Iron and Steamship Archaeology: Success and Failure on the S/S `Xantho'

In the early 1980s the author was asked to investigate the newly-discovered wreck of the Xantho, an iron screw steamship active off the Australian coast during the period 1848 to 1872, and to develop a strategy to stop the looting that was occurring at the site. This relatively straightforward assignment turned into a long-term research programme for applying maritime archaeology to the conservation of iron-hulled wrecks.