MAT – Maritime Archaeology Updates

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#MuseumWeek2017: Theme of the day, TRAVEL!

Museum Week is an international online event that is running from 19th to 25th June 2017. Organised in collaboration with UNESCO, the Museum Week is a chance for heritage institutions across the world to share and talk about our passion for heritage with the public through social media. This year we are celebrating equality by dedicating the Museum Week to all women in the world.

The Maritime Archaeology Trust will be sharing with you our take on Museum Week. In collaboration with the Shipwreck Centre and Maritime Museum on the Isle of Wight we will be looking through their collections and bring you artefacts and histories that are linked in with the theme of the day.

Saturday’s theme for the week is TRAVEL!

One rupee from 1917. Source: https://www.marudhararts.com/e-shop/pid-no-6566/bank-note-of-india/british-india-notes/k-g-v-/british-india-one-rupee-note-of-king-george-v-of-1917-.html

Artefacts recovered from shipwrecks have a natural connection with travel. Either they have been on board the ship and travelled to the same destinations or they originate from the destinations visited by the ship. The Shipwreck Centre’s collection has numerous items that have a connection to maritime travel. Some are extremely fascinating to the viewer, such as the “Feejee mermaid” that was discussed in a previous blog post.

Indian rupees on display at the Shipwreck Centre from the SS Camberwell. Credits: Shipwreck Centre and Maritime Museum

On the wreck of the SS Camberwell, divers found Indian rupee banknotes which were still recognisable. Remarkably these had survived for 70 years before they were brought back to the surface. The SS Camberwell sunk on the 18^th May 1917 when it struck a mine and sunk 6 miles SE of Dunnose Head on the Isle of Wight. Sadly seven people perished with the sinking of the ship, all with Indian heritage.

India was officially recognised as a British colony in 1858 when the Crown took control of India from the East Indian Trading Company. Lascars, or Indian sailors had already been employed by the EITC as sailors in the 17th century. With the Royal Navy’s demand for sailors during wars the number of Indian sailors quickly rose. By 1917 the number of Indian sailors on British registered vessels were up to over 51 000.

The rupees found on the SS Camberwell tell the journey of the people connected with the ship. Like the mermaid and the HMS Victory’s logbook mentioned earlier this week, the bank notes have travelled far before ending up on display at the Shipwreck Centre on the Isle of Wight. Just like the people on board the SS Camberwell before it sank in 1917.

#MuseumWeek2017: Theme of the day, BOOKS!

June 23, 2017 / blog-mat-admin / 0 Comments

Museum Week is an international online event that is running from 19^th to 25^th June 2017. Organised in collaboration with UNESCO, the Museum Week is a chance for heritage institutions across the world to share and talk about our passion for heritage with the public through social media. This year we are celebrating equality by dedicating the Museum Week to all women in the world.

The Friday theme during Museum Week is BOOKS!

Logbook from the whaling ship Diana from hull, which accounts for a very tragic story. Source: http://www.mylearning.org/ships-log-of-the-diana/p-4300/

Or in our case, more accurately logbooks! A logbook or ship’s log is a record of important events that happened during the ship’s journey. This also includes management, operation and navigation of the ship.

The logbook was a key part of navigating a ship. Navigation is largely based on defining the latitude and longitude of the ship’s location. The longitude is the more difficult one to determine, as it requires the sailor to know the local time to determine what time zone they were travelling through, and as such determine their location by combining the ship’s latitude position. Medieval sailors were unable to determine the latitude-longitude completely accurately, due to the technology that was available to them at the time. As such the sailors heavily relied on the dead reckoning system. The dead reckoning principle works the following way. The sailor would start by taking a known or assumed position of the ship. Then the heading and the speed of the ship from this location would be measured, as well as the speed of the ocean currents, the leeward (downwind) drift, and how long the ship spent at each heading. Based on this information, the navigator could determine the course of the ship and how far the ship had travelled. This was noted down in the logbook, which was then used to as a reference to check the accuracy of the predicted dead reckoning.

