Munich

Archaeologists in northern Europe are planning a fresh approach to the study and conservation of shipwrecks.

Under a project backed by the European Union, researchers will investigate the wrecks in situ and use technology to let the public explore virtual images of them, without the expense and physical disruption of hauling the structures to the surface.

Four ships selected for study were seen as representative of the wrecks off northern Europe's coasts.

“Shipwrecks are best studied and preserved in their natural environments,” says Sallamaria Tikkanen, a curator at the Maritime Museum of Finland, which will coordinate the project.

The idea of opening shipwrecks up to the public but leaving them in place gained momentum after the discovery in 1999 of the wreck of the Vrouw Maria. This eighteenth-century trade ship, which sank off the coast of Finland, is particularly well preserved. It will now be left in place and studied as part of the new project.

“Shipwrecks are cultural possessions, and we have a responsibility to preserve them for future generations,” says Hauke Jöns, a conservationist at the Archaeological State Museum of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in Germany. “But they should not be removed from the place where they have met their fate.”

Other shipwrecks included in the project are the Erik Nordevall, a nineteenth-century paddle steamer that sank in Sweden's Lake Vänern; the Burgzand Noord in the Wadden Sea off Holland; and the Darsser Kogge, a medieval ship discovered in the sea close to the German town of Prerowstrom, near Rostock.

The project includes research on the process of degradation and on the problem of Teredo navalis, a shipworm that feeds on timber. The project will also explore various conservation methods, such as covering shipwrecks in sarcophagus-like tarpaulins and using sandbags to protect them from undersea currents.

Equipment at each site will measure salinity, temperature, water movement and the prevalence of microorganisms, warning the researchers of changes that could cause the wrecks to deteriorate.

The shipwrecks will be extensively filmed, and the resulting images will allow Internet users and museum visitors to take 'virtual tours' of them.