The historically
rare and unusual artifacts that Wreckovery Salvage discovers, up to 20%
of our annual finds, are donated to the people of the State of Florida.
At the state conservation laboratory in Tallahassee, experts ensure that
proper stabilization, preservation and display of these treasures take
place. Thanks to their commercial shipwreck recovery program, Florida has
the world's greatest collection of Spanish Colonial shipwreck artifacts.
Wreckovery Salvage also has a well-equiped storage & conservation lab, located in Orlando, Florida. Over the years, through trial and error and with information provided by professionals in the field of shipwreck preservation, we have become quite adept at restoring corroded artifacts recovered from the sea to museum quality condition.
The information
gathered from the artifacts, and the stories that they tell us, are made
available to the public through a presentation
program developed by Tom Gidus. The program was inspired by the fascination
of his own children with the objects that he was bringing home from the
sea. They were enthralled with stories of the Spanish treasure fleets,
of 18th century shipboard life, of the pirates that preyed upon the galleons
along the Florida coast. These are fascinating aspects of our maritime
heritage that often are not covered in school curriculums. The presentation
was first introduced at the schools in which his children attend, but Gidus
expanded the program to include historical societies, civic groups, scuba
diving clubs, and metal detecting and coin clubs.
