Bill the disturbing thing about all this is that our "underfunded" NOAA
program, who does not have enough money to maintain it's ships and cannot
even do it's job of reporting on oceanographic weather information and put
out decent charts, suddenly has all the money it needs to do stuff not in
it's mission statement.

While I am navigating on ancient, outdated charts, NOAA is down there
spending hundreds of millions salvaging the Monitor and now appears to be
styling itself to the protector of piles of rust on the ocean floor in
so-called "marine sanctuaries". And on top of that while NOAA divers appear
to aghast at anybody taking anything off these wrecks in these
"sanctuaries", but have no problem salvaging "a few interesting items" on
their own. This is the height of hypocrisy and sleazy as hell.

Personally I thing that NOAA is finding that their atmospheric and
topographic data gathering missions are simply too dull to get decent
funding in congress and have turned to grand-standing and policing missions
to try  to get some profile to compete with the Coast Guard for funding.

This is a shame and anybody who does work or has fun on the water should
lobby their congressman and senator to provide proper funding for NOAA, but
only if they spend the money on what they are supposed to do, make charts
and report the weather, not salvaging wrecks or providing personal
recreation for certain select individuals at tax payer expense.

As far as the junk at the bottom of the sea, if you have the urge to see
untouched wrecks, go up to the Great Lakes to dive. The fresh, cold water up
there preserves the wrecks and there is good reason to leave them alone. But
you had better hurry before they are all buried under a big pile of Zebra
mussels.

As far as the saltwater wrecks are concerned you had better hurry up there,
too. Whatever divers don't get off the wrecks Mother Nature is picking up
the slack by reducing them rapidly by corrosion and shifting sand. Lord
knows how many thousands of wrecks are now buried under tons of sand, safe
from us "pillaging divers" and never to be seen by the human eye again.

   Jim

on 3/6/02 6:21 PM, Bill Wolk at billwolk@ea*.ne* wrote:

