the Royal Dragon ships like Gokstad or raised intact from the seabed in Stockholm Harbor in 1961. 16 SEA HISTORY 153, WINTER 2015–16 vasa of rhode island trust/university exploration noaa/ocean The Vasa Museum’s diorama depicts the recovery of the ship. The pro- (above) The image ofTitanic’ s bow caught the world’s attention cess took more than two years and included digging tunnels under- when it was discovered on the seafloor in 1985. neath the wreck in the seabed through which to run the slings. (below) and a NOAA scientist monitor ROV dives to Titanic from the control room aboard the NOAA oceanographic Oseberg. The famous Civil War ironclad USS Monitor, discovered research ship Ronald H. Brown in 2004. in what were then deep waters of more than 200 feet in 1972, captured national attention and sparked the creation of America’s National Marine Sanctuary system. The 1985 discovery of Titanic captured global headlines and demonstrated the possibil- ity that anything—any ship—could be found with enough money and time, even at great depth. noaa/ocean exploration trust/university of rhode island trust/university exploration noaa/ocean s mate 1st class martin maddock, us navy 1st class martin s mate ’ (left) The revolving gun turret from the ironclad ship USSMonitor is lifted from the ocean floor and placed onto the derrick barge in August 2002. The shipwreck site was designated as the country’s first

photographer National Marine Sanctuary in 1975. SEA HISTORY 153, WINTER 2015–16 17 But as much as big-name shipwrecks were making the news, compassing thousands of square miles and more than a thousand there was more to the rapidly developing field than discovery and shipwrecks. In the twenty-first century, in the , there recovery of ships. The first sea change was resolving the initial are now state underwater archaeological programs that incorpo- ideological struggle with mainstream, land-bound archaeologists rate research, diving, and resource management in Maryland, over the issue of whether “real” archaeology could be accomplished Massachusetts, North Carolina, South Carolina, , and in a submerged environment. The issue was resolved by the 1970s, Texas. At the federal level, underwater archaeology is a component thanks to years of exceptional projects done to exacting standards, of the programs of the , NOAA’s Office of including the work of George Bass and his students and colleagues National Marine Sanctuaries, the US Navy, the Bureau of Ocean with the then newly-founded Institute of Nautical Archaeology, Energy Management, and the Bureau of Safety and Environmen- as well as work done by other pioneers such as Ole Crumlin- tal Enforcement. Internationally, a number of countries have Pedersen in , Graham Henderson in Australia, Robert programs, either governmental, non-governmental, or managed Grenier in Canada, Erreguereña in Mexico, and Colin under academic auspices. Among these are Canada, Mexico, Martin in Scotland, to name a few. Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, Cuba, the , There was also the development of a theory of maritime ar- Ireland, Denmark, , , , Russia, Poland, chaeology, strongly brought into focus by the late Keith Muck- Germany, France, , , , Greece, Turkey, Egypt, elroy of the United Kingdom. Muckelroy advanced a detailed , the Philippines, , Vietnam, Australia, New , outline and arguments for the study of maritime , not just Sri Lanka, and . shipwrecks, but also how ships and their wrecks functioned as While governmental programs grew, so too did citizen in- part of maritime economic, industrial and social systems, and volvement, especially in avocational organizations in a variety of how could work to obtain maximum results countries, where non-archaeologists with a wide range of skills in from what pioneering shipwreck expert J. Richard Steffy keenly underwater , mapping, and , as well observed were at times “minimal remains.” Another key develop- as backgrounds in history, conservation, and advanced and tech- ment was the increased focus on the study of shipwrecks and nical diving represented a profound and important constituency. other maritime archaeological sites through the lens of anthropol- Long before “citizen science” became a buzzword, these groups ogy, the mother science of archaeology, with a ground-breaking and people were making a difference, often in areas where no (or perhaps more apropos, a sea-shaking) publication, Shipwreck government program existed, in the discovery, documentation , edited by J. Richard Gould from papers presented and preservation of shipwrecks. One major in this movement at a session chaired by the School of American Research and was and is the UK’s Nautical Archaeology (NAS), with organized by Gould and the National Park Service’s Daniel certification courses for active volunteers. Their work has had Lenihan and Larry Murphy. positive global implications. As the discipline evolved from wreck hunting and -raising The last decades have seen a variety of projects accomplished to research-focused, question-answering science, a strong tradition by a solid core of citizen scientists who bring not only sensitivity of salvage and posed a powerful counter-, and a new understanding of archaeological technique, but also especially in the public mind. It was (and remains) as strong a their own life and professional skills. In the US and Canada, conflict as one finds with any ideological difference, with the groups like the and