The latest meeting of FISHEN was not able to properly start discussion of
the issue of standards for ship related
archaeology. Instead, can I suggest that we take this as a theme for
discussion on this mailing list?

Antony Firth from Wessex Archaeology was able to forward comments on a very
rough proposal for how a nautical
standard might look. I have incorporated his comments into the following as
a starting point for discussion.
(Please feel free to comment Antony if I've mis-represented your views!)

A Nautical data standard

The first edition of MIDAS made little allowance for the needs of
ship-related archaeology. The 
proposal is that a future edition, or separate 'micro-standard' within the
MIDAS framework be 
produced to cover this specialist area. This note is intended as a starting
point for discussion.

Issues

* Scope - Should the standard relate to just wrecks, or also to floating
historic craft and museum 
pieces?
* Structure - Should Maritime issues be covered by a separate information
scheme, or should the 
various related units be built into an existing information scheme?
* Format - What format? Separate publication? Additional pages for MIDAS?
* Coverage - the list below is based on experience in the NMR. What
additional concepts are 
required?
* Suggested new units should be designed to cover terrestrial recording
rather than just relating to
nautical archaeology. Do you agree?


Concept list

CARGO
New unit in Monument Character - should this 
cover 'Commodities' more generally, and be 
relevant to terrestrial sites, e.g. warehousing, 
manufacturing sites etc?

CONSTRUCTION (Clinker, Plate etc)
New unit in Monument Character - again could be 
extended to cover built heritage construction 
methods, perhaps complementing Constructional 
Material.

OBJECT MATERIAL
= Construction Material

MANNER OF LOSS
New unit in Monument Character - relevant for 
destroyed monuments on land as well? 'Burnt 
down', 'ploughed out' etc.

NATIONALITY
New unit in Monument Character

PORT OF DESTINATION
PORT OF REGISTRATION
New Unit in Location - 'Associated Location?'

PROPULSION (Steam, Electric etc)
New 'Motive power' unit in Monument Character 
- could this be used for e.g. industrial site 
recording as well as craft? Perhaps

STATUS (Casualty, Other)
New unit in Monument Character - alternatively 
this could be subsumed under the Evidence unit of 
information.

VESSEL LENGTH / VESSEL TONNAGE (?)
New unit in Monument Character? Dimensions 
were rejected during the planning of MIDAS as 
being too detailed. Perhaps this needs to be 
revisited?

VESSEL TYPE
= Monument Type (in essence just an alternative 
wordlist for use with this unit of information).

DEPTH
Rename unit 'Height Above Ordnance Datum' 
with something more appropriate 
('Height/Depth'?)

LATITUDE
= Latitude

LONGITUDE
= Longitude

HEMISPHERE
New unit in Location (hemisphere is currently 
included under Latitude &Longitude)

NAMED LOCATION (e.g. Barnstaple Bay)
Locality? Or New unit in Location

FIXTURES AND FITTINGS
New unit in Monument Character 'Component' - 
already the subject of work by the NMR Data 
Standards Unit. Needs a new unit definition.

E.S.Lee 19 November 1999


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