Shipwrecked Heritage

This book examines the background to the 2001 UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage and the way in which it seeks to regulate salvage and other activities relating to shipwrecks.

For 250 years encrusted wonders have been turning up in fishermen's nets: everything imaginable from prehistoric animal bones to priceless Roman statues. Fishing trawlers annually sweep an area equivalent in size to half the world's continental shelves. Everything in the wake of these bulldozers of the deep is battered. A devastating trail of smashed shipwrecks runs from the North Sea to Malaysia. The profound threat of the global fishing industry remains a black hole in marine archaeology, poorly understood and unmanaged. Fishing and Shipwreck Heritage is the first global analysis of the threat of bottom fishing to underwater cultural heritage, examining the diversity, scale and implications on endangered finds and sites. Throughout, the key questions of whether it is too late to save the planet's three million wrecks and how sustainable management is achievable are debated.

The 2001 UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage represents a major step forward in the field of international law. New archaeological rules as well as a comprehensive co-operation system among the States concerned are set up by the new Convention. Despite the negative attitude assumed by few States at the moment of voting for the text of the Convention, this new international instrument is welcome by the great majority of States. This volume focuses on the main aspects of the Convention. It is divided in two parts, to describe the situation before and after the adoption (and the forthcoming into force) of the Convention. In the first part the contradictions resulting from the regime established under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea are analysed together with the undesirable results of the application of the rules of admiralty (law of salvage and law of finds) to the underwater cultural heritage. In the second part the negotiation process is described, both in its general aspects (the myths surrounding the draft) and in its specific results (the drafting of each single provision).

British Columbia’s rugged Southern Gulf Islands enticed many pioneers, explorers, colonists, miners, and adventurers in the mid 19th century. Fog, wind, strong currents and the lack of aids to navigation made navigating these striking and treacherous islands a hazardous business. Many vessels and seafarers did not survive their intended voyages, and their forgotten remains now litter the sea floor, visited only by intrepid divers searching for clues to the past. As one reads this book, stories will unfold which remind us that not so long ago, travelling by ship along the British Columbia coast would have challenged even the most seasoned mariner, and that danger lurked below the water’s surface. Historic Shipwrecks of the Southern Gulf Islands of British Columbia is a compilation of 14 stories about Shipwrecks throughout those islands. This book not only follows the history of each vessel and their loss, but also describes for the lay person what divers will see when they dive on the sites today. This book is a must have for those with an interest in British Columbia’s maritime history. It is one of a series of shipwreck publications produced by the Underwater Archaeological Society of British Columbia to make the province’s submerged cultural history accessible to everyone.

What do characters as diverse as Alfred the Great, the architect Sir Christopher Wren, diarist Samuel Pepys and the Victorian poet Gerard Manley Hopkins have in common? All had some involvement in shipwrecks: in causing, recording or salvaging them. This book examines a variety of wrecks from logboats, Roman galleys and medieval cogs to East Indiamen, grand ocean liners, fishing boats and warships - all are woven into the history of shipwrecks along the coastline of England and in her territorial waters.Wrecks are not just physically embedded in this marine landscape - they are also an intrinsic part of a domestic cultural landscape with links that go beyond the navy, mercantile marine and fishing trade. Evidence of shipwrecks is widespread: in literature, in domestic architecture and as a major component of industrial archaeology. Shipwrecks also transcend national boundaries, forming tangible monuments to the movement of goods and people between nations in war and peace. In peacetime they link the architecture and monuments of different countries, from shipyards to factories, warehouses to processing plants; in time of war wrecks have formed a landscape scattered across the oceans, linking friend and foe in common heritage.England's Shipwreck Heritage explores the type of evidence we have for shipwrecks and their causes, including the often devastating effects fo the natural environment and human-led disaster. Ships at war, global trade and the movement of people - such as passengers, convict transports and the slave trade - are also investigated. Along the way we meet the white elephant who perished in 1730, the medieval merchant who pursued a claim for compensation for nearly 20 years, the most famous privateer for the American revolutionary wars and the men who held their nerve in the minesweeper trawls of the First World War. Highly illustrated and based on extensive new research, this book will appeal to anyone with an interest in England's maritime heritage.

The UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage 2001, which entered into force internationally in 2009, is designed to deal with threats to underwater cultural heritage arising as a result of advances in deep-water technology. However, the relationship between this new treaty and the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea is deeply controversial. This study of the international legal framework regulating human interference with underwater cultural heritage explores the development and present status of the framework and gives some consideration to how it may evolve in the future. The central themes are the issues that provided the UNESCO negotiators with their greatest challenges: the question of ownership rights in sunken vessels and cargoes; sovereign immunity and sunken warships; the application of salvage law; the ethics of commercial exploitation; and, most crucially, the question of jurisdictional competence to regulate activities beyond territorial sea limits.

This book provides a comprehensive overview of the development of international cultural heritage law and policy since 1945. It sets out the international (including regional) law currently governing the protection and safeguarding of cultural heritage in peace time, as well as international cultural policy-making. In addition to analysing the relevant legal frameworks, it focuses on the broader policy and other contexts within which and in response to which this law has developed. Following this approach, attention is paid to: introducing international cultural heritage law and its place in international law generally; illicit excavation and the illegal trade in archaeological finds; protection of underwater cultural heritage; the relationship between cultural heritage and the environment; intangible aspects of heritage and their safeguarding; cultural heritage as traditional knowledge and creativity; regional approaches to protection; and human rights issues related to cultural heritage. In addition, newly-emerging topics and challenges are addressed, including the relationship between cultural heritage and sustainable development and the gender dynamics of cultural heritage. Providing both a perfect introduction to cultural heritage law and deeper reflection on its challenges, this book should be invaluable for students, scholars, and practitioners in the field.

The ocean is humanity's largest battlefield. Resting in its depths lie the lost ships of war, spanning the totality of human history. Many wrecks are nameless, others from more recent times are remembered, honored even, as are the battles that claimed them, like Actium, Trafalgar, Tsushima, Jutland, Pearl Harbor, and Midway. Underwater exploration is increasingly discovering long-lost warships from the deepest parts of the ocean, revealing a vast undersea museum that speaks to battles won and lost, service, sacrifice, and the human costs of warfare. War at Sea is a dramatic global tour of this remote museum and other formerly lost traces of humanity's naval heritage. It is also an account by the world's leading naval archaeologist of how underwater exploration has discovered these remains, thus resolving mysteries, adding to our understanding of the past, and providing intimate details of the experience of naval warfare. Arranged chronologically, the book begins with the warships and battles of the ancient Egyptians, Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, and Chinese, and then progresses through three thousand years to the lost ships of the Cold War. James Delgado, who has personally explored, dived, and studied a number of the wrecks and sites in the book, provides insights as an explorer, archaeologist, and storyteller. The result is a unique and compelling history of naval warfare. From fallen triremes and galleons to dreadnoughts, aircraft carriers, and nuclear submarines, this book vividly brings thousands of years of naval warfare to life.