Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival 2024

The Historic American Engineering Record (HAER), a branch of the U.S. National Park Service within the Heritage Documentation Programs office, is tasked with preparing measured drawings, large-format photographs, and written historical and descriptive narratives of historic resources throughout the United States. Since 1985, HAER has initiated documentation of historic vessels throughout the United States and includes vessels large and small. Building on the work of the WPA-era Historic American Merchant Marine Survey (HAMMS) of the 1930s, HAER documentation aims to preserve-on-paper significant maritime resources. This presentation will discuss the history of the HAMMS and HAER vessel documentation programs and encourage the continuation of regional boat documentation. The presentation will highlight work done in the Pacific Northwest and share new techniques being used in the documentation process, including laser scanning and photogrammetry.