Bermuda 2000 - Conservation

This year’s field school participants had a conservation lesson from Clifford Smith, the Bermuda Maritime Museum’s archaeologist and chief conservator.  Smith showed examples of conservation treatments for porcelain, iron, lead, and copper, from the benign to the most aggressive techniques.  Each student was allowed to experiment with different chemicals to test which treatment best suited the material being conserved, and afterwards discussed the advantages and disadvantages of each.

Mike Hughes reconstructing a porcelain plate.

The ECU team  recovered two heavily concreted cast iron knees from the Iron Knee Wreck.  After raising the knees from the seabed, they were placed in a fresh water holding tank until the concretions could be removed.  Later, students carefully chiseled away the concretion product and drew each knee using the grid system.  By employing a level grid and plumb bob, participants simply plotted each of the points on graph paper using an appropriate scale.  This quickly proved to be the best technique for creating an accurate three-dimensional representation of the complex cast iron knees.  After the knees were recorded, they were placed in a fresh water holding tank until the lengthy electrolytic reduction process is initiated.

The students received invaluable hands-on experience and the Program in Maritime Studies would like to thank Clifford for the time and effort he gave to the field school participants.

Stephen Hammack in the Maritime Museum Conservation Laboratory.