400-year-old Orkney shipwreck is saved
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00:00So, yes, tell us who you are and what's your title.
00:06Hi, I'm Nick Hewitt, I'm Team Manager for Culture for Orkney Islands Council.
00:09So, I mean, how big a thing was it when this, when this, well in fact, tell us, tell us
00:14what we, what this bit of ship is.
00:16It's a huge thing, so what is this bit of ship?
00:20The answer is we don't really know.
00:22It's a very, very large bit of ship.
00:24It was 8 by 5 metres when we first found it on the beach.
00:28And this whole thing has been this extraordinary journey of discovery, really,
00:33and a rescue operation at the same time.
00:35We know it's old, we know it's very old, so we were certain from the beginning
00:40that it's clearly not a bit of a kind of Victorian fishing boat.
00:43You know, it's much older than that.
00:45The kind of analysis is pointing us in the direction of 16th century,
00:50or sorry, 17th century, which is very exciting, the 1600s.
00:54If it does turn out to be from that period,
00:57then there's only nine recorded shipwrecks in Scottish waters from that period,
01:01so that makes it extremely unusual.
01:03It's a really robustly built ship.
01:05It's built of oak, it's really solid, it's really strong,
01:09so it's not just a kind of sort of quickly lashed together trading vessel, if you like.
01:14It's not a jerry-built ship at all.
01:16It's really, really strong, really well made.
01:18So that's pointing us in the direction of, you know,
01:21something more than just a kind of coastal trader.
01:23It's quite big, 30-metre ship, so 100 foot long.
01:28We're able to project that because we've got so much of it.
01:31What we've got is a huge chunk of basically the underside of the hull and the keel,
01:37and because we've got the tapering shape, you can project that on
01:41and you can have a really good stab at what the length of it is.
01:44So we know it's big, we know it's robust, we know it's old,
01:48and we also, the archaeologists are kind of suggesting it's possibly Dutch,
01:53which is also really exciting, but that remains to be proved.
01:57But there's things around the construction technique that are pointing them gently in that direction.
02:02So it's really, really exciting. It's a hugely important find,
02:05and we're all really thrilled that we've been able to help the island of Sandy
02:10to kind of look after it while they figure out what they want to do with it,
02:13and also we are, of course, profoundly grateful to the National Heritage Memorial Fund
02:18for the financial support to build this tank and do this work today.
02:22When someone like this comes ashore, I mean, it must be so exciting.
02:27It's great. You must be thinking, wow, fantastic. You must think, oh, no.
02:30No, do you know what? I never think, oh, no. And it is exciting.
02:34And actually, the real first responders in this were the island, because none of us were here.
02:40And it was the island that kind of protected it initially and then helped the county archaeologists,
02:45our colleague Paul, and then Wessex Archaeology to get it off the beach,
02:49where the weather was already kind of starting to break it up, and get it safe in here.
02:54And then it's the islanders, it's the heritage centre, heritage centre volunteers
02:58that have valiantly, really valiantly kept it soaked all summer long.
03:02They've kept it, they've been unwrapping it, soaking it again while we've been having this tank made
03:08and getting the money to do it and then bringing it to the island.
03:11So now, hopefully, they can breathe a huge sigh of relief now that they don't have to do that every day,
03:16because it's all going to be sitting here in this water.
03:20Anything else you want to say?
03:22I think I've covered everything. That's all good for me, yeah.
03:30I'm Ben Saunders. I'm a senior marine archaeologist with Wessex Archaeology based out of Edinburgh.
03:36Can you explain your involvement with this project?
03:39Yeah, so we were called in in February after it was found on the island,
03:43and we were able to come and recover the wreck from the beach with the help of the Sandy Farmers
03:50and the Sandy Heritage Group, and then we were able to take some samples.
03:54My colleague Hamish Dara from Dendro Chronicle came and took some dendrochronology samples,
04:00and we did some really rapid recording to try and get an idea of what the wreck might be,
04:04and we gave some advice to the Sandy Heritage Group about how to try and care for it in the interim
04:09while Orkney Islands Council put together the bid for the tank that you see behind us.
04:14So who has it? There are other men, don't there?
04:16So, so far, what they've done is they've taken all of the spare soft furnishings on the island,
04:22every single spare sheet, curtain, cushion, and covered everything, all the timbers individually with those,
04:28and then it has been watered down every couple of weeks to try and keep that damp,
04:33and over the top of that they've had an impervious bit of tarp to try and keep the water in
04:38and to try and keep the wind off to stop the timbers drying out,
04:41because that's when they start to dry out, that's when they start to decay, they start to fall apart,
04:44and that's really what causes issues for them in the long term.
04:47Can you explain about this extraordinary structure behind us?
04:51Yeah, so that's a fantastic stainless steel tank that's been built by Waterfront Group in Kirkwall,
04:57and it's seven metres by five metres, which should give us enough space to keep all of the timbers safely underwater,
05:06and we shouldn't have to pile them too much on top of each other.
05:10Sorry, I've got a fine sandy exhaust there.
05:15I thought it was a Boilie Racer, but no, it's just a car.
05:19So the tank behind us should allow us to...
