> Date: Fri, 3 Mar 1995 14:20:46 -0600 (CST)
> From: "Paul E. Hoffman" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: Anita Cohen-Williams <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Atocha #2
> Message-Id: <Pine.NXT.3.91.950303131135.27107B-100000@whflemming>
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> This one is for distribution to HISTARCH.
>
> Some observations from an historian who has watched the Atocha story at
> fairly close range and who also understands the value system of
> archaeologists from long experience with them.
>
> The level of indignation that the Atocha story raises suggests that more
> than a violation of a dearly held professional standard has occurred.
> Would someone please explain to me how any professional archaeologist
> would have raised the money needed to hunt for, much less excavate this
> wreck?
Possibly the same way that they raised the money to excavate, conserve,
and display the 1554 ships from Padre Island Texas, or the Wasa, or the
Kronen, or the Amsterdam, or the Batavia, or the Molassas Reef wreck, or
Knemmerland, or a host of others.  Through grants, donations,
subscriptions, etc.
 
 
 
 And let's put that in the context of the 1970s or 1980s; the 90s
> are, as we all regret, a time of decreasing funding.  Not that Fisher's
> salesmanship in raising money justifies his actions when you look at
> methods of excavation, but all those who cry that it should have been
> left for the professionals have yet to demonstrate how in the world they
> would pay for professional excavations.
>
> Second, having visited Fisher's Key West museum and looked at his prices
> for coins and compared them with Atocha coins offered for sale in other
> places in Key West, I can only observe that anyone who buys from Fisher
> is paying a premium well above the market.  Ditto with silver jewelry
> made from the bars.  Same with his emeralds.  Perhaps you folks should
> warn the public....
>
> Third, and here I am sure I open up your flame throwers, where is the
> indignation at the failure of the pros to use the leverage that the state
> of Florida once had to get with fisher and direct his efforts into more
> acceptable paths, rather than simply preach in outrage?  Do none of you
> ever work with amateurs in your crews?  It is of note that once fisher
> did finally listen (and he was stubborn too) and began to map his finds,
> then and only then did he begin to make progress toward finding the
> "mother lode"  -- how much more "information" might have been obtained
> had he been befriended early on and shown better ways to do the job, and
> also preserve the contextual information that is so important for
> archaeology?  And then too, what of any real value would the scatter of
> the ship's upper works tell us other than how a series of hurricanes can
> break up a ship and scatter its parts (and their contents) over dozens of
> square miles?  The lowerhull and its contents, which were what was found
> last -- and apparently examined with some degree of care to record
> associations etc -- is a different case.  I understand that as much care
> was taken with that as the diving conditions allowed, but haven't seen
> the report to verify that.
 
Since no widely distributed report has been produced, it is impossible to
say how much care was taken in recording on the lowerhull.  To my
knowledge the only "map" of the lowerhull appears in Mathewsons book
Treasures of the Atocha.  Also the diving conditions on this site are not
bad.  It is easy to make the excuse that "as much care was taken as the
diving conditions allowed," but difficult diving conditions are
experienced on a number of carefully mapped site, including Highborn Cay,
Bahamas, Molassas Reef, Turks and Cacios, Pedro Bank, Jamacia.
 
 
 If you have been reading this far, you see
> why I wonder what else is behind all the outrage over the Atocha.  And I
> suggest that ordinary folk, not in the academy and so not plugged into
> our various subcultural moralisms, will and have asked these questions
> and many others.
 
 
 
> We are all better off, I suppose, for the passage of the Historic
> Shipwrecks Act, but we are not better off because of the federal legal
> findings that made it necessary, and those findings grew out of an unholy
> alliance of outraged archaeologists and politicians with rather different
> agendas (from the archaeologists).  Although I don't know any of the
> principals I gather that the personal chemistry among them had a great
> deal to do with all of this, and personal chemistry is not a matter of
> the standards of a discipline.  So give me, and the public, a break on
> all the moralizing.  Appropriate members of your guild refused to try to
> be part of the solution and so became part of the problem.  Everyday,
> professional archaeologists across this country are engaged in "salvage"
> archaeology of sites they would not have examined except that a bulldozer
> was working just up the way; that is rather like the situation once
> Fisher moved onto the right site for the Atocha.  Digging in to save what
> you can from highway construction is not so very different from digging
> in to guide an amateur in the right direction.  Neither is ideal or the
> way the discipline "ought to function", but I don't hear many of you turning
> down salvage contracts....
 
The difference is one of degree, finds from "salvage" archaeology are
usually deposited in a public museum or research institution and some
sort of publication is produced.
 
 
> Will there ever be a final report on the Atocha that addresses some of
> the concerns for excavation data that have been heard on this list?  My
> sources say one is being prepared, so maybe we should wait and see.
 
I would be curious as to who your sources are.  I know Corey Malcom,
Director of Archaeology at the MFMHS and Dr. Eugene Lyon are planning a
series of 5-10 volumes dealing with the Atocha site and artifacts.
However it has been 10 years since the "mother load" was found and we
have yet to see anything of serious academic quality produced.
Besides Corey thinks that it will be several more years before the first
Atocha volume is ready and as the Lead Archaeologist, Duncan Mathewson is
no longer with Mel's organization some of the material may take even
longer to produce.  This ever increasing delay of publication is my
biggest problem with the Atocha site, I have yet to see even one article
in IJNA regarding the Hull structure, undoubtly one of the most important
finds as so little is known about early 17th Century shipbuilding techniques.
 
On the other hand if you want to see how archaeology and commercial
salvage can work well together, you should look at the Nuestra Senora de
Concepcion excavated by William Mathers and Pacific Sea Resources wrecked
at Saipan in 1638.  The project produced an excellent comprehensive
site/excavation report within three years of finishing the excavation and
the collection was sold intact to a Japanese corporation to be displayed
at their new resort on Saipan.  There was a further stipulation that the
entire collection will revert to the Government of the Commonwealth of
the Northern Marinias Islands in 40 years.
 
As
> for the artifacts, who exactly is going to study the ways in which the
> hand held dies were struck on all those coins, and why?  The unique
> pieces should be available for study in public museums,
 
Actually many of the unique pieces from the collection are available for
study at the museum in Key West.
 
 
 I quite agree; but
> any chance of
> that was lost in the legal food fight in Florida, and it is clear that
> Fisher did not start that one (although he did win it).
>
> Adelante!
>
Erik White
Director of Nautical Archaeology
Center for Cultural Research