History Society treasure hunters and salvagers arguing for free enterprise with no (MAHS), the National Association of Black Scuba Divers (NABS), regulation—some motivated by love of history and adventure, Diving with a Purpose (DWP), the Lighthouse Archaeological others by potential profit. The arguments that raged in court, in the halls of government, and in the press dominated the (battle) field well through the twentieth century and persist in the twen- ty-first. What has changed has been increased government over- sight, either regulatory or through the courts, in some cases for science or public benefit, more often in asserting the rights of owners—of lost vessels, or cargoes (including treasure)—as well as protecting wrecks seen as government military property, or as war graves. As part of that process, governments took an interest and developed not only regulations and laws (like the US Abandoned Shipwreck Act of 1987), but also programs to find, , and assess the significance of wrecks and sites. In some cases, these government programs managed the recovery; in other cases, they worked with salvagers and treasure hunters. In other areas, wrecks were seen as key elements of underwater portions of the national

or state park systems, as well as wrecks in the National Marine dennis knepper/mahs by photo Sanctuary System, which grew from a single site, USS Monitor, MAHS volunteers document the mast step from an early-twentieth- in 1975, to what is today a national system of fourteen sites en- century iron shipwreck in the Florida Keys. 18 SEA HISTORY 153, WINTER 2015–16 Maritime Program (LAMP), the Underwater Archaeological Society of British Columbia (UASBC), and Save Ontario Ship- wrecks (SOS) are just a few. Whether part of a group, or working as individual volunteers with state and federal stewards, the avo- cational archaeologists are a powerful aspect of maritime and underwater archaeology in the twenty-first century. There are also a wide range of university, college, and voca- tional training programs worldwide. From the earliest programs, such as George Bass’s Nautical Archaeology Program at Texas A&M University and the Program in and Underwater Studies established by William N. Still and Gordon P. Watts at East Carolina University (now known as the Program in Maritime Studies), there are now, according to UNESCO, seventy nautical and maritime archaeology programs worldwide. More than a thousand students have graduated with advanced degrees. While not all graduates are employed in the field, a number are working for governments, universities, museums, and cultural resources management (CRM) firms in the private sector. As of 2013, East Carolina’s program was ranked number one for producing the largest number of professional maritime archae- ologists in the United States. The growth of the field over the past few decades has outpaced the number of trained archaeologists and archaeological divers, programs, and organizations. The field has matured, following

trends in historical and to examine larg- john bright/noaa by photo er issues in society and behavior, and integrating with the Graduate students from East Carolina University get valuable train- rest of the archaeological world. Integrating has meant moving ing in the field working on shipwreck and maritime archaeological past seeking to find and study famous ships or the oldest and sites around the world, in all types of underwater environments and lesser known ship types to studying maritime culture, especially conditions. These students are getting ready to dive on a freshwater looking at how have interacted with the sea (and lakes wreck site within the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary in and rivers). Major developments that began in the 1980s in- Lake Huron in summer 2013. cluded expanding maritime archaeology, as Muckelroy had sug- gested, to other maritime sites including ships abandoned ashore systems from air to mixed gases and finally closed-circuit “re- in “boneyards,” lighthouses, shipyards, wharves and docks, in- breathers” now means technically trained divers (and archaeolo- dustrial sites, and maritime communities. gists) can and do work in waters hundreds of feet deep. The In the 1990s, Christer Westerdahl of Norway advanced a ability of and other equipment to search and take theory of “maritime cultural landscapes,” the idea that humans humans to the depths beyond capacity has existed had responded to the marine environment in a variety of ways. for decades, over which time the use of this technology has in- This included building ships or shoreside infrastructure, as well creased exponentially. The reasons for this have been better, more as mapping and naming landmarks ashore and on the water, sophisticated systems for searching and documenting deep sea conveying concepts of water and shores as sacred places and as wrecks and other sites with high-resolution (including boundaries between the living and the dead, and viewing living three-dimensional mapping ), satellite-assisted navigation creatures as part of culture and the sacred world. Indigenous in the age of GPS, and sophisticated robotic systems represented have different views than industrialized about by remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) and autonomous underwa- the nature of whales, sharks, and other creatures. Westerdahl’s ter vehicles (AUVs). theory, now widely adopted and practiced, truly reflects the use There