Haiti: UNESCO to send experts to examine possible wreck of 'Santa Maria'

UN News Centre    Translate This Article
26 June 2014

Survey of underwater site. UNESCO/D. Frka

23 June 2014 - The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) announced today that it will provide technical assistance requested by the Government of Haiti and send a mission to the site of an underwater shipwreck, which may be that of the Santa Maria, the flagship of Christopher Columbus's first voyage to America.

In a letter dated 12 June, Haitian Culture Minister Monique Rocourt asked for the support of the Scientific and Technical Advisory Body of UNESCO's 2001 Convention on the Protection of Underwater Cultural Heritage, requesting that a mission of experts be sent to the site.

The agency said in a press release that it will send a mission in the coming months to examine the wreck located off the town of Cap-Haïtien, in the north of the country.

Irina Bokova, the Director-General of UNESCO, expressed concern about the risk 'of looting of underwater heritage sites off the shores of Haiti. We stand by the authorities in fighting illicit trafficking in underwater cultural heritage objects and urge States to join Haiti's efforts to find artefacts stolen from these underwater archaeological sites, notably the one that will visited by UNESCO's mission.'

On 14 May this year, Bill Clifford, an American underwater explorer, said he identified the wreck of the Santa Maria, one of the three ships Christopher Columbus led on his first crossing of the Atlantic. The Santa Maria sank on 25 December 1492, after drifting onto a reef off the northern coast of Haiti the previous day.

Explorers, including Bill Clifford's team, already visited the wreck in 2003 and identified a cannon believed to date from the 15th century. It has since disappeared.

UNESCO's Underwater Heritage Convention, adopted 2001, aims to ensure the safeguarding of underwater heritage and support research and international cooperation in this field. The States that have ratified it—48 to date, including Haiti—undertake to preserve this heritage, prevent commercial exploitation of sites and fight the illicit trafficking in stolen artefacts.

The Scientific and Technical Advisory Body of the UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage is composed of 12 internationally recognized experts who are elected during the meeting of States Parties to the 2001 Convention.

Every day Global Good News documents the rise of a better quality of life dawning in the world from good news reported by the press; and highlights the need for introducing Natural Law based-Total Knowledge based-programmes to bring the support of Nature to every individual, raise the quality of life of every society, and create a lasting state of world peace.



Translation software is not perfect; however if you would like to try it, you can translate this page using:

(Google) Select a language English to Afrikaans English to Albanian English to Arabic English to Belarusian English to Bulgarian English to Catalan English to Chinese (Simplified) English to Chinese (Traditional) English to Croatian English to Czech English to Danish English to Dutch English to Estonian English to Filipino English to Finnish English to French English to Galician English to German English to Greek English to Hebrew English to Hindi English to Hungarian English to Icelandic English to Indonesian English to Irish English to Italian English to Japanese English to Korean English to Latvian English to Lithuanian English to Macedonian English to Malay English to Maltese English to Norwegian English to Persian English to Polish English to Portuguese English to Romanian English to Russian English to Serbian English to Slovak English to Slovenian English to Spanish English to Swahili English to Swedish English to Thai English to Turkish English to Ukrainian English to Vietnamese English to Welsh English to Yiddish

(Altavista babelfish) Select a languageEnglish to Chinese-simpEnglish to Chinese-tradEnglish to DutchEnglish to PortugueseEnglish to FrenchEnglish to GermanEnglish to GreekEnglish to ItalianEnglish to JapaneseEnglish to KoreanEnglish to RussianEnglish to Spanish

Send Good News to Global Good News.

Your comments.