Nautical Archaeological Society Introductory Course
On a sunny Saturday at the beginning of June Joe, Morgan and I found ourselves in a Welsh classroom ready to learn about nautical archaeology and what the NAS actually do. There were only 6 of us on the course, 2 other divers and one woman who was doing an archaeology masters but didn’t dive.
In the morning we had two people talking to us about the NAS, what they do, why they do it and how they do it. Far from just being wreck geeks, they protect shipwrecks, run archaeological digs on tidal site which had been settled when the waterline was lower, survey and identify wrecks, bring up and preserve finds and wrecks and work on the conservation of wrecks which are still under water. Nautical archaeology is very different to dry land archaeology as the preserved articles are so different. Underwater it is mainly wood and other organic materials which are buried and survive, whereas on land it is the metal objects which are more likely to survive. There are also the huge constraints of having to work underwater, not only in terms of the relatively short times you can spend underwater but also practical problems like trying to dig holes in the sand underwater.
The people giving the talks were both experienced in nautical archaeology, one was a long time member of the NAS and had adopted his own wreck which he and team were surveying and trying to identify. The other one was a professional archaeologist and was working on preserving and trying to find out more about a wreck which had been found buried in the mud just along the coast when the foundations for a new arts centre in Newport were being dug. This meant that they both brought the talks to life with “war stories” and practical tips.
The afternoon was spent practising surveying methods which were used by nautical archaeologists to position key features and artefacts in relation to each other and a fixed, know point. We practised on land first measuring our artefacts in a few different ways and then draw a scale diagram using out measurements to see how accurate (or not) the methods and our measurements were. It is amazing how much supposedly intelligent, professional people struggled to take and correctly record a few measurements…..or maybe that was just me and Morgan who had so many problems.
After seeing how important it is to actually read the tape measure properly (error number one), it was time to put it into practice in the pool. The other 2 divers had only recently qualified so Joe paired up with one and Morgan and I went in with the other one. We had a few confusing minutes at the start of our “dive” where our buddy decided that the plan she had insisted we had on the surface was not what she wanted to do at all and she would much prefer just to have a little swim around with the tape measure. Morgan soon did his instructor bit and told her what to do and then we managed to do all our measuring without too many problems. It was surprising how hard it is to take correct measurements whilst being pulled around a bit by your buddy at the other end of the tape measure and then trying to avoid the other divers as well as not kicking the “artefacts” (aka bolts, nuts, lead weights, tools etc). And that was in a pool. Trying to do it in open water with a bit of current or swell, low visibility and much greater distances must be really hard - not that I don’t was to give it a go as it was great fun.
Our last bit of pool work was some freehand drawing practice - not anyone’s strong point judging from the scribbles that came up! A 1m frame with string at 10cm intervals was placed over a collection of artefacts and we had to try and translate that into a drawing on a grid on our slates. It was a bit like doing one of those pictures you had as a kid when you transferred a drawing across to another page using a grid. Needless to say, our lack of artistic ability was quickly shown - I think I will stick to the measuring and taking photos!
All in all it was a great day and we had a lot of fun. I am now keen to put it into practice - next club trip maybe we should survey the Dredger in Portland……?! The NAS also runs a lot more courses which would be great to go on, from more surveying methods, to dating a wooden wreck, to a drawing class (definitely needed!) and many more.
If you want to know more about the course, and I would highly recommend it to everyone, just come and talk to me, Joe or Morgan or look at the NAS website.
Hannah