has also been a drop in the cost of such systems, much of archaeology as well as anthropology, history, and sociology to like the cost of computers and mobile phones has decreased as examine the basic questions of humanity and the sea—how we more users and systems come online, and the technology becomes respond to it, and increasingly, how we shape and alter it from more “off the shelf” than “one-off.” AUVs are one such case. landfill, seawalls, coastal communities and marine traffic to Formerly multi-million dollar government-funded defense and seabed trawling, depletion of marine stocks, dredging, pollution, security systems, they have entered the broader oceanographic and the impacts of ocean acidification and global warming. (and archaeological) world. An AUV works without a tether and The other great “sea change” has been the opportunity to go can cover large areas of the seabed, at depths up to more than deeper. Advances in pushed the practical limits three miles, mapping and documenting. ROVs connected to a of scuba diving from the shallows to depths approaching 200 feet surface ship by a fiber optic cable can do detailed survey and in the 1970s and 80s and then beyond. The evolution of diving archaeological recovery at depths where no human could go SEA HISTORY 153, WINTER 2015–16 19 photo by joe hoyt/noaa by photo NOAA tech diver investigates the deep-water shipwreck Northwestern in the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary in July 2015. unless encased in a . In 2010, high-resolution sonar with ROVs on deep sea volcanoes, thermal vents, coral reefs, or and detailed visual mapping by ROVs by Woods Hole Oceano- other natural phenomena. graphic Institution’s Advanced Imaging and Visualization Labo- In 2012, Okeanos Explorer, working with a team from the ratory, NOAA’s Maritime Heritage Program, and the National Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), the Bureau of Park Service’s Submerged Resources Center, with 100 percent Science and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE), and NOAA’s funding provided by news media and RMS Titanic, Inc., com- Office of National Marine Sanctuaries, examined a series of sonar pleted the first detailed mapping of the entireTitanic wreck site. targets deep in the . The last of the targets, dived Since then, the technology has advanced to where wrecks at any at 10:00pm et, was quickly seen to be the ghostly copper-clad depth can be mapped with accuracy, with each find pinpointed. remains of a vessel some two hundred years old, full of

Thanks to continual documentation with sonar and high-defini- ocean exploration trust/meadows center for water and the environment, texas state university tion imagery, a virtual record of an excavation can be saved, not a frame at a time, but as it happens, second by second. A major breakthrough of recent years has been the use of ROVs, satellites, and the internet to take maritime archaeological discoveries, documentation, and excavation to the public. While documentaries have offered an “over-the-shoulder-view” since the days of , the ability to not only broadcast field- work, but to involve the public became possible within the last decade. The platform for this type of outreach has been the telepresence model initially advocated and practiced by Robert Ballard, and now actively used not only by Ballard, but by NOAA’s Office of Ocean Exploration and Research. The NOAA research ship Okeanos Explorer and Ballard’s R/V Nautilus’s ROVs rou- tinely conduct deep ocean research and link back to scientists ashore via satellite feeds and Internet 2 connections. In this way, During the 2013 mission to an early nineteenth-century wreck in a large and diverse group can augment a mission with full access the Gulf of Mexico, archaeologists conducted the first live, interactive and the ability to actively participate in a mission that is working excavation of a shipwreck, reaching a global audience of 1.1 million. 20 SEA HISTORY 153, WINTER 2015–16 well-preserved artifacts including , muskets, ceramic plates, bottles, a compass, octant, and telescopes. As word spread via satellite phone calls and emails, soon doz- ens of archaeologists, historians, and ocean scientists joined and helped direct the ROV as it maneuvered and documented the wreck. That project led to a privately-funded mission with the same partners, now joined by Ballard’s Ocean Exploration Trust, three universities, the Texas Historical Commis- sion, the Maryland Historical Trust, and others for the first internet-broadcast, de- tailed study of a deep-sea shipwreck that included excavation and the careful recov- ery of sixty-three artifacts thought to be diagnostic in hopes of learning more. The archaeologists interacted with more than a hundred colleagues around the world and a global audience of 1.1 million who watched, asked questions, discussed the work and finds with the team on board noaa/ocean exploration trust/university of rhode island Nautilus, and then went on to discover two adjacent shipwrecks. That all happened live—in real time—and without interrup- tion, save the occasional technical glitch from working 24 hours around the clock, 150 miles out to sea, in 4,300 feet of water. That project may well be a model for future work. Transparent, better than real- ity television (at least to some) and dedi- cated to sharing not only the thrill of dis- covery, but also the how, where, and why of serious scientific archaeology on the high seas, the Gulf project is all about bringing the public along into the final frontier as front-seat participants. The frontiers of maritime archaeology in the second decade of the twenty-first ocean exploration trust/meadows center for water and the environment, texas state university

