underwater log harvesting in mn

[DetectorGuy]

I don't know a ton about preserving wood that has been submerged, but I just finished reading a book called "Underwater Archaeology" by Bill St.John Wilkes. I am starting another book called "Archaeology under Water" by George F.Bass. These two books go into the process' of researching, finding, documenting, and recovery, but not so much on the preservation. Both books are from the 1970's and were bought by my mom recently from the Department of Archaeology in Cork, Ireland. She wants me to "visit" Ireland with my dive gear in her lifetime. Maybe, but that is another story...

As far as the preserving of wood... There is a ship called the Vasa that sank in the Stockholm Harbor in 1628. Here is a link to that ships story:


56 of the 64 bronze guns were salvaged within the first 5 years after the sinking in 32 meters of water. The ship sat there until 1958 and was re floated (95% intact) in 1961. once it was above the surface, the human aspect of preserving of the ship took the next 28 years. They used polyethylene glycol to slowly replace the water in the wood fibers starting with a mild concentration and increasing the concentration in the continuous mist until the whole ship was saturated with the chemical.

Here is a link to the wikipedia definition for polyethylene glycol and a small quote from that page as it relates to wood preservation:


"PEG has also been used to preserve objects that have been salvaged from underwater, as was the case with the warship Vasa in Stockholm,[20] the Mary Rose in England and the Ma'agan Michael Ship in Israel.[21] It replaces water in wooden objects, which makes the wood dimensionally stable and prevents warping or shrinking of the wood when it dries. In addition, PEG is used when working with green wood as a stabilizer and to prevent shrinkage.[22]"

I think that wood that was submerged for a long time will dry out and be destroyed if not preserved correctly. Keeping the wood wet or fully submerged until it can be preserved is the only way to keep it intact... with that said, I have heard that some people have taken small artifacts the size of a flintlock pistol (acquired legally I presume) and put them in the tank of their toilet to flush (pun intended) the salt water from the item and replace that with fresh water. If you think about that it makes sense. Every time you flush the toilet, the fresh water around the object is replaced with "fresher water".

Food for thought...