http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15031084
Should historic shipwrecks be treated like hallowed ground? Is it grave-robbing?
Having seen the Blackbeard artifacts and holding the gold bar from the Atocha, I have to say that it is of historic significance.
The artifacts are doing no good lying in the seawater. If they can be used for museums and bring revenue in, then they are accomplishing good for the community and continued education.
Is there any difference between ancient Egyptian artifacts and those of the buccaneers of old?
The article brings out that it would include excavations of Port Royal and Alexandria. Are they less signifcant that historical digs in the Middle East?
We learn about ancient civilizations and relics of the past to learn more about ourselves.
Bring them up and excavate respectfully. :)
I read recently that a sunken German U-boat had recently been discovered and the German government has asked that it be left alone and treated as a grave.
The U boat makes sense to leave it be; we do the same for the USS Arizona and even the Titanic. All those sites have either been stripped of anything of value to treasure hunters, or are just too deep to make it worthwhile to steal from.
Barring the presence of dangerous material on the ship that might need to be removed, we should respect the graves of the sailors.
Historical shipwrecks, on the other hand, especially the fragile, shallow water sites like QAR, are in danger from scavengers who only want salable antiques and souvenirs. These amateur treasure hunters don't care what damage they do to the site while they tear it apart, and it's just about impossible to protect these wrecks to keep the opportunists off them. So far the only 'security' is to keep the exact location a secret.
The wrecks and cargo of the great wooden ships are better off in a museum, preferably one that raises money to find and explore other, maybe less famous wrecks so that they can be preserved for posterity.
*See SS Republic*
Over time, a significant amount of information about certain vessels has been lost, forgotten, or simply never documented. Serious archaeological investigations of these wrecks can fill in the gaps that exist in our knowledge of ship design and construction from those eras. Work like that which is taking place on the Queen Anne's Revenge, Titanic, the Nuestra Señora de Atocha, and the Mary Rose returns an invaluable amount of data that helps us understand man's seafaring history. But it needs to remain the realm of scientific research, not merely profiteering or sport.