The future of our archives; Bonnie Prince Charlie wreck?; Odyssey hits the buffers?; Parliamentary questions on the historic environment;Great Lakes find; Marine Environment Protection Fund (MEPF); Southern North Sea Neanderthal find; Protecting coastal heritage from rising sea levels; Shipwrecks at risk; ISBSA 12

  

The future of our archives

The government is consulting about a new policy for archives. See The National Archives website for the consultation document and a response form.

Bonnie Prince Charlie wreck?

A team of mainly commercial divers led by the well known Joe McCormack is reported to be salvaging material that he claims comes from a wreck bringing supplies to the Jacobites from France. The team believes that these supplies included the inevitable hoard of gold coins.

Odyssey hits the buffers? 

OME have suffered a setback in their fight to over a large hoard of coins salvaged from from a Spanish shipwreck. OME says that it will fight the US court decision. 

Parliamentary questions on the historic environment

See the House of Commons website for details. 

Great Lakes find 

Hunting traps that are at least 8,000 years old have been found at a depth of 50m in Lake Huron during a geophysical survey by the University of Michigan.

Marine Environment Protection Fund (MEPF)

The call for expressions of interest in the Round 3 Programme closed today, 30 June. Successful projects will commence after 1 September and must be completed by 31 December 2010. Funding of normally up to £200,000 per project (exVAT) can be allocated from a total budget of around £2 million. 

Southern North Sea Neanderthal find

A fragment of the skull of a 60,000 year old young adult male Neanderthal has been recovered during dredging. It is believed to be the first such find from the seabed.

Protecting coastal heritage from rising sea levels

The government has launched a consultation on how to protect coastal heritage from rising sea levels. A spokesperson from English Heritage is quoted explaining that climate change threatens many historic buildings. They suggest that some buildings will be adapted, some protected and some will be lost. 

Shipwrecks at risk 

You can now search for shipwrecks on English Heritage’s 2009 Heritage at Risk Register.

ISBSA 12

You are reminded that the 12^th International Symposium on Boat and Ship Archaeology will take place on 12-16 October 2009 in Istanbul.

Scottish Marine Bill; New OME push for permission to work on the Victory site?; Thames Discovery Programme Films; Defra Consultation; New EH maritime post; English research framework website; Champions of England; Slavery Conference; Queered Seas; Fly Navy; Pirate bones?

 

 

Scottish Marine Bill

The Scottish Marine Bill is now before the Scottish Parliament. The Bill introduces a framework for the sustainable management of the seas around Scotland, ensuring the need to protect our seas is integrated with economic growth of marine industries. It introduces:

• Marine planning: a new statutory marine planning system to sustainably manage the increasing, and often conflicting, demands on our seas
• Marine licensing: a simpler licensing system, minimising the number of licences required for development in the marine environment to cut bureaucracy and encourage economic investment
• Marine conservation: improved marine nature and historic conservation with new powers to protect and manage areas of importance for marine wildlife, habitats and historic monuments
• Seal conservation: much improved protection for seals and a new comprehensive licence system to permit appropriate management when necessary.
• Enforcement: a range of enhanced powers of marine conservation and licensing

New OME push for permission to work on the Victory site?

Odyssey Marine Exploration appears to have accomplished the unusual feat of drawing criticism from both the  fishing and archaeological communities.

OME has published a new report claiming that trawling is causing widespread damage to English Channel wrecks.

Gregg Stemm of Odyssey is reported to have described the English Channel as being “like a giant industrial wasteland”, with “incredible devastation” caused by the activities of the fishing industry. Representatives of that industry are reported to be less than happy with these claims.

OME is hoping to recover valuable artefacts from the recently found wreck of HMS Victory. Some archaeologists suspect that the publication of this report may be designed to increase the pressure on the UK Government to accede to the company’s plans.

English Heritage is currently undertaking an archaeological assessment of the Victory.

Thames Discovery Programme Films

The Thames Discovery Programme has uploaded the first two episodes of the Foreshore Recording & Observation Group (FROG) films made at the Custom House foreshore site in February 2009 by Anies Hassan, entitled “FROG @ Custom House”.

Defra Consultation

Defra is currently consulting on the draft Strategy for Marine Protected Areas. If you wish to have your say before any MAG response is drafted then contact one of the committee members asap.

