Somasiri Devendra – that's me – am the proverbial rolling stone. I've gathered no moss but some rough edges may have been smoothened out.

A graduate of the University of Ceylon, 1955, I was a school teacher before being commissioned an Instructor Officer in the (then) Royal Ceylon Navy in 1960 (later the Sri Lanka Navy) I retired seventeen years later, my last posting being that of Commandant, Naval & Maritime Academy, at Trincomalee.

I was then invited to join Somerville & Co. Ltd., Sri Lanka's the oldest firm of Share and Produce Brokers. I was soon a Director , the Chairman of the Colombo Brokers' Association and a founding Director of the fledgling Colombo Stock Exchange, now a very high performing one. Ten years later my health made me resign.

I asked myself "What now?" and "Why not do what I've always wanted to?" The decision changed my life, bringing satisfaction, achievement. I introduced Maritime Archaeology to the country, formed a group of enthusiasts and foreign expertise for field work. ICOMOS adopted the new discipline and I was a founder member of the Scientific Committee, now called ICUCH, that is the "ICOMOS International Committee on the Underwater Cultural Heritage" (am still there, barely). For eighteen years I led every maritime archaeological project in the country, put it on the map, and established a Maritime Archaeology Unit. I asked for no pay, earning my bread and butter by doing other things, some of which find mention in this site. But long-delayed surgery ruled out fieldwork, but led me back to an old love: the study of old Sri Lankan ships – again, an almost "green field" exercise. Then it was time to stop writing papers and delivering orations and put in one place all my most worthwhile work in the various fields I had worked, and especially the study of the nautical culture of my country in one place, open to all.

And this is that place.