A ship’s logbook holds a huge wealth of material for maritime archaeologists. Finding a ship’s logbook is like finding a gold mine. We can retrace the journey of the ship from the logbook and compare that to any remains we may have found. This is valuable when trying to determine the identity of a wreck for example. It also gives us a great insight into what life on board was like. For a great example is an extract from the logbook of the Halsewell. The Halsewell was a merchant ship based in the East India Company. There is a record in their logbook from 19^th October 1781, where Lord Nelson (then Captain) recruits experienced sailors for the Navy, leaving the ship with only “foreigners and servants”.

Captain Nelson recruiting experienced sailors from the Haslewell. Source: http://www.bl.uk/learning/timeline/item105531.html

The Shipwreck Centre also holds logbooks in their collection. An example can be seen here of the logbook from the HMS Victory which subsequently became the logbook of the HMS Duke of Wellington, the ship that replaced the HMS Victory as the Port Admiral flagship at Portsmouth between 1869 and 1891 (McKay 1987:9). Next time you visit the Shipwreck Centre and Maritime Museum on the Isle of Wight, try to spot the logbook which is on display next to old toothpaste and wood from the Mary Rose!

Cadet logbook of the HMS Victory on display in the Shipwreck Centre. Source: Shipwreck Centre and Maritime Museum

#MuseumWeek2017: Theme of the day, STORIES!

June 22, 2017 / blog-mat-admin / 0 Comments

Museum Week is an international online event that is running from 19^th to 25^th June 2017. Organised in collaboration with UNESCO, the Museum Week is a chance for heritage institions across the world to share and talk about our passion for heritage with the public through social media. This year we are celebrating equality by dedicating the Museum Week to all women in the world.

The Little Mermaid by E.S. Hardy, 19th century painting. Source: https://fineartamerica.com/featured/little-mermaid-e-s-hardy.html

The Thursday theme is, STORIES!

We have a special one for you today! There are probably very few people in the world who haven’t heard about the myth of mermaids. But did you know that in the Victorian period “real” mermaids were sold as collectables?

The myths of the mermaids and mermen date back as far as 1000 BC. The Assyrian legends told of a queen who accidentally killed her lover. In despair she threw herself into the sea to transform into a fish but the water only transformed half of her body and as such she became half fish and half human.

Stories of similar creatures can be found across the world. In Africa the legend of Mami Wata, a powerful water spirit, sometimes takes the shape of a mermaid. She is not too dissimilar from the legends of European mermaids (think HC Andersen’s “The Little Mermaid”). Interestingly the legend of the mermaid Lasirn in the Caribbean has resemblance to both the African and European legends. We also find records of mermaid stories and sightings from the American, Inuit, Indonesian, Australian and Japanese cultures.

A “Feejee merman” can be found in the collection at the Shipwreck Centre and Maritime Museum on the Isle of Wight. Image credits: The Shipwreck Centre and Maritime Museum

The collectable mermaid hoax has been around for centuries. However, the most famous version was created by an American conman, P.T. Barnum, in 1842. Known as the “Feejee mermaid”, it was said that this mermaid corpse had been caught near the Fiji islands in the South Pacific. In actual fact the head of the “mermaid” was of a monkey while the tail was from a fish. Put together and dried out it does make for a quite convincing deep-water creature. During the Victorian period people would buy these “mermaids” as collectables from their trips. Especially in Japan this became a very popular thing to sell to the tourists. The “Feejee mermaid” is now often referred to as the Japanese monkey-fish.

When you visit the Shipwreck Centre and Maritime Museum on the Isle of Wight be sure to check out the “Feejee mermaid” we have in our collection!

#MuseumWeek2017: Theme of the day, MUSIC!

June 21, 2017 / blog-mat-admin / 0 Comments

Museum Week is an international online event that is running from 19^th to 25^th June 2017. Organised in collaboration with UNESCO, the Museum Week is a chance for heritage institions across the world to share and talk about our passion for heritage with the public through social media. This year we are celebrating equality by dedicating the Museum Week to all women in the world.

