Building for the Sea Safeguarding Ashore. Brigs, Ships and Peote: A Complex Conservation

The presented work is intended to be an international overview on the most important conservative project of naval heritage. As it was immediately clear that mostly concerns ancient shipwrecks' structures which came from underwater environment and made of waterlogged wood, the analysis has therefore focused on waterlogged wood conservation and reinforcement. Based on the state of the art in the field of conservation and management of ancient ships some considerations can be made. The conservation of artefacts coming from the underwater environment has began in the mid XXth century and developed through a great deal of effort which has resulted in a strong improvement of scientific and multidisciplinary research. Case-studies are various and it is clear that conservative approaches and choices are, sometimes, in contrast: an improvement of the state of the art in this particular field is therefore actual. The considered examples concern different experiences both in historical features and in their conservative tracks. In the selection different situations were taken into account, in order to get to a proper analysis of conservation and on how methods and protocols may have evolved over the years. On one side the research dealt with the waterlogged wood, on the other the goal was establish a method applicable to a wider context. In the case of the last two structures taken into account, it was to check whether the same multi-phase and multidisciplinary approach recorded could be appropriate to achieve, even in this case, the common purpose of heritage conservation.