NAUTICAL ARCHAEOLOGY, 1
dumped in the Thames on the wreck site soon definite evidence of the purpose of the boat
afterwards. There was no cargo; nor any
planking on top of the ribs to protect the hull
from possible damage caused by loading and
unloading a cargo, and this may indicate that
the boat was not intended to carry a cargo.
There was, in fact, evidence that it might
have been a fishing boat, for, on the bottom
and concentrated forward on the starboard
side, were nearly 2000 cylindrical lead weights,
each about 1 in (0.025 m) long and 0-5 in
(0.0125 m) in diameter. A hole passes longi-
tudinally through each of these, and it seems
reasonably certain that they were weights for
a fishing net. Two heavier lead weights of
different form were also found in the forward
part of the boat.
Only a brief examination of the finds has
yet been made, and it is likely that more
Peter Marsden
The Mury Rose. An interim report, 1971
The search for the Tudor ship Mary Rose,
built by King Henry VIII in Portsmouth in
1509, and sunk whilst going into action
against the French fleet in the Solent in 1545,
has been fully recorded: A. McKee, 1968,
History under thesea, London, and A. McKee.
1972, The search for King Henry VIII’s Mary
Rose in D. J. Blackman (Ed.), Marine
Archaeology. Colston Papers, 23.
The object of this note is to record the
results of the 1970 and 1971 seasons of
I m
- - -=- 0-
0 I 2 3 11
Figure 1. Mary Rose iron gun, 1970
I32
will be forthcoming when all these have been
studied in detail.
Acknowledgements
Special thanks are due to those who helped on
the site, and especially to Mrs V. Fenwick and
Miss A. Evans of the British Museum, Mr H.
Chapman of the Guildhall Museum and Mr R.
Inman. Thanks are also due to Mr B.Greenhill,
Director of the National Maritime Museum, for
providing facilities for cleaning and storage of
the most important timbers at very short notice.
These timbers, which comprise all of the ribs,
the keel, the keelson, the mast-step timber, the
stem and stemposts, and some of the planking,
were given to the National Maritime Museum
in January 1971.
Guildhall Museum, Basinghall Street
excavation carried out under the auspices of
the “Mary Rose (1967) Committee”.
Trial trenching, 1970
During 1970 a trial trench, begun in 1969 in an
area where sub-bottom sonar showed a
deeply buried anomaly, was continued to
total length of 90 ft (27.4 m) and an overall
depth of 5 ft (1-5 m). Water jets were used to
remove the mud and clay overburden and to
SHORT COMMUNICATIONS

8
NAUTICAL ARCHAEOLOGY, 1

dig shafts from the floor of the trench to a
depth of 12 ft (3.7 m), Although this excava-
tion failed to reveal the main ship structure
several pieces of ancient oak were recovered,
including a plank, a staghorn or large cleat,
and a part of a fashion timber shaped to
accommodate a change in thickness or level
between two adjacent timbers. The barrel of
an iron gun with the iron ball still in the
breach was also recovered.
Superficially this gun appeared to be a
breech-loading “built up” gun of a type
common in northern Europe in the 15th and
early 16th centuries, but examination by
gamma irradiation revealed that it had been
made of a single plate of wrought iron. The
iron plate had been shaped into a cylinder,
probably around a mandrel, and the seam had
been welded along the length of the barrel.
Onto this cylinder a series of iron collars and
hoops had been shrunk to strengthen the
barrel (Fig. 1). This technique of gun manu-
facture has hitherto been unrecognized and a
full account of the techniques of examining
and conserving this gun will be given in a
forthcoming report in this journal.
exposed in several places. Several internal
timbers, which may be collapsed deck beams,
have been found lying at an angle to the main
frames.
The excavation outside the hull on the
starboard side revealed more than 10 ft (3 m)
of hull (Fig. 3) and the profile showed a
distinct tumble-home. Even allowing for the
possibility that the ship may have a slight heel
to port, the amount of tumble-home found
suggests that some 30ft (9.1 m) of the hull
lies buried in the mud. If this is so then the
ship will be preserved to upper gun-deck level.
A second iron gun was recovered from the
wreck (Fig. 2). This gun had the breech
chamber still in position and a stone ball lay
in the breech. Examination of this gun is
currently continuing, but it appears to be a
“built up” gun made of iron stavzs with
additional iron hoops in the normal manner.
Oak and elm timbers recovered from the
upper levels of the wreck are in good condition
and all of the wood examined has a high
mechanical strength. The ship is carvel-built
A