Wednesday’s Museum Week theme is MUSIC!

Musical instruments found during the excavation of the Mary Rose. Images credits: Mary Rose Museum [Source: http://www.maryrose.org/discover-our-collection/her-crew/life-on-board/]

Music has always been an important aspect in seafaring. Musical instruments were used by the crew for entertainment, but also for keeping pace when rowing and calling for action. When excavating the Mary Rose archaeologist discovered a number of musical instruments in the crew belongings on the orlop deck. These included tabor pipes, a tabor/drum and the earliest example of a shawm which is an early form of oboe. Famously during the sinking of the Titanic, records state that the band was playing on deck while the ship was sinking to help keep the passengers calm.

Wallace Hartley’s violin. He was one of the band members on the Titanic. Image credit: BNPS.co.uk [Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2293232/Water-stained-violin-proven-played-brave-bandmaster-Titanic-sank.html]

Although it is not a musical instrument as such, the Bosun’s whistle has a long history in the seafaring world. For example, it is thought that the Roman’s used a type of whistle to keep the rowers in pace on their war ships. The whistle is commonly used in the Navy. It is used to attract the attention of the crew before handing out orders. Different calls have different meanings and sometimes just the whistle call itself is enough to deliver the message, such as the “Carry On” command.

Examples of the Bosun’s Whistle can be found at the Shipwreck Centre. The whistles are located in the bottom right hand corner of the picture. Image credits: The Shipwreck Centre and Maritime Museum [Source: https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipNGxx3z33Z8ji16TBFJCoqpIbaSu3dwQsMrGIx99WACfB8hJnVfJ8a9kHFcHsvSSQ?key=YUhSYzBQdFZIWGM3TFNUclJlXzNCSDhCUU0yZ09n]

Of course, the use of musical instruments was not always necessary in order to make music. Sea shantys were commonly sung by the crew while working on board the ship. It helped keep the crew’s morale up while completing tedious tasks.

#MuseumWeek2017: Theme of the day, SPORTS!

June 20, 2017 / blog-mat-admin / 0 Comments

Museum Week is an international online event that is running from 19^th to 25^th June 2017. Organised in collaboration with UNESCO, the Museum Week is a chance for heritage institions across the world to share and talk about our passion for heritage with the public through social media. This year we are celebrating equality by dedicating the Museum Week to all women in the world.

The Tuesday theme for the week is SPORTS!

Antique diving suits at the Shipwreck Centre and Maritime Museum on the Isle of Wight. Photo Credit: The Shipwreck Centre

Did you know that at the Shipwreck Centre we hold a collection of antique diving gear? Augustus Siebe, who is a German born inventor, is credited as the first person to design the closed diving suit, i.e. full suit and helmet in one. The design came about after he was contacted by the Deane brothers who wanted Siebe to come up with a new helmet design to replace their own. The Deane brothers are well-known in maritime history. They were the first people to discover the wreck of the Mary Rose among other things.

Martin Woodward wearing an antique diving suit in the 70s. Photo credit: The Shipwreck Centre

The first design of the Siebe diving suit came about in 1839. Still a century after its creation – Siebe’s diving suit was still used all over the world. Martin Woodward, the founder of the Shipwreck Centre and Maritime Museum on the Isle of Wight, proved that the antique diving suit design can still be used when he tried it out in the 70s.

Martin Woodward recently gearing up in an antique diving suit. Photo Credit: The Shipwreck Centre

Diving Week 13th to 16th June 2017

June 20, 2017 / blog-mat-admin / 0 Comments

Diver being winched onto the boat after completing photogrammetry survey

The Maritime Archaeology Trust’s first proper fieldwork diving week took place in June. We were joined by researchers from the ForSEADiscovery project who specialise in analysing wood for maritime archaeological research.

Setting off from Lymington in the New Forest aboard the Wight Spirit we headed off towards the Isle of Wight. The weather was delightfully sunny and we were hoping for great visibility below the surface!

