38. The Science of Shipwrecks

Underwater Archaeologist and Conservationist are involved with the study of shipwrecks.  This type of science answers long-standing questions about the effects of salt water, ocean currents and the passage of time on ships of all kinds.

Exposed wooden components decay quickly. Often the only wooden parts of ships that remain after a century are those that were buried in silt or sand, soon after the sinking. 

Steel and iron, depending on their thickness, may retain the ship's structure for decades. As corrosion takes place, sometimes helped by tides and weather, the structure collapses.

Where you have a sand or mud bottom, you typically see everything under the sediment staying nicely preserved, and everything on top of the sediment is gone. 

If it is a rock or gravel bottom, and the wreck didn't settle in, you might only have a pile of ballast stones and concretions, with maybe a little bit of wood under that stone.

Teredos, also known as ship worms, or “termites of the seas” also play a major factor in was is left of the ship.  

Ship worms destroy a ship in a matter of years.  The most notorious of which is Teredo Navalis, originally native to the Caribbean Sea.  It is actually a clam that tunnels through wood submerged in the sea. Though the Teredo serves an ecological value in degrading timber that falls to the ocean, it has also caused considerable damage to wooden boats even since man first ventured out to sea.

In the upper shelves of this display notice the many artifacts from the 1715 and 1733 Fleet Shipwreck that have been recovered off the shores of Florida.

In the bottom shelves place your hand through the nets to feel the wooden and metal 1733 Fleet Shipwreck artifacts.  

Notice how the wood hull piece has become light and buoyant, like driftwood. 

Notice how the metal cleaver and pin has corroded but is still intact.