HMS Hazardous: Archive assessment and enhancement

English Heritage MRTM summaries. 2004/2005

EH Project Number:	3793MAIN
Funded Unit:	Hampshire and Wight Trust for Maritime Archaeology

Introduction
The wreck site of Warship Hazardous has been under archaeological investigation for over twenty years. This work has been undertaken by a local volunteer group, the Hazardous Project team (308 SAA), with the support of a range of archaeological advisors and organisations.

The ship was originally built by the French in 1698 but was captured and re-commissioned into the English Navy. In 1706, it was driven into shoal waters in Brackelsham Bay, West Sussex in poor weather. The capture and refit is an important aspect in the archaeological significance of Hazardous. Techniques of ship design and construction developed by the French are present on the ship which were eventually incorporated into English ship construction. Hazardous is one of only 55 Protected Wrecks around the coast of Great Britain. It is designated under the Protection of Wrecks Act 1973 and all diving and archaeological investigation must be licensed.

There has only been limited excavation on the site, which was undertaken in the late 1980’s. This demonstrated the potential of the site, however, this has not been capitalised upon. Work since has been restricted to survey and surface recovery of artefacts that have been eroded from the sediment of this highly dynamic site.

The active erosion of the site means that archaeological survey is only 'fire fighting' as artefacts become dislodged and much of their contextual information lost. This led to a proposal to create a coherent, fully referenced archive of work undertaken to date and build a foundation for future work. The archive project was funded by English Heritage and undertaken by the Hazardous Project Team and the Hampshire & Wight Trust for Maritime Archaeology.

Further information about Warship Hazardous is available at:
http://www.hwtma.org.uk/projects/hazardous/index.htm 

        

Overview
The Hazardous Project team are a highly skilled avocational group who have maintained a comprehensive set of records of work undertaken. The project record keeping system was formulated for their specific needs and grew organically over time. While including relevant archaeological information the archive differs from standard formats.

The archive project has consolidated the various systems that developed through this period. It aimed, where possible, to organise this in a standard format while maintaining original artefact and dive log numbers.

This reorganisation is detailed in “Warship Hazardous Archive Summary Report” [please hyperlink to this report]

A signpost database was created to catalogue the archive. The database catalogues three types of data; artefact, image and paper.

Artefact
Artefacts kept their original find number allocated via a system that developed with the project. A description of this system is contained within the summary report. The catalogue contains detailed information about each artefact including material, type, class, location and conservation history. It also incorporates recent recommendations for conservation considerations made by the Mary Rose Archaeological Services.

The recommendations from the Mary Rose Archaeological Services are detailed in “Condition assessment, care and stabilization recommendations for artefacts so far recovered from the HMS Hazardous wreck site.” [please hyperlink to the report “Warship Hazardous Artefact Assessment”]
 
Image
Items catalogued under images include all photographs, slides and videos associated with the site. Every item has been catalogued with a new record number. Each record contains information about its content, location and any previous record number. A sample of 10% of the images are available for download.

Paper
Paper items have been split into eight different categories to reflect the original recording system. Where possible, categories have been allocated a new record number. Each record details the content, location and any previous record number.

Items within categories ‘Dive Paperwork’ and ‘Finds Index’ kept their original record number. Items within categories ‘Conservation’, ‘Correspondence Index’, ‘Drawings’, ‘Licence Correspondence’ and ‘Report Index’ were allocated new record numbers.  Items held by external organisations were signposted under the category ‘EH&NMR’.

 

This page was published on 16/11/2005