The Kingdom of the Netherlands has a centuries-old relationship with water, from the European coast to the Caribbean. This shared history has left a rich cultural heritage, both above and under water, which we have a responsibility to protect for future generations. Therefore the Kingdom of the Netherlands – The Netherlands, the special municipalities Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba and the countries Aruba, Curacao and Sint Maarten – aims to ratify the UNESCO Convention on the Protection of Underwater Cultural Heritage in the coming years. This webpage provides relevant information about the Convention and its implementation across the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
A part of our past is concealed. Underwater. Out of sight.
This past, the underwater cultural heritage, describes an important
and sometimes forgotten part of our Kingdom's history. It contributes to our identity,
it is part of what we remember and commemorate.
It symbolises the events that brought us to where and what we are today.
This underwater cultural heritage recounts our battle with water and
how it connects us with other nations, peoples and cultures.
It echoes tales of oppression, slavery and war.
Without attention, these cultural heritage sites will fade from our collective memory.
Unless we act now.
The underwater cultural heritage in our Kingdom is unique.
That's why we want to explore, safeguard and talk about it.
Saint Martin
Throughout history, the relationship between the maritime world and the coastal environment has been of vital importance for Saint Martin. Encounters with other seafaring nations fostered connections.
However, these connections also led to the colonisation of the island. Saint Martin was once home to an indigenous culture of Taíno-communities. The arrival of the settlers erased these communities. Traces of the Taíno can still be found along the coastline, but the preservation of this tangible past is threatened by rising sea levels and tourism.
Saba
Over the centuries, the sea gets busier. Islands are vital links in an international trade network. Saba was so important that steep 50-metre ascents to access the island were taken for granted.
Where ships once dropped anchor, the remnants of Saba's centuries-old maritime history lie buried in the seabed. Traces and objects from the past represent the countless tales that still circulate on the island about the time this rock was inhabited by traders, smugglers and pirates.
Undoubtedly, much unknown historical wealth is still lying on the ocean floor. Enough to be explored and to unveil new stories. If we have the necessary resources, opportunities and dedication to do so.
Statia
During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the Kingdom navigates the seas and discovers Statia and the other islands. Hundreds of warehouses and crowded ports defined the Statia coastline. Ships and warehouses were brimming with legal and illegal goods.
Countless archaeological sites reflect a time of prosperity for one part of the Kingdom as well as the oppression of enslaved people.
Objects that fell overboard, cannons and broken anchors, the remnants of an often ruthless trade that has not yet been systemically researched.
It's a story that holds great importance. But only if we bring it to light.
Bonaire
Another example of oppression can be found on Bonaire. For centuries, salt mining in the salt pans significantly contributed to the island's economy, but it came at the expense of the labourers: exploitation and inhumane working conditions that went on for years....decades and even centuries.
Unique heritage like the obelisks on land and the ballast stones under water serve as a permanent reminder that this part of our shared history must be passed on to future generations.
Curacao
The history of our Kingdom predominantly revolves around maritime trade. Trade in goods, but also people. The Navy, or the Admiralty as it was called in the 17th and 18th centuries, was tasked with pursuing pirates and privateers, as well as safeguarding trade in all its forms.
The history of our military maritime past can also be found on the seabed. For instance, the wreck of the Alphen that exploded and sank in 1778 in the Port of Willemstad.
Many undiscovered wrecks still lie hidden on the ocean floor as silent witnesses of violence inflicted by enemies, or nature.
Both the discovery of the wrecks and the unfolding of their stories require careful consideration and nuance. Not telling them or letting them get lost is not an option.
The Netherlands
Maritime heritage tells a story that is intermittently successful but also pinpoints human and systemic failures. As we uncover, study and preserve, our grasp of history becomes more intricate and comprehensive.
And so we reflect on the maritime grave, just off the coast of Scheveningen. We commemorate the moment the ram monitor - His Majesty's Adder - sank due to negligence. A tragic event that provoked national outrage and prompted the establishment of the coastguard.
Aruba
Wars are crucial chapters in history. Often, their traces are still visible underwater. On Aruba, the twisted steel of a British oil tanker among the coral visualises the strategic importance of oil during World War II. Once sunk by German torpedoes, the ship has now become home to a wide variety of underwater life.
War. Trade. Migration. Generation after generation, the history of our ancestors unfolds. A history that plays out on terra firma and on, around and under the sea. The stories are there on the seabed, waiting to be discovered.
Underwater heritage can help us confront, understand and interpret the past.
But time is running out. More and more heritage is at risk of being permanently lost – sometimes even unnoticed. Within the Kingdom, we are committed to preserving that heritage. The UNESCO Convention on the Protection of Underwater Cultural Heritage gives us the tools to do just that. We train heritage professionals to ensure that the past is preserved so we can draw valuable lessons for the future.
