Tensions between salvors and archaeologists. Questions of what archaeology can contribute beyond the documentary record. These are debates that have bedeviled maritime archaeology for more than half a century. Wreck Divers and Archaeologists tackles these issues. It illustrates the progression of maritime archaeology from divers looking for treasure to both a scientific understanding of the past and a legal structure for historic preservation.

This volume documents the professional progression of maritime archaeology with a focus on California. It presents a number of personal narratives: six California wreck divers, two of whose exposure to the underwater world began during World War II; five professional archaeologists, including both the first California State Underwater Archaeologist and his Federal counterpart; together with the perspective of a Native American poet. While they had different goals, all of the contributors are bound together by their interest in maritime history and linked by having touched the brig Frolic and its cargo. Frolic, one of the best researched shipwrecks in the Americas, was bound from Canton, China to Gold Rush San Francisco when it wrecked on California’s Mendocino County coast in the summer of 1850.

The Frolic narratives describe the arc of United States maritime archaeology from a hobby to a profession – as well as the times when the arc was not smooth. The transitions in the field, and in California maritime archaeology, are given greater depth and context with a history by James Delgado.

Thomas Layton and James Delgado are past winners of the Society for Historical Archaeology’s James Deetz award for accessible writing. Other contributors include David Buller, Cliff Craft, Richard Everett, John Foster, Georgia Fox, Louie Fratis, James Kennon, Bill Kosonen, Dede Marx, Linda Noel, Larry Pierson, Sheli Smith, and Della Scott-Ireton.