covediver
Contributor
I just finished reading "Treasure Hunter" byRobert MacKinnon. It is definitely worth reading for the adventure and history,and, let's face it, everyone likes a good shipwreck and sunken treasure story.
The recently-published narrative chronicles the nearly four-decade salvage ofhistoric wrecks undertaken by the author over what he describes as "NorthAmerica's Death Coast", the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia. As the dustjacket blurb states, "In short, its a treasure hunter's paradise."Skeptical at first of the claim, I was convinced by the end of the book.
Now I am going to admit that outside of reading a book or two on Sable Island,the Whydah and shipwrecks of the Maine coast, I knew very little about themaritime history of that part of the United States and Canada, concentrating myreading on the Atocha and my professional maritime historical work on the westcoast of the US and Canada. So when I received the book I was in the positiondescribed by President Harry Truman; "the only thing new in this world isthe history that you don't know."
The author describes in some detail his salvage of five historic wrecks fromthe French colonial period through the War of 1812. When I studied the colonialperiod in high school and college history courses, I learn about the strugglefor control of the north-east US and Canada. The textbooks have a distinct"wilderness" and Anglo-centric orientation except for battles on LakeChamplain, Great Lakes, and the Saint Lawrence River that are part of theseparation of the United States from British North America. Maritime tradeduring colonization is described in terms of the slave trade, molasses, andfinished good in a triangle of commerce. In the War of 1812, the textbooksmention that the fleet landed British troops that sacked Washington only to bestopped at Baltimore with the engagement of Fort McHenry, as described in ournational anthem. We really don't learn what happened to them after they left,we just care that they did leave and we got on with nation building andmanifest destiny.
Treasure Hunter, through its description of the events leading up to the wrecksand the historic significance of the artifacts recovered from the wrecks beginsto fill in the blanks in the form a very entertaining and easy to readnarrative.
But make no mistake; the author is a treasure salvor, not a marinearchaeologist. He bears the label proudly. His motivation, other than a naturalcuriosity that all of his calling must have, is financial gain. However, hepresents a convincing argument that recovery of treasure for profit andexcavation, recovery, and curation of artifacts to suitable archaeologicalstandards are not mutually exclusive, especially within the framework ofCanadian legal system. While the author's narrative is a good story, I foundthat the appendixes of the book which cover treasure hunting techniques, sitecharacterization, the first coins of North America, and Nova Scotia's legalframework (the treasure trove law and special places law) for salvage to bevery informative and contain information, that if woven into the story, wouldhave added to the richness of the narrative. So my advice if you get the bookis not to ignore the appendices.
Portions of the book rehash the salvor versus in-situ preservationist debate.Throughout the book the author states that from the moment a ship wrecksdeterioration begins and that there is little time left before the knowledge tobe gained by retrieval will be gone. At first, these statements seem inconsistentas he is describing the recovery of artifacts that are three centuries old!Only late in the book does he expand these statements to describe the constantprocess of degradation of the sites and at some point the degradation will benearly complete, a much more sophisticated approach than a simple "recoveror lose it".
He reiterates the contention that only private sector investors and salvors canbring the necessary resources to bear to properly excavates a wreck site and inthe process makes a good case for the contention. He also emphasizes in theappendix the risk to investors from shipwreck salvage and describes the due diligencethat one should undertake before investing in such a partnership. This is oneof the most frank discussions I have read of this aspect of the treasuresalvage business in the dozens of books I have read on the subject.
The recently-published narrative chronicles the nearly four-decade salvage ofhistoric wrecks undertaken by the author over what he describes as "NorthAmerica's Death Coast", the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia. As the dustjacket blurb states, "In short, its a treasure hunter's paradise."Skeptical at first of the claim, I was convinced by the end of the book.
Now I am going to admit that outside of reading a book or two on Sable Island,the Whydah and shipwrecks of the Maine coast, I knew very little about themaritime history of that part of the United States and Canada, concentrating myreading on the Atocha and my professional maritime historical work on the westcoast of the US and Canada. So when I received the book I was in the positiondescribed by President Harry Truman; "the only thing new in this world isthe history that you don't know."
The author describes in some detail his salvage of five historic wrecks fromthe French colonial period through the War of 1812. When I studied the colonialperiod in high school and college history courses, I learn about the strugglefor control of the north-east US and Canada. The textbooks have a distinct"wilderness" and Anglo-centric orientation except for battles on LakeChamplain, Great Lakes, and the Saint Lawrence River that are part of theseparation of the United States from British North America. Maritime tradeduring colonization is described in terms of the slave trade, molasses, andfinished good in a triangle of commerce. In the War of 1812, the textbooksmention that the fleet landed British troops that sacked Washington only to bestopped at Baltimore with the engagement of Fort McHenry, as described in ournational anthem. We really don't learn what happened to them after they left,we just care that they did leave and we got on with nation building andmanifest destiny.
Treasure Hunter, through its description of the events leading up to the wrecksand the historic significance of the artifacts recovered from the wrecks beginsto fill in the blanks in the form a very entertaining and easy to readnarrative.
But make no mistake; the author is a treasure salvor, not a marinearchaeologist. He bears the label proudly. His motivation, other than a naturalcuriosity that all of his calling must have, is financial gain. However, hepresents a convincing argument that recovery of treasure for profit andexcavation, recovery, and curation of artifacts to suitable archaeologicalstandards are not mutually exclusive, especially within the framework ofCanadian legal system. While the author's narrative is a good story, I foundthat the appendixes of the book which cover treasure hunting techniques, sitecharacterization, the first coins of North America, and Nova Scotia's legalframework (the treasure trove law and special places law) for salvage to bevery informative and contain information, that if woven into the story, wouldhave added to the richness of the narrative. So my advice if you get the bookis not to ignore the appendices.
Portions of the book rehash the salvor versus in-situ preservationist debate.Throughout the book the author states that from the moment a ship wrecksdeterioration begins and that there is little time left before the knowledge tobe gained by retrieval will be gone. At first, these statements seem inconsistentas he is describing the recovery of artifacts that are three centuries old!Only late in the book does he expand these statements to describe the constantprocess of degradation of the sites and at some point the degradation will benearly complete, a much more sophisticated approach than a simple "recoveror lose it".
He reiterates the contention that only private sector investors and salvors canbring the necessary resources to bear to properly excavates a wreck site and inthe process makes a good case for the contention. He also emphasizes in theappendix the risk to investors from shipwreck salvage and describes the due diligencethat one should undertake before investing in such a partnership. This is oneof the most frank discussions I have read of this aspect of the treasuresalvage business in the dozens of books I have read on the subject.
