Reasons
There are many reasons why underwater archaeology can make a significant contribution to our knowledge of the past. In the shipwreck field alone individual shipwrecks can be of significant historical importance either because of the magnitude of loss of life (such as the Titanic), or circumstances of loss (Housatonic was the first vessel in history sunk by an enemy submarine). Shipwrecks, such as Mary Rose, can also be important for archaeology because they can form a kind of accidental time capsule, preserving an assemblage of human artifacts at the moment in time when the ship was lost.
Sometimes it is not the wrecking of the ship that is important, but the fact that we have access to the remains of it, especially where the vessel was of major importance and significance in the history of science and engineering (or warfare), due to being the first of its type of vessel. The development of submarines, for example, can be traced via underwater archaeological research, via the Hunley which was the first submarine to sink an enemy ship (Hunley also had unique construction details not found in previous vessels and was one of the only historic warships ever raised intact), the Resurgam II, the first powered submarine, and Holland 5, which provides insight into the development of submarines in the British Navy.
Read more about this topic: Underwater Archaeology
Famous quotes containing the word reasons:
“She has problems with separation; he has trouble with unity—problems that make themselves felt in our relationships with our children just as they do in our relations with each other. She pulls for connection; he pushes for separateness. She tends to feel shut out; he tends to feel overwhelmed and intruded upon. It’s one of the reasons why she turns so eagerly to children—especially when they’re very young.”
—Lillian Breslow Rubin (20th century)
“I should like to know what is the proper function of women, if it is not to make reasons for husbands to stay at home, and still stronger reasons for bachelors to go out.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)
“There is no way of conveying to the corpse the reasons you have made him one—you have the corpse, and you are, thereafter, at the mercy of a fact which missed the truth, which means that the corpse has you.”
—James Baldwin (1924–1987)