MAANZ – Maritime Archaeological Association of New Zealand
A group of shipwreck enthusiasts gathered at the
City & Sea Museum last week to hear about NZ wrecks
and learn about some of the artifacts that have been
recovered from them.
The presentation started with an overview of some of our oldest wrecks, including the search for gold from the General Grant at the Auckland Islands. Although a wreck was found a study of the artifacts including surgical instruments, along with a lack of gold!, determined this was the site of the Rifleman.
As wrecks were introduced some of the members stood up to discuss the artifacts they had collected from those wrecks and told interesting anecdotes about the dives they did to collect them or how they managed to source and research the items.
Some of the wrecks will be familiar to our divers
such as the story of the Ships Bell that eventually
sunk (again) with the Progress at Owhiro Bay.
A large number of artifacts were bought in to share
with the audience and we would love to thanks MAANZ
for organising the evening and inviting us along.
We had fun and are looking forward to bring the club
along to the Hikitea Marine Lab to see some of the other artifacts.
