68 HISTORICALRESEARCH
Wales its own National Library. Scotland was united with
England in 1707, but retains its independent legal system.
It has its own National Archives and National Library and
separate records for all but military and naval affairs.
English Heritage’s National Monument Record (NMR),
based in Swindon, holds a considerable archive of archaeo-
logical and architectural survey material, including draw-
ings and photographs. The aerial photograph collection
includes 600,000 oblique and 2 million vertical photo-
graphs. Similar records are held in the National Monuments
Record for Wales (NMRW), the Monuments and Building
Record, Northern Ireland, and the Royal Commission
on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland
(RCAHMS). In many instances it is possible to search the
records held in NMRs via the internet. (Contact details
are provided in the Further Information section at the
end of the chapter.) Other countries will often have
similar organizations holding regional or national sites
and monuments records.
The National Maritime Museum (NMM), Greenwich,
London houses the Caird Library, which contains books,
academic journals, a vast collection of letters, logbooks,
folios and manuscripts. The ships’ plans and historic
photograph collection is held at the Brass Foundry
site in Woolwich. There are over 1 million ships’ plans,
including the Admiralty collection of the sailing navy
from 1700 –1835. Approximately 1 million prints cover-
ing ships and maritime related subjects are held in the
library. A collection of over 2500 model ships is also
held by the NMM, though they are kept at an outsta-
tion at Kidbrooke. In addition, the National Maritime
Museum’s PORT website (www.port.nmm.ac.uk) is a
subject gateway that provides access to searchable catalo-
gues of internet-based resources. PORT is organized
under subject headings, one of which is Underwater and
Maritime Archaeology.
The British Library, apart from being a copyright
library of printed books, has been the leading repository
for private papers since its foundation in 1753. The col-
lection includes a vast number of personal and estate
papers, including manuscript maps and drawings. It
also holds the most extensive collection of Ordnance
Survey maps in the country. Comparable libraries are
the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh, and the
National Library of Wales. The latter, founded in 1907, is
the central repository for public and private archives
in Wales and contains a large collection of estate and
family papers, illustrative and cartographic material and
a set of sketchbooks second only to the British Library.
International sources: Researchers may find it neces-
sary to visit an archive in another country. Over the
course of thousands of years of seafaring, ships have been
built and travelled between every country in the world with
a coastline or river access, bringing with them materials
of every shape, form and description. As a result, even rel-
atively small and simple maritime archaeological sites in
the UK may have materials from abroad.
Material discovered on an archaeological site may be
something as small as an imported wine bottle or frag-
ment of ceramic; equally, it could be highly diagnostic
evidence such as coinage or weaponry that, once identified,
can indicate who owned or operated a vessel or which
coastal sites she visited. Countless foreign vessels have been
wrecked off the coast of Britain over the years, so it is even
possible that the majority of research on a wreck-site
located in the UK will have to be undertaken abroad. Two
of the best examples of this are vessels of the Spanish
Armada (sixteenth century) and the Dutch East India
Company (VOC) for the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries.
It can be expensive to live in another country, or even
town, for a long period of time, so careful planning in
advance of any foreign visit is essential. This can include
making a preliminary visit to gain access to, and assess
the extent of, an archive; find out where materials are;
and make any necessary arrangements in advance. The
internet and e-mail can be a great help here.Private sources: Private and site-specific archives are
often of use to maritime archaeologists. The most famous
of these are the shipping records of the insurers Lloyds
of London. Other good examples include the records of
major port authorities as well as the records of major ship-
builders. In a rather different way, the manufacturers of
specific items like ceramics, porcelain, and ships’ fittings
often maintain archives of their products, which can be
extremely useful when attempting to identify materials from
an historic site.The Internet
There is a vast range of websites containing information
of interest to maritime archaeologists, but it can some-
times be hard to judge the authenticity or merit of a site.
Any research undertaken via the internet should consider
the following criteria:- Can the full citation information from the website
be stated, including author, date of publication,
edition or revision, title, publisher, the date the
website was accessed, and the full website address
(uniform resource locator, or URL)? - What can the URL tell you? Is it a ‘.org’, ‘.ac.uk’, ‘.gov’
or other official or semi-official site, or merely a com-
mercial ‘.co.uk’ or ‘.com’? The former are usually more