Iron and Steamship Archaeology: Success and Failure on the SS Xantho

by Michael McCarthy

Overview

In the early 1980s the author was asked to investigate the newly discovered wreck of the Xantho, an iron screw steamship active off the Australian coast during the period 1848 to 1872, and to develop a strategy to stop the looting that was occurring at the site. This relatively straightforward assignment turned into a long-term research program for applying maritime archaeology to the conservation of iron-hulled wrecks.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780306471902
Publisher:	Springer-Verlag New York, LLC
Publication date:	12/08/2005
Series:	The Springer Series in Underwater Archaeology
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	10 MB

Table of Contents

Xantho and Broadhurst in context.- Xantho—The transformations.- The wreck examined.- Site formation processes.- The investigation continues in the archives.- Excavations at the site.- Excavation in the laboratory.- Conclusion.

Editorial Reviews

McCarthy, of the Western Australian Maritime Museum in Fremantle, headed a site management project begun in 1983 to protect the wrecked steamship (1848-72). This study represents a landmark in modern maritime archeology by linking underwater archaeologists, biologists, and corrosion specialists for site and lab analyses. The author, who wrote his master's thesis on Captain Broadhurst, provides context for the ship and its captain. Includes photos of ships and shipwrecks, diagrams of their equipment, 19th century charts of Western Australia, information on horsepower, and wages/salaries current in 1870. The extensive bibliography includes archival documents. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews

‘McCarthy has done an outstanding job detailing an excavation form first notification to the last conservation stages. This might serve well as a text in maritime archaeology theory, maritime history, or conversation courses. All collections.'
Choice, 38:11 (2001)

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