[Archport] Maritime 'treasure trove' raised

["Alexandre Monteiro" <no.arame@gmail.com>]

Maritime 'treasure trove' raised
By Rebecca Morelle
Science reporter, BBC News


Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play.

The Elizabethan cannon being raised

A treasure trove of artefacts is being recovered from what experts
describe as one of the most important maritime discoveries since the
Mary Rose.

The late 16th Century shipwreck hails from a pivotal point in
England's military history.

The raised haul includes a 2m-long (7ft) cannon, which will give
archaeologists an insight into Elizabeth I's naval might.

The wreck, discovered 30 years ago, is situated off the coast of Alderney.

Dr Mensun Bound, excavation leader and marine archaeologist from
Oxford University, said: "This boat is really grade A in terms of
archaeology - it is hard to find anything that really compares with
it."

 Archaeologically and historically this is an important day
Mensun Bound, excavation leader

The excavation of the Elizabethan warship is being filmed for the
BBC's Timewatch series.

Recovering the cannon was a delicate operation; divers had to navigate
through reef-strewn waters where strong currents prevailed.

Dr Bound said: "At first the weather was not too kind and we missed
out on the window for the first attempt, but then the sea went down
and the skies opened up, and everything was suddenly going our way.

"There were a few tense moments, but overall it went really well.

"The cannon is in perfect condition - nothing has broken - it has an
intact hand grenade, part of its carriage system is in place, there is
the barrel of a gun or a sword on one side.

"We cannot wait to get a closer look at it once it has been cleaned up.

"Archaeologically and historically, this is an important day."

The team hopes to raise another cannon in the coming days.

As well as the cannon, the team has also recovered many more objects,
including a musket, a soldier's breastplate and an intact navigational
calendar.

These join a large collection of artefacts - including another cannon
- raised from another dive in the early 1990s.

Pivotal point

Experts believe the Alderney warship and its contents will help shed
light on a key point of England's naval history. The boat is thought
to have sunk in 1592, possibly after an encounter with one of the
area's many reefs.

Just four years earlier, Elizabeth's navy had defeated the Spanish
Armada and was embarking on expeditions that would exert its maritime
and territorial domination around the world.

Dr Bound said: "The wreck illuminates a time when England was fighting
for its very survival - the world was at war, the Catholic south was
fighting the Protestant north."

At the same time, he added, the navy was undergoing a technological revolution.

He said: "Henry VIII's Mary Rose dates to 1545 and is an old-style
ship. It had all sorts of guns, of different types, different shapes,
different calibres, different ages, different styles."

But just 47 years later, the Alderney warship looked very different -
and by looking at artefacts such as the raised cannons the team hopes
to discover just how advanced the navy really was.

"We hope they will demonstrate that this ship was carrying our first
uniform, co-ordinated weapons system," Dr Bound explained.

"We think that here we have a standardised weapons system here; the
guns are all the same type, the same materials, the same technology,
the same calibre.

"It is a different type of navy, its a more professional navy. We have
here the beginnings of broadside naval warfare."

The cannons and other arms, such as muskets and guns, will now be
brought up the Thames to the Tower of London. There they will be
examined and then flown to York for conservation.

The BBC Timewatch team will then follow the archaeologists as they
rebuild and test the weapons, putting them through detailed ballistic
tests to determine their precision and power.

Text and video reports on the Alderney wreck are published at the BBC
Timewatch website. A BBC Two documentary will be broadcast in later in
the year and will detail the findings of the investigation


Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/science/nature/7446423.stm

Published: 2008/06/13 11:32:45 GMT

(c) BBC MMVIII