New EH maritime post

EH are advertising for a maritime archaeologist capable of drafting and issuing EH advice on environmental assessments and applications for commercial mineral extraction. The closing date is the 1^st June 2009.

English research framework website

The website for the Maritime and Marine Historic Environment Research Framework project is now up and running.

Champions of England

In article in the June 2009 edition of Diver magazine, Alison Hamer of English Heritage asks for a new generation of ‘underwater custodians’ to step forward from the sports diving community.

Slavery Conference

As part of the legacy of the 2007 Bicentenary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade, English Heritage, the National Trust and the University of the West of England (UWE) are jointly sponsoring a one-day conference on 21 November 2009 at the London School of Economics exploring the links between the country house in Britain and the Atlantic slave trade.

A conference flyer has been e-mailed to MAG members.

Queered Seas

The first international conference on homosexuality and the sea will take place at the Merseyside Maritime Museum from 12-14 November 2009. Building on the book by Dr Jo Stanley and the National Museums of Liverpool touring exhibition ‘Hello Sailor!’, the conference will examine questions such as what was it about the culture of life at sea that permitted what was often outlawed ashore?

Further details can be obtained from Eleanor Moffat, Curator of Maritime Collections at Merseyside Maritime Museum.

Fly Navy

The new ‘Fly Navy 100’ exhibition at the Fleet Air Arm Museum celebrates the 100^th anniversary of British naval aviation in 2009.

Pirate bones?

The American writer and filmmaker Kevin P. Duffus is trying to find out whether bones removed from a grave in Washington, N.C. are the remains of Edward Salter, a member of Blackbeard’s pirate crew.

Important historic vessel scrapped; Draft Heritage Protection Bill; Maritime Archaeological Archives project; MCA hydrography webpage updated; Iona I; UNESCO Convention; IfA geophysics research

 

 

Important historic vessel scrapped

National Historic Ships has issued an official statement on the scrapping of MV Wincham, a Weaver packet and a key vessel in the National Historic Fleet. A copy of the statement has been e-mailed to MAG members.

Draft Heritage Protection Bill

DCMS is reported in the April edition of HELM to have put in a bid to include the Bill in the next parliamentary session. The outcome is awaited.

Maritime Archaeological Archives project

Mapping Maritime Collection Areas’, the first of three reports to be generated by the Hampshire & Wight Trust for Maritime Archaeology as part of the ‘Securing a Future for Maritime Archaeological Archives’ project, is now available to download. Last minute contributions to the Element 2 phase of the project are still being welcomed.

MCA hydrography webpage updated

The MCA have updated the hydrography section of its website. Included as part of this update is a new ‘Pan-Government hydrographic data’ page which offers some background to the recently signed UK Government Hydrographic Data Sharing Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). As part of the MoU, a mechanism was required to make participating organisations’ survey area shapefiles available for distribution. The first three of these files are now available for download from this page.

Iona I

An ‘archaeocast’ on the recent diving and geophysical investigation of the nineteenth century Confederate blockade runner Iona I for Historic Scotland is now available to download on the Wessex Archaeology website.

UNESCO Convention

A 25th country is reported to have ratified the 2001 UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage. The ratification of Bosnia Herzegovina brings to seven the number of Balkan states that have ratified.

IfA geophysics research

The IfA GeoSIG Archiving Working Group are conducting research into archiving practices, standards and guidance within geophysics. Any organisations willing to participate can obtain a downloadable questionnaire.

MAG Bulletin copy deadline; European Maritime Day Stakeholder Conference; 2nd International Symposium on Occupational Scientific Diving; Funding cuts

 

 

 

 

MAG Bulletin copy deadline

 

Members are reminded that the copy deadline for the next MAG Bulletin is 8 May. If you wish to submit material for the Bulletin, please contact Mark Littlewood asap. Please let Mark know if your article or news is likely to be a few days late – it isn’t normally a problem.

 

Contributions from all members are very much welcomed.

 

European Maritime Day Stakeholder Conference

 

Is to be held in Rome on 18-20 May. Workshop 2 on 19 May is entitled ‘Raising awareness of common maritime heritage as a cultural pillar of the integrated maritime policy’. It features a number of speakers, including Catherine Perepelytsya of Medway Council.

 

2nd International Symposium on Occupational Scientific Diving

 

Takes place from the 6-8 October 2009 and is being hosted by the University of Helsinki in Finland.

