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Most maritime archaeologists spend their careers trying to tease out what happened before a ship sank by asking questions like who was on board, when was it built, where was it going, and why? While poring over James Delgado’s new book The Great Museum of the Sea: A Human History of Shipwrecks I came to an unexpected realisation about shipwrecks – that fateful moment a ship is wrecked is just the beginning. This new volume takes that moment as the starting point for the human history of the wreck that follows: how we memorialise wrecks, how wrecks serve as a muse for human imagination, how the remains of ships are colonised by marine creatures on the seafloor, and how archaeologists and antiquarians have studied shipwrecks remains over time.
Delgado adds a human element to the aftermath of well-known shipwreck stories. Many may know that a whaling ship called the Essex was wrecked when it was rammed by a sperm whale and later provided the inspiration for Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick. Few would know that this was just the beginning of tragedy for the crew, as they drifted for many months at sea afterwards, resorting to cannibalism as they slowly starved. The tale of HMS Bounty is perhaps the most famous mutiny of all time and has been memorialised in countless films as a sort of love story, but Delgado makes us realise that it was more likely a kidnapping scenario, in which Tahitian women were taken from their families and trapped by the mutineers on Pitcairn island, where the Bounty was burned to hide the evidence of their betrayal.
It would be difficult to say anything new about the sinking of the Titanic, arguably the most famous shipwreck of all time, but once again Delgado manages to do just that by focusing on the human aftermath, as he describes how for several months afterwards frozen bodies were still being recovered from the icy waters by passing ships. Somehow, details like this show the scale of the tragedy in a new light, making even well- known stories like the sinking of the Titanic seem like they happened yesterday.
His description of the discovery and excavation of Clotilda, the last ship to carry enslaved people to the United States, is particularly riveting, as we find out that its very existence was denied for over a century. Delgado’s work excavating its well-preserved hull in the muddy Mobile River revealed the horrifying conditions in which people were brought to the southern states, but his further research on the aftermath showed how the community of survivors endured and maintained their culture, religion, and beliefs in the face of the greatest possible adversity.
The ways in which shipwrecks affect real people in the aftermath of their sinking is the thread that Delgado uses to tie together these ghostly ships. His book masterfully describes how shipwrecks live on in our memory, imaginations, and research, demonstrating that the tragic moment when a ship slipped beneath the waves was only just the start.
REVIEW BY LISA BRIGGS
The Great Museum of the Sea: A Human History of Shipwrecks
James P Delgado
Oxford University Press, £20
ISBN 978-0197780756
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