The first of our chosen sites was the SS South Western. She was sunk by a torpedo south of the Isle of Wight on 16^th March 1917, with only 6 survivors out of a crew of 32. Many of the crew members had links to Southampton and consequently the SS South Western becomes a prominent part of the local history. The ship is part of our current Forgotten Wrecks of WWI project which is looking at ships that were lost during WWI, of 1914 to 1918, on the south coast of England. More on the project can be found here .

The aims and objectives for this site was to identify some key features on the ship. This included a detail recording of the cargo and boilers, and also locating the ship’s gun. The dive team managed to achieve a good amount of data for photogrammetry . This data will be compiled into a detailed 3D model for us to study in the comfort our dry (but very hot!) office. For an example of what a photogrammetry model looks like, please see the model of the HMD John Mitchell here.

Brandon and Garry looking at data from the wreck sites

The second wrecksite we wanted to look at this week was the SS Hazelwoood. The ship hit a mine on the 19^th October 1917, with the loss of all 32 crew members. The location of the Hazelwood is still to be positively identified. However, our dive boat skipper and historian, Dave Wendes, believes that the wreck identified as the Saxmundham is in fact the SS Hazelwood. The wreck site is located at a depth of 32 meters. Previous dives on the site done in 2015 were plagued by poor visibility and as such we weren’t previously able to determine the identity of the wreck. This time the conditions were slightly better and we were able to conduct a photogrammetry survey. The photos taken of the site will be compiled into a 3D model which will hopefully help us determine the identity of the wreck once and for all.

The final site we looked at during this week was the submerged Mesolithic landscape at Bouldnor Cliff. The site dates back about 8000 years and has in-situ archaeological remains which are connected with the submerged landscape. The Mesolithic peat deposits lie at a depth of 12 meters, while two additional peat layers above broadly date to the Neolithic and Bronze Age. The aims and objectives of this survey was to check the erosion rate against the previously placed datum points across the site. We also took several sediment samples for palaeo-environmental analysis. Previous samples have concluded that e.g. wheat arrived in Britain 2000 years before we have evidence of humans farming it. Hopefully these new samples will add further knowledge into the nature of the landscape during the Mesolithic.

During the diving week we also had the pleasure of the company from a reporter, Rikke, who is doing coverage for BBC 3. Stay tuned for more updates during the summer!

Rikke querying Nigel and Garry about the finds

#MuseumWeek2017: Theme of the day, FOOD!

June 19, 2017 / blog-mat-admin / 0 Comments

First theme of the week is FOOD!

In the artefact collection at the Shipwreck Centre we find an old Virol jar from the SS Camberwell, which was sunk when it struck a mine on the 18^th May 1917. Virol was originally produced by the Bovril company in London in 1899 as an experiment. It was advertised as a health product for “children and invalids”. It is “a preparation of bone-marrow” that comes in a brown, sweet and sticky malt extract format. In the early and mid-20^th century there was a lingering fear that children would become undernourished while the war rations were kept in place. Virol was a by-product from the brewing industry and full of nutrients. As such the company advertised it as a healthy supplement for growing children, which went down a treat!

Qatar Marine Archaeological Project (QatarMAP)

May 23, 2017 / blog-mat-admin / 0 Comments

The Qatar archaeological research and exploration project built on the work undertaken by the Qatar Museums to locate and record the submerged cultural heritage. The aim of underwater fieldwork was to begin condition surveys of known submerged marine archaeological heritage sites. The results will enhance the maritime Historic Environment Record with the additional benefit of making the underwater heritage resource more accessible to the Qatari population.

Rendered photomosaic of 50m long wreck recorded during the first week of diving

In the long term, areas of the sea bed will be surveyed to locate and identify more of Qatar’s underwater cultural heritage which includes submerged landscapes as well as shipwrecks. The Maritime Archaeology Trust (MAT) is working with the University of York, the Qatar Museums and Qatar University on the Qatar Maritime Archaeology Project (QatarMAP) to carry out these marine archaeological investigations. MAT divers visited Qatar in early May and diving from the dive boat Janan, with the help of divers from the Qatar University, carried out photographic survey over some shipwreck sites to produce 3D photomosaics which were calibrated with measuring scales positioned at different locations.

