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Such basic gear was more than enough to work comfortably on all the marble
shipwrecks. Their depth is sufficiently shallow (no more than 8 m), and their location so
close to the coastline, that more expensive equipment was not necessary. Additional
measurements of the Punta Scifo A and B marble elements were taken. While only a few
remains of the A site were still in situ, wreck B was much better preserved: the marble
blocks and slabs of Punta Scifo B still retained their stacking pattern, preserving the
cargo’s original disposition within the ship’s hull. Unfortunately, it provided impossible
to make a new map of the shipwrecks using digital photography and PhotoModeler, due
to the site unfavorable conditions. All the wrecks were too shallow, the areas too large,
and the focal lengths of the camera lenses too long to allow for the incorporation of more
than three or four blocks into any single image. As a result, it was not possible to obtain
a general view of the wrecks and capture sufficient data points in the individual pictures
for accurate image processing. After having collected information on the Punta Scifo A
wreck, the INA survey team spent the remaining time documenting the other sites
located in 2005 with basic measurements, photography, and video. The following pages
present the new, firsthand information collected on these merchantmen; the Punta Scifo
A shipwreck is discussed in Chapter III.
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