Excavation and survey, 1971

As a result of the 1970 season support was
more readily forthcoming in 1971. The loan of
a powerful compressor, airlifts and a sub-
mersible pump meant it was now possible to
undertake a controlled excavation in the area
where a sub-bottom sonar survey had pre-
viously indicated that the ship lay nearer to
the seabed surface (McKee, 1972).
Excavation plans were changed when it was
found that a seabed scour had occurred
during the winter months and in early May
part of the frames of the main hull of the ship
were seen protruding 3-4 in (0.075-0.1 m)
above the seabed. During the season work was
continued to excavate the main frames along
the starboard side of the ship, and to dig a
shaft outboard of the hull to determine how
much of the ship remained buried in the mud.
Of the starboard side of the ship IlOft
(33 m) have been uncovered and 80 ft (24 m)
have been surveyed (Fig. 2). The inner
planking is preserved to the same level as the
-- I
05m
2 11

Figure 3. Section A-A’. Profile of outside of hull on

frames and the outer planking has been starboard side.

134
SHORT COMMUNICATIONS
and the seams of the inner and outer planking
are tight, with well preserved trenails and
caulking still present between the outerplanks.
I f future work shows the portside, stem and
stern to be as well preserved as the area
already examined it would be technically
possible to raise the ship.
Future work, 1972
Distinct mounds overlie the bow, stern and
port side of the ship. Examination of the bow
mound in 1971 showed that overlying the
timbers of the primary wreck there is a mass
of secondary wreckage which probably derives
from the collapse of the fighting castle.
Overlying and mingled with this wreckage is a
great deal of miscellaneous timber and
anchorage artefacts deposited over the
Margaret H. Rille
A mid-17th century merchant ship found near Mullion Cove, Cornwall.
An interim report
Approximately half a mile to the north of
Mullion Cove, on the western coast of the
Lizard peninsula, in south-west Cornwall
lies a one mile stretch of sheer cliffs, notorious
for the number of sailing ship wrecks they
have claimed over the past three centuries.
Known as Angrouse Cliffs, it was from their
heights that Marconi transmitted his first
trans- Atlantic radio message.
In May 1969, Peter McBride, a Royal
Naval Sub-Lieutenant undertook to search
the area for wreck sites, having first carried
out considerable preliminary research into
local records. During that month he discovered
the remains of the Boyne, a 690 ton iron-
hulled barque. wrecked in 1873; quickly
followed by the location of the Jonkheer
Meester Vnn tle Putterstock, a Dutch East
Indianian wrecked in March 1867, whilst
carrying a valuable cargo of sugar, coffee,
spices and Banca tin, valued at E50,OOO.
During June. whilst undertaking an inshore
and hence a shallow search, using only mask
and snorkel, he rounded a small rock
centuries. A careful excavation using photo-
grammetric and conventional survey tech-
niques will be necessary to record and
evaluate this collapsed structure.
The survey of the starboard side of the
wreck will continue, as also excavation of the
port side, currently in progress. As soon as the
portside has been established, it will be
possible to excavate outside the hull on this
side to determine the angle of heel.
If the work proceeds according to plan
enough evidence will be available at the end of
1972 to initiate a feasibility study on the
problems of raising the hull intact. If this can
be done it will be possible to conduct the
internal excavation ot the ship and its contents
under controlled conditions. It seems at least
possible that the Mary Rose may one day
return to Portsmouth, whence she set sail 426
years ago.
Hon. Secretary, Mary Rose ( I 967) Committee
promontory within 50 yards of the Boyne
wreck site, and came upon a scattered
collection of pointed iron objects lying in
25 ft (8.9 m) of water. In conditions of
excellent visibility, surface dives identified
at least two of the objects as cannon, one of
which was so eroded that the bore had been
laid open, leaving a cannon ball gleaming in
the breach (see Fig. I).
Figure 1. Eroded cannon with ball in breach.
135