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BLACKBEARD - Recovering "Queen Anne's Revenge"

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Bianca
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« Reply #15 on: December 08, 2008, 03:52:27 pm »









Artifact Conservation



Since the start of the Queen Anne's Revenge project in 1996, more than two thousand artifacts have been recovered and conserved, while several thousand more await treatment in temporary storage tanks. Those objects vary greatly in size and material type, from tiny flakes of gold that required no treatment, to 8-foot-long iron cannons weighing nearly a ton that will require several years to preserve. The varying material types such as metal, glass, ceramic, and organics each had to be conserved using specifically designed procedures and equipment.

All artifacts recovered from saltwater environments, however large or small, require desalinization to extract corrosive chlorides in order to stabilize the material and prevent further deterioration. Metal artifacts, in particular, underwent desalinization, which on occasion was as simple as repeated rinses in fresh water, while at other times was more complicated and necessitated setting up an electrolytic reduction process. Generally, the smaller the artifact and the more noble the metal type, the quicker the conservation process. The pewter plates, for example, required several weeks to preserve, while the 2,000-pound cast iron cannons will take three to four years to complete. Following desalinization, the surfaces of metal artifacts typically were coated with a protective moisture barrier to prevent further corrosion.

Artifacts covered in concretion are inherently more difficult to conserve. Concretion is a combination of calcium carbonate, sand, and corrosion product that encapsulates artifacts during emersion in seawater. Throughout the conservation process, objects must be kept in large storage containers in order to keep them wet. If artifacts dry prematurely, they would literally disintegrate in a short period of time. The use of x-rays was invaluable to determine what types of artifacts occurred within the encrustations. Pneumatic tools, hammers, chisels, and acids were utilized to break apart the concretion and separate the various material types. New objects revealed during the dismantling of the concretion were documented both with photographs and scaled drawings.

Many concretions recovered from Queen Anne's Revenge contained hollow molds of completely deteriorated ferrous artifacts. Those molds were cast with epoxy resins to preserve the original shape of the artifact. The process was slow, expensive, and required a trained conservator, but was absolutely essential in preserving the archaeological integrity of the concreted objects.

Organic artifacts such as wood, cordage, fabric, and bone were subject to shrinkage and warping and required strengthening and stabilizing to prevent distortion while retaining the original appearance of the object. Bulking or impregnating organic artifacts with wax or sugars was the standard means of treating these sorts of objects. Lithic artifacts such as ballast, a millstone, and a whetstone were cleaned with dilute acid and then desalinated with freshwater baths lasting one to two months. Ceramics underwent a similar process but required a more dilute acid solution to break down the concretion. Glass from the wreck was sometimes durable enough to be rinsed and air-dried, but at other times required submersion in a chemical consolidant for stabilization.
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