As a representative of Salvors, Inc., the largest commercial and historic salvage company in the U.S. and a founding member of the Historic Shipwreck Salvage Policy Council of Florida, I would like to suggest that any international convention on the preservation of our cultural heritage without the inclusion of the commercial private sector is doomed to suffer the loss of that which it intends to protect.

The Historic Shipwreck Salvage Policy Council maintains in its policy statement- “...that it is important for government agencies to protect the Historical Shipwreck Resources as may be needed, based on scientific facts, incorporating sound reasoning and financial reality. It is equally important, if not more important, that the various government agencies involved utilize their resources of tax dollars, man power, equipment etc., in the best interest of the public and not in a frivolous or irresponsible manner.”

In order to do this, we must first define what is historically and archaeologically important, as relates to historical shipwrecks. First, historically important shipwrecks, we believe, would be those vessels that played a significant and pivotal role in history either as a result of their sinking or in their use within their lifetime. These might be vessels lost while on voyages of colonization or exploration, or vessels lost in important major sea battles. The vast majority of vessels lost off Florida will not fit this definition as most were only engaged in sea borne commerce. While their losses may have caused financial hardships for individuals, companies or governments, they rarely played significant roles in the overall evolution of history.

Most were lost totally at random due to faulty navigation or storms. Their functions and uses were very mundane and common. They are not monuments or icons, and while many provide a source of excitement and adventure, both in their time and now in ours, most are still merely shipwrecks and their discovery or lack of discovery tends not to play an overall significant role in the evolution of our current history nor in our fundamental understanding of new world history as would relate to the majority of the people. No shipwreck discovery in the Caribbean or Florida has rewritten the history books. Most tend to confirm already known information or on occasion provide snippets of new information of interest to a very small segment of the population such as archaeologists, numismatists and historical shipwreck Salvors.

Next would be what is of archaeological importance. Using stringent scientific criteria for artifacts or sites to be construed as being of archaeological importance, they must add significant previously unknown data to the world body of knowledge pertaining to a given culture, time frame or technology. The collection of redundant data is not good science, nor is it a cost effective use of public funds and resources. Over the past 30 years hundreds of shipwrecks have been found off Florida and in the Caribbean. Millions of artifacts have been recovered of many types and categories. We are now to the point where these types and categories of artifacts have become extremely redundant, and while many may have significant intrinsic value and are interesting or beautiful, most have ceased to impart relative new data. Additionally, the majority of these artifacts, from every time period over the last 350 years, exist in much more pristine condition, having never suffered the effects of sea immersion, in museums and collections around the world, particularly in Europe.

Although not pertaining to shipwreck artifacts exclusively, in a recent issue of Scientific American it was noted that, "the National Park Service collections alone hold an estimated 24.6 million objects, of which 16.8 million have not been cataloged Renovating facilities to care for these artifacts properly, something required under 1990 regulations, could cost more that $59.8 million. The staggering amount of material that has been amassed world wide has led some researchers to call for a moratorium on excavation." It is a certainty that much of this collection, as with many government, museum and university collections, will consist of vastly redundant assemblages, that are becoming a burden to the taxpayers as they continue to finance their storage and care.”

The State of Florida's collection of redundant shipwreck artifacts is so vast that it can only display a small fraction. The vast majority of artifacts are stored out of the general publics view and access. Florida has only recently begun to inventory and assess it's thousands and thousands of redundant silver coins, many held since the mid 1960's, at considerable cost to the Florida taxpayers. It should also be taken into consideration that in dealing with shipwrecks off the Florida coast, we are not dealing with thousands of years old cultures whose trade routes, technologies, religions, politics, etc. are little understood and shrouded in the mists of time. Quite to the contrary, over the last 30 years research in archives, libraries, private and public literary collections world wide has reached unprecedented levels providing us with volumes of information relating to the ships and shipwrecks and the people and cultures who built and sailed them during the discovery, exploration and settlement of the new world from the 1500's to the 1800’s.

Indeed, our knowledge is such that we could easily establish a data base that would allow us to predict to a very high degree of accuracy virtually every category and type of artifact that might be expected to be recovered from almost any type of vessel lost off the Florida coast, from the above mentioned time frame. To be sure, every historical shipwreck site must be explored with the assumption that it might yield significant new and unknown data to the world body of knowledge and therefore exploration and recovery must always be carried out under applicable and acceptable archaeological guidelines.

However, historical shipwrecks should never be used in a wholesale manner by archaeologists and/or government agencies for the purpose of gaining access to the public coffers in order to use taxpayers dollars for spurious or questionable shipwreck related projects that have little or no chance of yielding previously unknown archaeological data nor will prove to be of pivotal historical importance.

The commercial salvage industry over the years, has time and again proven itself to be professional organizations capable of locating, recovering, and successfully preserving this country’s cultural heritage. From California’s “Deep Sea Research” to Florida’s Salvors, Inc. headed by Mel Fisher, it is irrefutable that the vast, overwhelming majority of significant cultural artifacts that have been recovered in this century were successfully recovered by the Commercial Salvor.

The State of Florida acknowledges the contributions made by private sector recovery and receives a cross section of the artifacts, selected by their own officials for their State collection. All of the archaeological and contextual information that is gleaned from these projects are openly made available for anyone to examine or study. This has been an ongoing and unqualified success by which all agencies should consider when implementing their recovery programs

Today’s Commercial Salvor has the technology, experience, and incentive to successfully accomplish this task with little or no cost to the taxpaying citizens of the world, who will eventually be the benefactors of these recoveries. The accepted prevailing myth by some government agencies and in certain academic communities that all commercial salvage companies are looters and destroyers of our culture, is just that, A Myth! And that perception of our profession must cease to be perpetuated within a society who understands all too well the need to protect the true Cultural Heritage of our world.