Diver from the Maritime Archaeology Trust conducting a 3D photomosaic survey on debris at the gravel pile

The MAT dive team are now back in Qatar to continue the work. Along with continued processing of data collected during the first week’s visit, testing and checking of geophysical equipment has been taking place until the bad weather abates which is likely to be this evening.

Bouldnor Cliff Day One: 14/06/16

June 15, 2016 / blog-mat-admin / 0 Comments

The MAT Bouldnor Cliff dive team 2016

Just off the Isle of Wight is the site of Bouldnor Cliff. Bouldnor Cliff was a Mesolithic settlement, dating to 8,000 years ago. The finds from this site include worked timber and flints, and show that the inhabitants were using technology that was 2,000 years more advanced than expected in a site of this age!

The Mesolithic site is about eleven metres below the surface, and is part of the Solent Maritime Special Area of Conservation. Sadly, the tides of the Solent are eroding the site. More material is constantly being exposed, and subsequently is being threatened. The Maritime Archaeology Trust is working hard to monitor the site’s condition, and to recover material that is coming under threat.

The MAT is carrying out dives to create a record of the site, to document any changes that are taking place, and any exposed material. It is important to make frequent records of the site, and the plan is to use photogrammetry to create a 3D model. Divers first make a ‘pre-disturbance survey’, in order to ensure that the site is properly catalogued before making and changes or disturbing anything. Once the researchers are confident that there is a good record of the site and its contents, they are able to examine and rescue artefacts, and bring them to the surface for further study. These can be compared with the plan, in order to make note of where the artefacts were find, and piece together the site: a bit like putting together a big puzzle.

The divers set up a baseline at the site, in order to carry out the recording. A photographic survey was undertaken, to record the newly exposed features and document the site in its current condition, before any further work.

The first thing seen by the divers as they approached the site was some newly exposed timber, protruding from the bank. This timber was not visible last year, and has been revealed by the erosion. It appeared to have been worked, and looks like it may even be the remains of a platform. Later dives will aim to further study these timbers, and rescue them.

A later dive revealed a fellow archaeologist digging at Bouldnor Cliff: a lobster, with a collection of worked flints outside his burrow. Lobsters are frequent visitors to the site, and often turn up flints such as these. With the lobster’s help, the next dive recovered five small worked flints, and they were brought to the surface and inspected for the first time in 8,000 years.

The first day was a grand success, with four dives in total. The last of these dives included two new visitors; volunteers from Egypt who had come to see the site and assist in the photogrammetry. They were very impressed with what they saw, and can’t wait to return to the site and continue their study. The work at Bouldnor Cliff will continue, to ensure that the site is safe, any threatened material is recovered, and that we learn everything we can from this exciting site.

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Bouldnor Cliff #3 – Sunken Secrets

June 13, 2016 / blog-mat-admin / 0 Comments

This is the last video before we go out diving!

This time Garry is visiting the Sunken Secrets Museum on the Isle of Wight. He shows us various pieces of timber, flint and string that has taught us a lot about the people living here during the mesolithic era. The findings are proving to be highly important, because they show the people were way more advanced than previously thought, by as much as 2000 years.

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Maritime Archaeology Updates

Diving Deeper with the Maritime Archaeology Trust

Tag: MAT (page 1 of 2)

#MuseumWeek2017: Theme of the day, TRAVEL!

#MuseumWeek2017: Theme of the day, BOOKS!

#MuseumWeek2017: Theme of the day, STORIES!

#MuseumWeek2017: Theme of the day, MUSIC!

#MuseumWeek2017: Theme of the day, SPORTS!

Diving Week 13th to 16th June 2017

#MuseumWeek2017: Theme of the day, FOOD!

Qatar Marine Archaeological Project (QatarMAP)

Bouldnor Cliff Day One: 14/06/16

Bouldnor Cliff #3 – Sunken Secrets

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