8/11/2005 - SHIPWRECK-AHOLIC |
- Name:Frank Farmer
- Location:Long Beach, California, United States
Co-founder of California Wreck Divers, 1971 (www.cawreckdivers.org), active wreck diver since 1964, 3,800 dives in almost every major body of water in the world. Semi-retired professional actor. Recent commercial: "Ding, Dong" for Real California Cheese.
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 Braaaaaaaaasssssss! 
 Doing my thang on the wreck of the EAGLE, Florida Keys, November '04
 Me searching for "goodies" on a Florida Keys shipwreck.
 My diving friends, (son and daughter bottom row from left) in Marathon, Florida between diving wrecks in the Keys, November '04
"Newbie" blogger
There's a saying: "Fools rush in where angels fear to tread". Being a computer fool attempting to create a blog, and not having a clue how to do it, I hope this feeble attempt works. If it does, I'd like to devote this blog to the wonderful world of shipwreck scuba diving, specifically places in the world where the recovery of marine artifacts is legal and permissible. As co-founder of the California Wreck Divers ( www.cawreckdivers.org), we are devoted to the "recovery, restoration, and display of marine artifacts". To the preservationists and marine archaeologist this is a very hot button issue. So let's open up this blog to the pros and cons of shipwreck artifact recovery. Your turn... |
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8/11/2005 - Anyone out there? |
| Posted by DIVEBUM |
| This blog used to be on blogspot but no one could post to it without joining. Here, you can have at it without joining, even post anonymously. So, once again: let's have a heated dialogue about wrecks and wreck diving, world-wide. Next...? |
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8/11/2005 - New blog |
| Posted by MaxBottomtime |
That's more like it. Thanks again for the wonderful tour of your collection. You've done a great job with the restoration and display of the artifacts.
Phi lGarner |
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8/12/2005 - Explain |
| Posted by Anonymous |
| Nice Blog. I was left with a lot of questions. Why not post a blurb what the restoration and display of wreck artifacts consists of. That is like your mission statement. OK, explain. |
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8/14/2005 - Where can I see the things you have collected? |
| Posted by Jed the fish |
| What kind of things have you found in all your years of scubaing shipwrecks? Do you have any pictures of them? Are they on display somewhere? |
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8/14/2005 - Display of "goodies" |
| Posted by DIVEBUM |
| Most of my displays are in my condo, but if you want to see 'em, give me a ring and drop on by ;-) Seriously, there's an ongoing effort to establish a marine museum in L.A. devoted to Southern California shipwrecks. Once that becomes a reality, all my "stuff" goes into it. Once a year at the California Diving News SCUBA SHOW in the Long Beach Convention Center, the California Wreck Divers has a large display of artifacts from a lot of its members. Next one is in May of '06. |
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8/14/2005 - Welcome to another old fart! |
| Posted by DrBill |
| Good to see another "vintage" diver on the site. Wrecks aren't my thing, but we all love diving. Welcome. |
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8/15/2005 - Some historical perspective re wrecks and recovery |
| Posted by DIVEBUM |
| Up until the mid 1980's, diving wrecks and recovering artifacts from them to restore and display was a relatively benign activity; it went hand and glove with most wreck exploration and wasn't stigmatized by the pejoritives of "plunderer, thieves, scum of the diving world, etc" . Then, in 1985 the fit hit the shan. An ex L.A. chicken farmer who established the first L.A. dive shop by the name of Mel Fisher found his long sought after treasure wreck, the Atocha with 400 million bucks worth of Spanish booty. A legal tug of war began between Mel and the state of Florida. Mel claimed Admiralty Law to support his claim to the gold and silver, Florida claimed the wreck was within its territorial jurisdiction. Though he's passed on to the Great Treasure Wreck in the Sky, Mel's surviving relatives and company is still involved in litigation. Then in 1987 the Abandoned Shipwreck Act was passed, giving ownership of all shipwrecks, modern and ancient, to the states whose offshore waters contained them. Marine sancturaries were created to further "protect" shipwrecks, i.e. our own Southern California Channel Islands and most of the Florida Keys for example. Statutes have always been in place to protect war graves, namely the Arizona and Truk Lagoon (although Cousteau collected his share on Calypso before the statutes were put in place). Protection of archaeological and historically significant shipwrecks rapidly followed, pushed primarily by George Bass and the Texas A&M Department of Marine Archaeology. Cut to today: there are very few locations on the globe now where recovery of marine artifacts is perfectly legal, such as...uh, not to change the subject ;-) So there's a case to be made on both sides of the issue vis-a-vis collecting marine artifacts. On the collectors side, what's the harm in recovering routine, heavily encrusted brass from a recently submerged rust bucket tramp freighter? Au contraire, sayeth the preservationists: perhaps in a couple hundred years that old hulk will be historically significant. The only silence you'll receive from the preservationists is when you ask them: what about the damage Mer Madre wreaks on wrecks unrelentingly? In a perfect world, artifacts would be recovered and placed in maritime museums for all the public to see. Unfortunately, most extant museums have no space for any additional displays, and 90% of what they do have is crated in storage, and no new museums are being built. So what's a poor, frustrated shipwreck artifact collector to do? Google your way to eBay and use eSnipe to outbid on the "goodies" posted there. Works for me! End of history lesson. |
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8/15/2005 - Stealing from the dive community |
| Posted by Anonymous |
Most of the stuff that is stolen isn't worth very much and does get tossed. What has value doesn't go on display. Wreck divers are primarily stealing from the dive community - what is so hard to see about that?
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8/16/2005 - "Stealing"? |
| Posted by DIVEBUM |
| "...stealing from other divers" ? That's a stretch Mr. Anonymous. The definition of stealing is taking something that belongs to someone else. Portholes, cage lamps, gauges, and other brass objects don't belong to "other divers". Shipwreck artifacts actually belong to the insurance underwriters of the sunken vessels, with the exception of artificial reef wrecks. Those wrecks were stripped of artifacts before they were sunk. How 'bout we contact the insurance companies that paid off the owners of the wrecks and ask permission to recover the brass? If they say, go for it, then what's the problem? Ball's in your court... |
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8/23/2005 - Thieves, collectors and preservationists |
| Posted by |
Part of the problem with artifact collecting, like politics and abortion debates is the lack of middle ground. There are certainly some who will remove decks, plates and rip apart hulls to get to a brass door hinge. There are those who follow the Club Sierra teaching of Leave only footprints, take only pictures. In between are those like Frank who have a modest collection of polished, lovingly restored items from wrecks that most divers will never see in the first place. On one of the local scuba boards there are three cyber divers who complain constantly about artifact recovery, yet rarely dive, let alone dive the local wrecks. One even refuses to dive in California due to the "dirty" water. I have seen what the derelict wrecks look like. I dive them all the time to see the marinelife surrounding them. Missing a porthole or cage lamp does not diminish the beauty of an artificial reef. I have also seen Frank's collection, and it looks much better now than when it was green and being slowly deteriorated by nature.
Phil Garner
Edited by MaxBottomtime on 8/28/2005 at 4:46 PM |
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8/25/2005 - Thank you! |
| Posted by DIVEBUM |
Thank you, Max, for your good words and kind thoughts. I think it best I put this artifact recovery issue "to sleep", 'cause no matter how I phrase or parse it, I'm damned if I do, damned if I don't. The diving world tide is dead set against it and swimming upstream is just too damn tiring ;-)
When my doc gives me the diving green light re my injury, let's just go "wrecking" with cameras. |
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About Me
A blog dedicated to the "recovery, restoration, and display of marine artifacts".
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