Vessel Documentation

Documenting Historic Vessels

How does CWB help preserve historic boats in our collection for future generations?
Vessel documentation! Through the standards of the Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) we can ensure that even if the physical integrity of a vessel is compromised, the intellectual information of its construction, history, and shape are preserved in perpetuity.
 
CWB is working closely with HAER Maritime Program Coordinator Todd Croteau. He has worked with the HAER Program of the Department of the Interior's National Park Service since 1989 and has served as the Maritime Program Coordinator since 1992. He is responsible for developing documentation projects throughout the United States and employing new techniques and technologies that more efficiently generate documentation.  

The standards for vessel documentation include several components:

  • Create lines drawings and a table of offsets for each vessel. Measured drawings are developed using Electronic Distance Measuring devices (EDM) or "Total Stations" in combination with AutoCAD and naval architecture software applications.
  • Research and writing historic narratives for vessels, sometimes including oral testimony. 
  • Photographing the vessels with a large format camera (4X6).
  • Drawing teschnical sketches of the vessel details and taking field notes about the process.
  • Submitting the documentation to HAER and The Library of Congress.

Beyond making this information publicly accessible in a national forum, the documentation created through this process is used in a number of ways at CWB, including new interpretation onsite and on the web, further information for our collections catalog, and to better foster stewardship of the boats in the collection through staff and volunteer knowledge.

Documentation Participants:

Tim Barney, CWB Volunteer and Photographer
Todd Croteau, National Park Service
Sam Johnson, CWB Bronzecasting Workshop Instructor and Executive Director of the Columbia River Maritime Museum in Astoria, OR.
Shelly Leavens, Museology Consultant 
Paul Marlow, CWB Volunteer and Researcher
Scott Rohrer, CWB Volunteer and Vessel "Pirate" Lead
Heron Scott, CWB Lead Boatwright
Dick Wagner, CWB Founding Director

Todd Croteau leads a documentation workshop at CWB

Todd Croteau leads a vessel documentation workshop at CWB, January 2008