A shipwreck washed ashore on a beach in Orkney—a remote archipelago off the far north coast of Scotland—has now been placed in a water tank for preservation and study.
Archaeologists (and locals) hope the wreck—one of 200 found in the region dating back to the 16th century—will reveal details about the 17th and 18th-century maritime trade and time-period shipbuilding techniques.
The timbers were discovered in February after being released from the seabed during a storm. Researchers believe the wreck could be of Dutch origin, presumably from the 17th century.
Speaking to the BBC, Marine archaeologist Ben Saunders described the wreck as a “significant” find:
You don’t see timber shipwrecks ashore and easily recoverable in this sort of size very often. I’ve only worked on three or four, and that’s across the UK and Europe in the last ten years.
Marine archaeologist Ben Saunders on the “significant” find.
Sanday Heritage Group has maintained the wreck for the past six months by covering the wood with old bed sheets and watering it weekly – key to preventing wood decay. Mr Saunders said this has been key to the wreck’s survival: “They’re still in pretty good condition, not far off the condition they were found in.”
Wood Central understands that the timbers are now being kept in the 8m stainless steel tank at the island’s heritage centre. Water will help to prevent deterioration for two to three years while research is carried out on the ship’s identity and significance.
Twenty samples have been taken from the ship’s frame to give archaeologists the best chance to establish the construction date. Dendrochronology (or tree dating) will then establish the wood’s age and provenance.
Several potential merchant marks have already been found on some of the timbers – which Mr Saunders said could be crucial examples of the international timber trade.
“Orkney and Shetland had a really important position on a lot of international trading routes during the medieval period. Sanday has been for centuries a major source of shipwrecks, and this could be from any period around that time.”
Clive Struver, chair of the Sanday Development Trust, said the shipwreck could be an archaeological attraction for the island, and more research was “vital.”
“Something like this is such a rare find that it’s incredibly important we make the most of it, and we do everything to preserve it,” he said. “Not only for the local history but the British maritime heritage, it could be very significant.”
Ellen Pesci, the social history curator at Orkney Museum, said the find was quite amazing: “Right now, it’s a little bit abstract because we’ve had to deconstruct it to put it into the tank, so it looks like pieces of wood”, she said. But she said it was important for the residents of Sanday to retain ownership of the shipwreck.
“It also has to be something that works in particular for the community,” she said. “It’s a slow process – you must go through those stages before having it in a glass tank, like the Mary Rose of Sanday.”
Wood can survive underground (and in water) for hundreds (and thousands) of years.
In May, Wood Central reported on “rare” and “well-preserved” timber objects dating back to the Bronze Age and even the Stone Age, which were made possible when the timbers were fully submerged in water.
“Normally, when the wood is buried, it decays rapidly,” according to Historic England; “however, if the burial is very wet, it can be preserved for centuries.”
And whilst bacteria and fungi still degrade the wood, “when oxygen is limited – under wet or in waterlogged conditions – this process is much slower than in the air or a well-aerated soil.”
“The organisms that live on the wood and digest it leave cavities and tunnels behind, and these voids within the wood cell structure then become filled with water from the surrounding environment,” Historic England said, “hence the term ‘waterlogged wood’.” Therefore, “the water helps to preserve not only the overall shape of the wood but also the fine details, including tool markings and carvings.”
- To learn more about wood protection, visit Wood Central’s dedicated preservation website.
