Terms of reference for the Record

1. The area of sea covered by the record is defined by;

1.1. High water mark, or the top of the beach.

1.2. Eastern boundary, 1? 36' west, the county boundary lies at 1? 41' 30" west. The difference both allows for errors in reporting and enables records to be easily sorted. This eastern boundary will overlap with the area surveyed by the Hampshire and Wight Trust for Maritime Archaeology.

1.3. Western boundary, 3? 2' 30" west, the county boundary lies at 2? 56' 33" west. As with the eastern boundary the difference allows for elimination of errors and easy sorting of records.

1.4. Southern Boundary, 50? north, this line approximates to the mid channel line. The proposed ICOMOS charter would extend protection of wrecks to international waters beyond the 12-mile limit, for this reason, and because wrecks here are dived by Dorset divers, the boundary is drawn at the 50th parallel rather than on the 12-mile limit.

2. Types of 'site' recorded

2.1. Wrecks (1546 records)
In the record a wreck is defined as; the remains of any vessel, be it ship, submarine, aircraft, amphibious tank or any other means of crossing water, now to be found on the beach, or below high water mark, or who's existence, or former existence, may be inferred from earlier records. The primary division in the record is between known wreck sites, when survey has located the remains, and casualties or reported wrecks, this is where a wreck is known to have taken place, usually from contemporary records, but where no physical traces have, as yet, been discovered.

2.2. Structures ( 22 records )
In the record a structure is defined as; any man made feature or archaeological site that is now to be found on the beach, or below high water mark. In this category there is the greatest potential for overlap with the SMR.

2.3. Single Finds ( 63 records )
In the record a single find may be defined as; an object, or small group of objects, discovered below high water mark and not, apparently, associated with any wreck or structure.

2.4. Strandings ( 142 records )
These are cases where a vessel is known to have been wrecked but later recovered. These records are kept in a separate database as, whilst it is unlikely, though not impossible, that they will have left any physical traces that could be discovered, they are frequently referred to in popular literature as 'wrecks'.