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UC
alum Art Cohn has spent more than 20 years scouring the bottom of
Lake Champlain looking for historic shipwrecks. |
Identify
your treasure. Lake
Champlain has the largest collection of historical ships in the country.
We have several hundred wooden ships reflecting every time period: Native
American, French and British war ships from the 1750s, Revolutionary War
ships, War of 1812 ships and ships of commerce up until 1920, including
a horse ferry. A paddle boat powered by horses on a treadmill, the ferry
is the only surviving example of that type of technology known to exist
today. Some ships are mostly intact, some with masts still standing, because
they've been in fresh water, instead of salt water.
Determine its value.
This is the closest thing to going back in a time machine, to suddenly
view a vessel from 200 years ago. A better understanding of the past is
one of the tools we need to make a better world, and part of the tools
in the tool bag are history and archaeology.
Just as we have historical buildings on land, we have archaeological sites
underwater. These are finite resources that have extraordinary ability
to teach us about human history. Therein lies the value and the threat.
As technology has advanced so that we can now access things in any corner
of the ocean, we are faced with decisions that will determine how much
is left at the end of the century.
Think outside the box. "Underwater cultural heritage"
is something our generation has defined as valuable. If it stems from
public resources, then the public should have access to it. As part of
our management approach to these public resources, we've developed an
underwater park on the lake to make seven sites available to divers. It's
a museum collection space, 500 square miles of cold storage for hundreds
of wooden ships.
Evaluate the cost of raising the treasure. Last summer (2001),
we raised 20 objects, including some cannon fragments from the Battle
of Valcour Island (where Benedict Arnold commanded the American fleet
in 1776). We are currently conserving them, at a cost of approximately
$15,000, to go on public exhibit in May (2002).
Raising and conserving a whole ship, however, would cost millions. Right
now, we're studying an intact Revolutionary War ship on the bottom of
the lake -- looking at the options of leaving it where it is, repairing
it, partially excavating it or raising, conserving and exhibiting it.
Decide on
a course of action. We usually opt for leaving artifacts alone.
In the past, many well-meaning, but disastrous, efforts were made to remove
them, to get close to them because we loved them. But bringing them into
the air de-stabilized them and led to their destruction.
Cohn is a sociologist, lawyer and professional
diver who co-founded and directs the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum in
Vermont. He pushed the state legislature to create Underwater Historic
Preserves in 1975, testified to Congress in support of the Abandoned Shipwreck
Act in '87 and most recently worked with the U.N. in developing an international
shipwreck treaty.
Link: Visit the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum.
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