 

Funding cuts

 

As a result of last week’s budget, DCMS is expected to save £168m over the next three years. This and the projected local government ‘efficiency savings’ may be bad news for those seeking government funding of maritime heritage projects.

ACHWS; Our Seas – a shared resource: High level Marine Objectives; Scottish discussion paper; British Archaeology focuses on the marine sector; First Meeting of States Parties to the Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage; BS8478; Seasearch latest; ALSF-MEPF

  

 

 

ACHWS

 

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport is seeking to appoint people with the necessary blend of expertise and experience to fill the following posts on the UK’s Advisory Committee for Historic Wreck Sites: Post 1: Local Authority Archaeologist, Post 2:  Maritime Archaeologist (Academic) & Post 3:  Finds Conservator.

 

The deadline for applications is 6 May 2009, with interviews being held on 16 June.

 

If you are interested in applying for one of these posts, contact Mark Greenwood of the Public Appointments Team at DCMS, 2/4 Cockspur Street, London SW1.

 

Our Seas – a shared resource: High level Marine Objectives

 

The UK’s High Level Marine Objectives have been published today. These articulate the outcomes sought by the UK Government and Devolved Administrations in the UK marine area. They also underpin the development of the joint Marine Policy Statement which is provided for in the Marine and Coastal Access Bill.

 

They can be downloaded as a pdf from the DEFRA website.

 

Scottish discussion paper

 

The Scottish discussion paper, ‘Towards a Strategy for Scotland’s Marine Historic Environment’ is now available on the Historic Scotland website.

 

British Archaeology focuses on the marine sector

 

As both the Westminster and Scottish parliaments debate marine bills, the current issue of British Archaeology presents a major focus on the world of underwater and shipwreck archaeology. It includes Odyssey Marine Exploration’s controversial case that the wreck of HMS Victory is being destroyed by dredging, and a strong critique of the commercial exploitation of maritime heritage. Other features look at the Swash Channel wreck near Poole and the rich but overlooked potential of former dry-land sites that are now submerged beneath the sea.

 

Go to British Archaeology’s website for further details.

 

First Meeting of States Parties to the Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage

 

A report on this meeting, which took place on 26-27 March, is now available on the UNESCO website.

 

BS8478

 

MAG Blog understands that at the last Diving Industry Committee meeting, concerns were raised about the potential implications for the recreational industry of BS 8478 – Respiratory Protective Devices – Breathing Gases for Diving and Hyperbaric Applications.

 

A European standard (EN) is now being drafted which encompasses the details of this British Standard. This draft EN will be discussed at the next BSI meeting on 27 April 2009. The HSE is urging DIC committee members with concerns to ensure that their respective representatives on the BSI committee are briefed accordingly so that their views are adequately addressed in the drafting process.

 

Seasearch latest

 

Seasearch’s latest newsletter can be downloaded from their website.

 

ALSF-MEPF

 

Will be at Lowestoft Airshow this year, on 23-4 July.

Logboats enhanced; Marine Scotland launched; Sound of Mull fieldschool; Black Swan; A better protected wreck?

 

 

 

Logboats enhanced

 

EH has completed an enhancement of the NMR’s existing logboat database. A very brief report on the results of this enhancement can be downloaded from the EH website. More than half of the logboats discovered in England to date have subsequently been lost or destroyed.

 

Marine Scotland launched

A new marine organisation, Marine Scotland, was launched last week. It will have responsibility for planning and managing the resources of Scotland’s seas, including the marine historic environment. The current functions of fisheries Research Services (FRS), the Scottish Fisheries Protection Agency (SFPA) and the Scottish Government’s Marine Directorate have been brought together in this new organisation.

Further details of this new resource can be found on the Scottish Government website.

 

Sound of Mull fieldschool

 

The Nautical Archaeology Society will be running a 12 day fieldschool on underwater archaeology in July. Based at the Lochaline Dive Centre in the Sound of Mull, the course will be taught by experienced maritime archaeologists including such luminaries as Dr Colin Martin. The course is supported by Historic Scotland and further details can be obtained from the NAS website.

 

Black Swan

 

Odyssey Marine Exploration’s ‘Shipwreckstore.com’ is advertising the sale of reproductions of some of the coins recovered from the shipwreck site that they are calling ‘The Black Swan’. OME claim to have salvaged half a million coins from this highly controversial site, which has been the subject of ongoing litigation in the US courts involving the Spanish government.