(top right) The ROVHercules hovers over the stern of Titanic on the 2004 mission to the wreck. Improvements in ROV technol- ogy and mapping systems have revolution- ized our understanding of Titanic and other deep-water sites. (middle right) Deep sea archaeology now works at depths once thought impractical if not impossible. Here, a robotic vehicle ex- amines an early 19th-century wreck nearly a mile deep in the Gulf of Mexico. (bottom right) The Klondike Gold Rush shipwreck A. J. Goddard (1901) in Lake La- berge in the Yukon, one of the first shipwrecks mapped with three-dimensional sonar. institute of nautical archaeology/teledyne blueview SEA HISTORY 153, WINTER 2015–16 21 noaa onms/boem noaa Mapping wrecks is now done with high-resolution sonar at any depth. Here, as part of an ongoing survey of wrecks from the World War II Battle of the Atlantic by NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the German subma- rine U-352 is mapped and compared with historic plans. century are boundless. Technology enables work to take place in world of the last great ice age, immersing ancient settlements and the deepest depths, and to an exacting standard. As well, the the bones of our ancestors along the coastlines of the world. Our “frontier” has proven not only to be deep waters, but under park- knowledge of the world of 20,000 to 10,000 years ago can be ing lots and buildings. A number of ancient and historic waterfronts greatly enhanced by a push to conduct prehistoric archaeology and harbors now lie beneath landfill. The largest number of on the continental shelf. More than half of Europe as it was then substantially well-preserved wooden shipwrecks has been found, is now underwater, and the shallow seas off the Americas, like sealed in mud, in cities like London, Pisa, Stockholm, Marseille, those of Europe and Asia, have yielded not only mammoth bones, New York, and San Francisco. The discovery of the ship beneath but stone tools left by ancient hunters alongside now drowned the World Trade Center site in New York is a recent example. campfires. Another example is the several years of excavation in Istanbul for The next decades will make the tasks easier and yield great- the new railway station at Yenikapi. More than thirty well-pre- er results. When archaeology commenced underwater, archae- served wrecks dating from 700 AD to 1200 AD emerged from ologists despaired of finding out much from the contents of the mud along with harbor walls, with spilled ancient cargoes and amphorae and other clay jars, save sludge and olive pits. We now amphorae still sealed inside the holds of some ships. have the ability to extract DNA, even from seemingly empty jars But the greatest frontier remains the limits of our imagination from the bottom of the sea. That science has opened up new evi- and the realization that resting beneath the waters of this planet dence of ancient trade in wine and grains, olives and fish from is the greatest museum of human history. Below the surface is the the Bronze Age through the Renaissance, and joins other tantaliz- story of how we used the oceans, lakes, and rivers as more than ing clues about the creation of “global” trade long before the sources of food, but as highways to cross to colonize, to wage wars, Industrial Age. That means we can extract DNA from mud-sealed to trade, and to expand the boundaries of our knowledge. It is ancient sites and from ice age burials beneath the sea when we the story of how a changing planet and rising seas drowned the find them. We have the tools, and we have the means to make explora- tion and science relevant and exciting by bringing the public along. We also can be patient and wait not just for funding and support, but for new advances. Very few shipwrecks are filled with riches, despite the popular view that all that lies below is a pathway to fame and fortune. The real treasure is knowledge, and the realiza- tion that this remains a frontier full of wonder, excitement and the potential to truly discover. The oceans cover 73 percent of the globe, and yet we’ve only explored 5 percent of their depths. When we quest into those depths, we will learn more about deep-sea , and biology. We will solve mysteries, rewrite the history books, and add to our understanding not only of our ancestors, but also be reminded of how important the sea and the waters of this planet have and continue to be at the heart of our survival. port authority of ny & nj authority port Shipwrecks have been found in a wide variety of environments, re- Dr. James P. Delgado is the Director of Maritime Heritage in quiring an extraordinary amount of versatility on the part of archae- NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries. As a nautical ar- ologists in their methodology. (above) In 2010, construction crews at chaeologist, he has led or participated in more than a hundred the World Trade Center site in New York discovered the remains of a shipwreck projects for the last four decades. He is the author of more Revolutionary War-era ship in the middle of downtown Manhattan. than thirty books, most of them on maritime subjects. 22 SEA HISTORY 153, WINTER 2015–16