> Lesley -
> 
> Thanks -- please forward the original message to E-Divers; this one will
> probably be formatted badly since it has been re-quoted so many times.
> 
> Interestingly, I was trying to put together a group to dive the 220 Wreck when
> this article was forwarded to me, and, candidly, I am disappointed that I
> won't have the chance to see the telegraphs and compass on site.  Like most
> wreck divers, I have rarely had the opportunity to dive near-virgin wrecks,
> and artifacts like these have usually been long gone before I've gotten there.
> I was looking forward to seeing them.
> 
> Someone else on the list asked, legitimately, if the Florida Keys Marine
> Sanctuary office has a place to display the artifacts once they're recovered
> and conserved, and I do not know the answer to that question. What I can say
> -- and this goes to the heart of the artifact recovery issue -- is that the
> person who took them has deprived me and other Florida technical divers of
> both the opportunity to see them on the wreck underwater AND the opportunity
> to see them on land, which is good for no one.
> 
> I am opposed to closing wrecks to divers for any reason -- even those of
> archeological or historic significance like the Monitor -- but events like
> this do not help our cause. Plus, because of the Queen of Nassau's unique role
> in the founding of the Canadian Navy, artifacts from this ship like the
> telegraphs, capstan covers, compass, bell, etc. that can be easily restored
> and are historic can be traded with Canadian government agencies for artifacts
> in their possession of signficance to the U.S.
> 
> Steering clear of the personal politics this issue has raised on the list, it
> should be clear that the current situation benefits no one -- other than the
> one or two persons with the artifacts -- and harms everyone, especially divers
> like us who have been deprived of the chance to see these artifacts in situ.
> I hope that between this list and others like E-Divers, the persons who took
> the artifacts will read the article and take advantage of the amnesty offer to
> remedy the situation.
> 
> Best -
> 
> Bill Wolk
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Lesley Jacques <runawaylobster@ya*.co*>
> Date: Tue, 5 Mar 2002 04:51:30 -0800 (PST)
> To: Bill Wolk <BillWolk@ea*.ne*>
> Subject: Re: Queen of Nassau/Islamorada 220 Wreck
> 
> [snip]
> 
>> if you would like me to forward this message to
>> E-Divers let me know.
>> 
>> Lesley.
>> 
>> --- Bill Wolk <BillWolk@ea*.ne*> wrote:
>>> The following message re: the 220 Wreck/Queen of
>>> Nassau was forwarded to
>>> me off the list.  I'm sure the AUE divers here are
>>> aware of the situation
>>> and are working with NOAA to remedy it.  If anyone
>>> else has information,
>>> please contact the Florida Keyus Marine Sanctuary
>>> office at the number in
>>> the article.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> ---------
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Archaeologists Identify No-Name Wreck off
>>> Islamorada
>>> Sanctuary Seeks Information on Missing Artifacts
>>> 
>>> Islamorada Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary
>>> officials are
>>> seeking information on the fate of significant
>>> artifacts that appear
>>> to be missing from a recently identified shipwreck
>>> proposed for
>>> nomination to the National Register of Historic
>>> Places.
>>> 
>>> Divers with the Association of Underwater Explorers
>>> (AUE) dove the
>>> mystery wreck, located in 230 feet of water off
>>> Islamorada, in the
>>> summer of 2001 and reported it to Sanctuary
>>> officials. In mid-October
>>> 2001, AUE members joined NOAA and National Undersea
>>> Research Center
>>> staff for a preliminary archaeological survey, led
>>> by National Oceanic
>>> and Atmospheric Administration archaeologist Tane
>>> Casserley.
>>> 
>>> Along with other artifacts, the port and starboard
>>> engine order
>>> telegraphs (communication devices that allowed the
>>> captain on the
>>> bridge to dictate changes in speed and direction to
>>> the engine room)
>>> and the ships compass lay in plain sight during the
>>> initial survey
>>> dives, documented by photographs and video.
>>> 
>>> On a survey visit to the wreck in mid-February to
>>> obtain more
>>> photographs of artifacts and positively identify the
>>> wreck, Casserley
>>> and other divers were unable to relocate the port
>>> and starboard engine
>>> order telegraphs and the compass, and could find no
>>> evidence of a
>>> natural event that would have moved the objects.
>>> 
>>> Based on ceramics recovered from the site,
>>> measurements of the ships
>>> length and beam and the distinctive ram bow,
>>> Casserley has been able
>>> to identify the ship with a high degree of certainty
>>> as the steamer
>>> Queen of Nassau, formerly the Canadian Government
>>> Ship (CGS) Canada.
>>> 
>>> Vickers Maxim and Sons Ltd. in Barrow in Furness,
>>> England built the
>>> Canada in 1904 as a one-of-a-kind small cruiser for
>>> Canadian fisheries
>>> enforcement. The vessel became Canadas first naval
>>> training ship and
>>> later was commissioned in the newly formed Canadian
>>> Navy, Known as the
>>> fastest ship in the fleet, the Canada spent World
>>> War I conducting
>>> convoys and naval patrols.
>>> 
>>> The Canada was decommissioned in 1919, and in 1924,
>>> the Canadian
>>> government sold the vessel to Barron Collier, a
>>> wealthy Florida
>>> landowner. When the aged ship proved too slow for
>>> service as a an
>>> inter-island cruise ship, Collier made plans to sell
>>> it to Mexican
>>> interests, but the ship sank in 1926 en route to its
>>> final inspection
>>> in Tampa, after a loss of steam pressure in its
>>> boilers.
>>> 
>>> Marven Moore, manager of collections for the
>>> Maritime Museum of the
>>> Atlantic in Nova Scotia, describes the Queen of
>>> Nassau/CGS Canada, one
>>> of Canadas first naval warships, as the flagship
>>> of the embryonic
>>> Canadian Navy at the time, symbolic of the evolution
>>> of Canada from a
>>> dominion within the British Empire to a sovereign
>>> nation.
>>> 
>>> The National Marine Sanctuaries Act charges the
>>> Florida Keys National
>>> Marine Sanctuary with managing archaeological and
>>> historical resources
>>> in its waters to protect the publics interest.
>>> Disturbing or removing
>>> artifacts in the Sanctuary without a permit is
>>> illegal and punishable
>>> by a maximum civil penalty of $100,000 per
>>> violation.
>>> 
>>> Sanctuary officials are seeking information on the
>>> location of the
>>> artifacts and offering a period of amnesty for their
>>> return. We had
>>> plans in place to return to the site, complete the
>>> mapping work,
>>> recover these artifacts, properly conserve them, and
>>> make them
>>> available for display to enable the public to learn
>>> about the rich
>>> maritime history of the Florida Keys, said
>>> Sanctuary Upper Region
>>> Manager Lt. Dave Score. We sincerely hope that a
>>> few unknowing or
>>> unscrupulous individuals have not robbed United
>>> States, Canadian and
>>> British citizens of an important part of their
>>> past.
>>> 
>>> The important thing is that we recover these
>>> artifacts and fulfill
>>> our responsibility to protect them for the public,
>>> said Score. We
>>> are not looking to prosecute anybody at this point.
>>> If the artifacts
>>> have not been returned by May 1, 2002, the Sanctuary
>>> plans to launch a
>>> formal investigation. Score encourages anyone with
>>> information on the
>>> location of the artifacts to contact him at
>>> 305.852.7717, ext. 35.
>>> 
>>> The opportunity for archaeologists and marine
>>> historians to glean
>>> information from a wreck that is so remarkably
>>> intact is very rare,
>>> said Moore. The sad truth is that when artifacts
>>> are stolen, they are
>>> likely to end up in someones basement, with the
>>> wealth of information
>>> they can provide locked away forever, diminishing
>>> the value of the
>>> site.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Best regards --
>>> 
>>> Bill
>>> 
>>> 
>> ===========================================================To
>>> contact the list administrator, email
>>> Mike Rodriguez at mikey@mi*.ne*
>>> To UNSUBSCRIBE from this list, send a message to:
>>> listserv@mi*.ne*
>>> and in the *BODY* of the message type:
>>> unsubscribe FLTechDiver
>> 
>> 
>> =====
>> "You only have one life, so get out there and make every day count!  GO
>> DIVING"
>> March 2002 Schedule  Starts soon.
>> Rescue Class and Advanced Class
>> Dives will include the Duane, Wreck or Reef Night Dive and more.
>> 
>> http://www.runawaylobster.com
>> ______________________________________________________
>> 
>> __________________________________________________
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