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  • November 30, 1999

Archives For November 30, 1999

Former Royal Navy Flagship Discovered Beneath Factory Floorboards

August 18, 2012 — Leave a comment

Photo: Wiki Commons

British archaeologists have finally deciphered a perplexing puzzle found beneath an English millwright’s floorboards. In 1995, workers discovered the timbers of what appeared to be an 18th century warship – it’s just that no one knew what ship the timbers belonged to. Now, 17 years after the initial discovery, archaeologists have been able to identify the ship as the HMS Namur based on an investigation of its structure and fittings. In particular, the ship’s round bow helped archaeologists pinpoint the exact identity of the ship.

HMS Namur served as a ship-of-the-line in Britain’s Royal Navy and was Admiral Edward Boscawen’s flagship at the Battle of Lagos fought 253 years ago today (August 18 – 19, 1759). The ship was later broken up at the Chatham Royal Dockyard in 1833 and her timbers were placed beneath the millwright shop’s floors.

In 18th Century, Conservation, Napoleonic Wars, Royal Navy, Warships
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Freeze Dried Shipwreck, Some Assembly Required

August 15, 2012 — Leave a comment

Archaeologists in Texas are pioneering a new method of shipwreck preservation – freeze drying the ship’s wooden planks to remove seawater and then re-assembling them.  Traditional conservation techniques often involve time consuming electrolysis immersion to remove concretions or prevent wooden items from decaying when exposed to the atmosphere.  If successful, the technique could be a significant breakthrough in the preservation of wooden artifacts raised from the deep.  According to the Associated Press, the same technique will soon be used to preserve the Newport Medieval Ship which was discovered in 2002 in Wales.

The Texas project, a French ship named La Belle, sank in 1685 and was re-discovered in 1995 by archaeologists from the Texas Historical Commission.  La Belle was lost in a storm while en route to resupply the French explorer Robert La Salle in his quest to establish a colony on the Gulf coast.  More than 700,000 items were salvaged during its recovery and the ship has remained immersed in a chemical solution since its recovery.  For more information on the ship and its history, see today’s AP article and the Texas Historical Commission’s website.

In 17th Century, American Shipwrecks, Conservation, French Shipwrecks, Gulf of Mexico
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