On Friday 3 March the Littlehampton Civic Society hosted my talk on ‘Nets, Wrecks & Artefacts’, discussing the Fishing Industry Protocol for Archaeological Discoveries. I reprised the talk at Littlehampton’s
Look & Sea Visitors Centre on the following Monday and continued to share the contribution that the Sussex fishing fleet are making to the understanding of our shared maritime heritage.
The talks were well attended, with over 40 people at the first, and around 30 at the second. The Look & Sea presentation was followed by a fantastic lunch with the audience who had just been enlightened as to how the project operates, the ease in which finders can report material either through myself, via the website or MAS app, and a selection of the more recent finds was on display. These include: an early 15th-century cast iron cannon, an 18th-century lead ingot or ‘pig’, an early 19th-century rigging block, aircraft fragments and remains, anchors and mystery objects, along with a wide range of bottles and other items. This allows us to trace our maritime heritage from the medieval through to the 20th century using finds reported and shared by the fishing community of Sussex in the last 12 months. Both talks ended with lots of audience questions: from the survival of bone in the marine environment to the long term preservation and display of artefacts via ownership, salvage, the Merchant Shipping and Treasure Acts.
There was also a lot of interest in the finds I had brought along to show people illustrating the sort of material found off the Sussex coast and how hard some of it is to see or identify whilst working in a wet and hazardous environment whilst on the moving deck of a fishing boat.