 

A better protected wreck?

 

Archaeologists are reported to have recovered a unique 100 year old dugout canoe from an alligator lagoon at St Augustine Alligator Farm and Zoological Park in St Augustine, USA.

MAG AGM reminder; Theft convictions; Rapid Coastal Zone Assessment Surveys; The Rising Tide; Thames Discovery Programme news; MAD about Swash again; Court to decide on the fate of Titanic artefacts; Emergency recompression for divers; MV City of Rayville; The Ghostwreck; General Carleton

 

 

 

 

 

MAG AGM reminder

 

The MAG AGM will take place on Wednesday 8^th April at the IfA Conference in Torquay. It will follow the MAG session and is expected to run from 12:45-13:00. The AGM will be chaired by Julie Satchell who is standing in for the unavailable Virginia Dellino-Musgrave, who sends her apologies.

 

Theft convictions

 

Three British divers have been convicted of illegally removing artefacts from the wreck of the Don Pedro off Galicia in Spain. They received suspended prison sentences.

 

Rapid Coastal Zone Assessment Surveys

This English Heritage programme has been developed to provide the evidence base for management of the coastal historic environment in England, providing information that can feed into Shoreline Management Plans, besides being useful for development control and academic research.  Surveys have been completed, or are in progress, for most of the English coast, apart from south-west England.  A background to the surveys and all reports completed so far are available on

 

http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/server/show/nav.18390

 

It is intended that the basic data-sets will also be made available through the Archaeological Data Service, but for the time being only results from the most recent surveys are available.

 

The Rising Tide

 

Caroline Wickham-Jones and S Dawson have issued an interim report on work carried out on past sea level change in Orkney in 2008-9.

 

Work in 200910 focuses the investigation of anomalies in the Bay of Firth, the submerged landscape of Longhope and Flotta and further sediment analysis and dating of cores from Stenness, Harray and Waulkmill Bay.

 

Thames Discovery Programme news

 

The March-June 2009 Newsletter can now be downloaded.

 

MAD about Swash again

 

A leaflet for Bournmouth University’s Maritime Archaeology Day on 2^nd May is now available on their website.

 

Court to decide on the fate of Titanic artefacts

 

A U.S. District Court is shortly to rule on the fate of 5,900 artefacts salvaged from the wreck of the Titanic.

 

Emergency recompression for divers

 

In certain circumstances, diving contractors in the UK must provide on-site emergency recompression facilities, in other words a recompression chamber and personnel competent to operate it and deliver treatment to a casualty.

 

The HSE is now consulting with various commercial diving industry groups about a possible change in these requirements. This follows a recent Society for Underwater Technology submission to the HSE which suggested that a better average outcome might be achieved if casualties entered the NHS emergency system instead. The information reaching your Update compiler suggests that the industry is broadly supportive of the SUT case, whilst acknowledging that some diving operations will still have to have access to a chamber on-site for immediate emergency use.

 

MV City of Rayville

 

The wreck of the first US ship lost in World War II has been found during a project to map the seafloor off the coast off the state of Victoria in Australia.

 

The Ghostwreck

 

A short article on the work carried out on this 17^th century Baltic wreck is now available on the MACHU website. The MACHU Report No 2 is now also available.

 

General Carleton

 

A monograph on the investigation of this 18^th century Whitby vessel lost off the Polish coast is now available from the Polish Maritime Museum.

WWII merchant shipping movements now online; Marine archaeologists call for radical policy change; MoRPHE; Limantepe; Columbus’s crew; Sutton Hoo garden party; Volunteer opportunities?

 

 

 

WWII merchant shipping movements now online

 

TNA has made WWII merchant shipping movement cards available online.

 

Marine archaeologists call for radical policy change

 

UNESCO, the Joint Nautical Archaeology Policy Committee, the Archaeology Forum and the Institute for Archaeologists have called for an end to commercial salvage on historic wrecks. Following claims by Odyssey Marine Exploration that they are excavating the HMS Victory these organisations are asking the government to sign the 2001 UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage.

(Current Archaeology, Issue 229, p4)

 

MoRPHE

 

English Heritage’s Management of Research Projects in the Historic Environment (MoRPHE) provides a framework/guidance for the management of historic environment research and ‘research and development’ (R&D) projects. The MoRPHE training programme for 2009 has now been finalised. Two hour distance learning Familiarisation and six face to face one day Project Managers courses (Birmingham, London, Swindon, Salisbury, Bristol and York) are being run.

