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MaritimeDigital Archive is a project founded by Frederic Logghe in 1997. It first started as a small website with a few boats, hosted by a free provider. These were still the days were web pages had no flash and most of them were built with FrontPage. The website grew and more ships were added. It was a few years later I decided to build some kind of Encyclopedia. In 2004 I had the chance of putting my website at Ibiblio. Pictures and information were continuously added and it became a bigger project, to big to maintain. Therefore in 2007 I decided to regroup all information and only maintain a small part of it.
All information is now days available through a Coppermine based php application. It is the idea to take one specific type of vessel every year and add as much information as possible. Many records may not have specifications or a picture, so don’t see the Encyclopedia as a media library, but rather as a classified list of vessels.
2007 is the year where many inland vessels were added. 2008 is more about fishing vessels. This doesn’t mean other vessels won’t be added or updated; only less time will be spent to those other categories.
People often ask why this project stays free. There are many reasons for this decision. First of all, I take most pictures, other pictures I could use freely. Second reason is the free hosting services if Ibiblio and the third, maybe most important reason, is the fact that I believe in the right of free information for everybody.
Please enjoy your visit on this site and if you have questions, additions, corrections or suggestions, mail them!
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