I will be in England in August and I want to do some research while I am there. Here is what I sent them last week:

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I am writing on behalf of the Traditional Seafarer's Society, a group dedicated to the study and preservation of traditional watercraft and navigation in Micronesia. We currently have a modern Carolinian sakman, a sailing canoe, and are working on construction of a two man paddling canoe. We hope to build a traditional Flying Proa, a watercraft that was used to travel between the islands at the time Magellan landed here in 1521.

The Spanish Occupation of the islands and the subsequent civil war with the Chamorro people resulted in the destruction of the sailing canoes and the loss of all knowledge of their construction techniques. Today all that is left are contemporary descriptions of the various types of watercraft and a few paintings and drawings. The most accurate drawing was produced in the 1740s when Commodore Anson visited Guam on his voyage around the world.

Commodore Anson acquired a flying proa and apparently took it with him when he returned to England. We understand that it ended up in the collections at the British Museum. Rumor then goes off in two directions. One rumor is that it has been lost. The other is that it is still in the collections.

In order to meet our goal of producing an accurate sailing replica of a traditional proa we would like to see the Anson canoe and take some pictures and make some measurements. Do you still have the canoe in your collection?

I will be traveling to England in August of this year. It would be very nice if I could visit the museum to view the canoe and come away with enough information to allow us to see once again the traditional flying proa sailing between the islands of Northern Micronesia.
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What I am looking for is a name and contact information of the person or persons who would best be able to help me. Doing this from the other side of the world is difficult even in our enlightened e-world.

Does anyone know who I should be talking to? You can PM me if you would rather not give that info on a public forum.