 

Further details can be obtained from morphe@english-heritage.org.uk.

 

Limantepe

 

Archaeologists from the University of Ankara are excavating a submerged prehistoric harbour at Urla in western Turkey.

 

Columbus’s crew

 

The teeth from skeletons excavated in the Dominican Republic and which are believed may be of members of Columbus’ second expedition to the New World, have been subject to analysis by the University of Wisconsin Madison.

 

Sutton Hoo garden party

 

A 1930’s style garden party will be held at Sutton Hoo on Bank Holiday Sunday 24 May to mark the 70^th anniversary of the discovery of the boat burial.

 

Volunteer opportunities?

 

The Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Maritime Archaeology Society are organising the Firebrand Shipwreck Recording Project on 1-8 August and The Lyonesse Project, also in the Isles of Scilly, from 28 August to 12 September 2009. Contact CISMAS for details.

 

 

IfA Conference 2009 – provisional MAG session outline; MAG election; Question in Parliament on the loss of archaeological jobs; MAD about Swash; NMR Shipwreck talk; IfA Recession planning

IfA Conference 2009 – provisional MAG session outline

 

REGULATORY CHANGE IN THE MARINE AREA: IMPACTS ON OUR UNDERWATER CULTURAL HERITAGE AND MARITIME ARCHAEOLOGY

 

09:30-12:45,  8 April 2009

 

Organiser: Mark Dunkley, IfA Maritime Affairs Group

Sponsors: English Heritage

 

Regulatory change and Scotland’s marine environment

Philip Robertson, Historic Scotland

 

Delivery of the Marine and Coastal Access Bill

Simon Crabbe, Defra

 

View from the West: Devolution and the Marine and Coastal Access Bill

Deanna Groom, RCAHMW

 

Reform of Heritage Protection in England

Mark Dunkley, English Heritage

 

Proposed responsibilities for the Receiver of Wreck

Alison Kentuck, Maritime & Coastguard Agency

 

Regulation beyond the 12 mile territorial sea

Sarah Dromgoole, University of Nottingham

 

 

MAG election

A committee election will be held at the MAG AGM at the IfA Conference. One committee post is up for grabs. Jesse Ransley, the retiring committee member, will be seeking re-election. If you wish to stand against her for the post, then please let the acting secretary Graham Scott know by the end of March.

 

The MAG Committee wish to apologise to the membership for the late notice given of this election, caused by an administrative oversight. If you wish to object to the election taking place at the AGM on the grounds of late notice then please contact Graham Scott as soon as possible.

 

Question in Parliament on the loss of archaeological jobs

The Earl of Glasgow has asked the UK Government about what steps it is taking to secure the future of professional archaeology in Britain and to mitigate the effect of the current contraction in the construction industry. To read the reply go to the parliamentary web site.

 

MAD about Swash

Bournemouth University is holding a Maritime Archaeological Day (MAD) on the Swash Channel Wreck site on 2^nd May 2009 from 10am. This free day long event is open to the public and will involve a program of talks on the University premises and the opportunity to view some of the artefacts recovered from the site and to talk directly with archaeologists and students involved in the project. Contact Paola Palma for further information.

 

NMR Shipwreck talk

EH’s Serena Cant will deliver a talk on shipwrecks at an access event for deaf and hard of hearing visitors at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich on 29 March. Her talk will be preceeded by a talk on Captain Cook and the event starts at 14:00. Everyone is welcome.

 

IfA Recession planning

The IfA have put in place a recession plan.

New Forest Maritime Project Officer; Khubilai Khan’s Lost Fleet; La Salle; Irish Shipwreck Inventory

 

 

New Forest Maritime Project Officer

The New Forest National Park Authority has advertised for a Project Officer to lead the New Forest Maritime Archaeology Project.

 

Khubilai Khan’s Lost Fleet

James Delgado’s new book on the archaeological and historical investigation of this fleet is now available from the University of California Press.

 

La Salle

The conservation of the French explorer La Salle’s ship, the 17th century La Belle, is under threat due to lack of funds.

 

Irish Shipwreck Inventory

The Shipwreck Inventory of Ireland – Louth, Meath, Dublin and Wicklow has been published by Ireland’s National Monuments Service of the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government.