Preservation of wreck sites and the website English heritage

Preservation of wreck sites

 Ceramic artefacs photography, the cargo of a shipwreck found in the North of Safaga ( Egypt)

England was precursory in conservation of submarine cultural heritage. The seas and shores around Britain contain an immense wealth of archaeological remains from shipwrecks submerged. Since 1973 The Protection of Wrecks Act regulates the dive on historic wrecks in English waters. The British Protection of Military Remains Act (1986) also restricts access to wrecks which are sensitive as war graves. In some cases this act creates a blanket ban on all diving. Currently England has 46 wreck sites which are protected. They range from Bronze Age cargoes to early 20th century submarines.

Nowdays, most countries protect their submarine cultural heritage because wreck sites are precious to understand the past. For example, in France, this protection is assured by the law relative to the maritime cultural property of 1989. This law defines that remains are declared as a maritime cultural property at the end of hundred years.

Since 2001, the UNESCO convention, Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage aims at giving the international community’s reponse to the increasing looting and destruction of underwater cultural heritage. It aims at proposing an international legal framework to help countries to improve the protection of underwater cultural heritage and the facilitation of international cooperation on this subject. But it doesn’t change sovereignty rights of States or regulate the owership of wrecks sites.

The website English heritage

  

 http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/discover/maritime/

The website English Heritage proposes 3 ways of browsing.

1. Web surfers can learn the history of ship wrecks that lie off Britain’s shores.

A map of wreck sites designated in United Kingdom is available on line.

Internet users can click on the landmarks on this map to know the informations of every wreck site. Sometimes, original experiments have been created.

For example, the wreck of VOC ship Amterdam is pervious live with webcam. However itself will only be visible at spring low tides during daylight hours.

2. Web surfers can find out how historic wrecks are protected by the government.

Anyone can apply for a licence to dive on designated wreck sites.

The location of the wreck site is legally identified and a restricted area ensures the protection of it. 

3. Web surfers can access different online downloadable forms : to request a licence to visit a historic wreck in English waters, a licence to carry out an excavation, a licence to recover artefacts from a protected wreck site, an amendment to apply for a time extension of any existing wreck licence, or to renew an existing licence.

English Heritage consideres applications and decides whether or not a licence should be granted. Then it referres them to the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. English Heritage may also recommend that certain conditions are attached.