Researching and unlocking heritage is something we do together. Because underwater cultural heritage belongs to all of us.
UNESCO 2001 Convention
In the fall of 2001 the General Assembly of UNESCO accepted the Convention on the Protection of Underwater Cultural Heritage. The convention was drafted due to the increasing pillaging and destruction of underwater cultural heritage by treasure hunters, souvenir hunters, but also due to other (economic) human activities on the beds of rivers, lakes and seas. Ratifying and implementing the convention provides countries with a minimal legal framework for the protection and management of underwater cultural heritage when they have not arranged this within their own territorial waters, and it arranges the various interests between countries through international co-operation. So it basically strives for a global protection of underwater cultural heritage, not only in the coastal areas and territorial waters, but also outside of that.
In 2009 the convention came into effect. The Netherlands has not signed the convention yet, but endorses the importance of the protection of maritime heritage for the future and is working on ratifying the convention at the moment.
More information on the Convention can be found on the website of UNESCO.
Image: © UNESCO / J.V. González
Base of the turret of one of large caliber cannons of the iron-clad cruiser the Vizcaya in Aserradero, Underwater Archaeological Park linked to the Naval Battle of Santiago de Cuba.
Why do we protect underwater heritage?
Maritime archaeological and cultural historical research do not only unearth physical remains but also the stories connected to them. This provides valuable insights into moments in our history, which are sometimes glorious and sometimes far from it. The information gathered by us today provides input for the debate on our past and for current themes in the present. Without proper management, this heritage will disappear. Therefore, valuable maritime heritage needs to be actively preserved for present and future generations. The UNESCO Convention on the Protection of Underwater Cultural Heritage provides international guidelines for this protection. Furthermore, we are taking this opportunity within the Kingdom to provide an impulse to the management of underwater cultural heritage throughout the entire territory.
The Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands (RCE) co-operates with (inter-)national partners to protect underwater cultural heritage, for example through:
The International Programme for Maritime Heritage, in co-operation with UNESCO, has created a new manual for Maritime Archaeologists in English and Spanish over the past years. It is an adaptation of the manual for the training schemes on the management of underwater cultural heritage organised by UNESCO for Asia and the Pacific between 2009 and 2012, which was published in 2012. The new manual is aimed at South America and the Caribbean, which also includes the Dutch islands. For the new edition, the text has been completely rewritten and provided with information on recently developed techniques and examples from the region.
The manual contains teaching materials that have been developed by international experts. Amongst other things it concerns the management of archaeological heritage, appreciating heritage, the storage of information, the exchange of knowledge, the in situ protection and the excavation and conservation of excavated items.
The English manual was published in March 2021 and the Spanish manual will be published in 2023.
The manuals form the basis for the training in Underwater Archaeology (Foundation Courses) that UNESCO organises on a regular basis together with the RCE and they will also serve as reference manuals.
Over the past twelve years, over 300 people have been educated in the work field of Underwater Archaeology and the protection of cultural heritage under water through these trainings. The training for maritime and underwater archaeologists enhances the knowledge in the countries where the students are active. Because of this, better management is possible, also of the Dutch shipwrecks that lay in the coastal waters of other nations. Asides from that, the training act as a platform on which archaeologists from a region can interact with one another and can aid one another in management. Up until now the RCE co-operated with UNESCO in the following trainings:
- 2012 - Jamaica
- 2014 – St. Eustatius
- 2023 - Trinidad & Tobago
- Meeting for the heritage institutes of the six Caribbean islands in 2019 (Curacao) by RCE/NAAM
- Incentive for zero measurements through diving surveys in Aruba (co-operation NAMA/RCE)
- Valuation SE-504 by the RCE (St. Eustatius) with the aid of SECAR
Partners
Within the Kingdom, governmental bodies and institutes are increasingly working together to better embed the management of underwater cultural heritage in the present policies and also to give the practical management the needed striking power. We do this together at national governmental level but also at the executive level. For instance, a team of experts focused on practice from the following managing institutions active in the Netherlands as well as in the Caribbean convenes since 2019:
- National Archaeological Anthropological Memory Management (NAAM), Curaçao
- Museo Arqueologico Nacional Aruba/ National Archeological Museum Aruba (NAMA)
- Openbaar Lichaam Bonaire
- Saba Archaeological Center (Sabarc)
- St. Eustatius Center for Archaeological Research (SECAR)
- Sint Maarten Archaeological Center (SIMARC)
- Sekshon di Kultura Arte i Literatura (SKAL), Bonaire