05:22Yeah, two seconds, just wait.
05:24Do you want to ask the question again?
05:29Can you just explain about this structure behind us?
05:31Yeah, so the fantastic tank behind us has been built by Waterfront Group in Kirkwall.
05:36It's made out of stainless steel, seven metres by five metres long,
05:40and that should allow us to keep all of the timbers nice and wet, nice and cool,
05:45and submerged beneath water, and not have to pile them too much on top of each other,
05:50which will keep them nice and safe as well.
05:52So the idea is that they're kept in fresh water, which will start the desalination process, which is important.
05:58It's the first part of the conservation process, which will have to happen anyway if the timbers were to be fully conserved,
06:04but also it allows them to stay in good condition and stops them breaking down too much over the next year or so,
06:13as we try and do the work to date the ship and to understand the significance of the vessel, if we can,
06:19which is the next stage of the work after this.
06:22So putting them in this tank is not an end in itself, is it?
06:25No, it's sort of a holding pattern, and it's basically stabilising the timbers themselves,
06:32making sure they don't break down any more.
06:34When they're in the intertidal sands, they're being kept wet by the sea.
06:38Even when the tide goes out, the sand around it is still going to be fairly wet and fairly tight to the ship,
06:45so it's anoxic, so no oxygen, or little oxygen, so the timbers don't break down.
06:51So that kept them safe and kept them together when it was around,
06:55but when it got exposed back in February, the sediment was removed,
06:59it started to move down the beach and started to be broken apart by the waves,
07:02and at that point it would have broken apart very quickly and it would have all been lost,
07:06which was why the decision was made to recover as much as we could.
07:09I think we got something like 95% of the timbers that were there originally.
07:13A couple of them were lost to the sea in between the wreck being found and us coming up.
07:18But overall, the vast majority of the timbers are here.
07:21We got a really good idea of the structure of the ship, which is good.
07:25It gives us a lot of ideas about how it was built
07:28and gives us a lot of information about potentially where it was built,
07:31and that will hopefully be backed up by the dendrochronology dating,
07:35which not only gives us the year and potentially the season in which the timbers were felled,
07:42but also gives us the location they were felled,
07:44because it's compared to various local chronologies around the world to see where the timber was from,
07:50and whichever one it connects to best, that's the most likely place for the timber to come from.
07:55And then we look at if it's an area where there's a lot of timber export going,
07:59then we can try and have a look at where that might be going.
08:02One of the things we have found on the timbers,
08:05during the community sessions over the last few months recording the timbers with Sandy residents,
08:10we have found several possible merchant marks on some of the internal timbers.
08:15We haven't as yet been able to connect those to any examples from previous catalogues,
08:22but that's some of the work we want to do in the future,
08:24is to try to get an idea of the history of timber trade
08:28and give us an idea of what's going on there and where these timbers might have come from and to.
08:35Fantastic, that's great. Anything else you'd like to add?
08:40I think that's about everything.
08:43You mentioned the water, which is a big one that we're looking at.
08:51Okay, Ruth, just for level, just tell us what's your name and what your title is.
08:56My name's Ruth Peace and I'm the custodian of Sandai Heritage Centre.
09:02Okay, don't look at me at all.
09:09Tell us a bit about what's been going on with these timbers over the past few months
09:14and how good it is to actually have this new facility here.
09:18Basically, it's been a case of trying to keep it wet over the summer.
09:25When we first got it to the Heritage Centre,
09:28we raided the reuse shop and grabbed any duvet covers, curtains, any fabrics we could
09:33and soaked them all in water and wrapped up everything that was movable to keep it wet.
09:38We covered it over with black plastic and weighted it down with silage bags.
09:43Every week or ten days we had to try and get the cover back
09:47and hose it all down just to keep it wet and check that it was all okay
09:51and cover it back up again.
09:54We're really glad to get this tank now because as the year was going on,
09:59it would be getting more and more difficult over winter
10:01because it's finding a day that's not too windy to lift the plastic off it and hose it down again
10:09because there's less and less opportunity as the weather gets worse.
10:13All the cover will be taken off and disappearing into the distance with the wind.
10:17So, as I say, we're so pleased to get this tank because it's going to save that job over winter
10:22and we won't be constantly checking the weather forecast,
10:24trying to find out when there's going to be a fit day to try and water the wreck, as we called it.
10:30I think what people really want to know is that everyone's more intrigued as to
10:33what the boat might be, where it's from and how old it is.
10:52This should be enough.
11:22There we go.
11:52Yeah, okay.
12:04Yeah, mate, it is very slippery.
12:06I wasn't complaining.
12:09That's a good one.
12:18That's a telephone device, isn't it?
12:25Shall we carry it edge down to give it a bit more strength?
12:39Yeah.
12:54Hopefully it'll be a strong one.
13:09It's a reveal, Fionn, it's what you guys love.
13:11It is, isn't it? I got very excited when I saw this.
13:17You prepared better weather, though.
13:19Yeah.
13:33Most of the brock is off now, but you get the idea.
13:38Yeah.
13:41Yeah.
14:08Yeah.
14:38Okay.
15:08No, we are just going in.
15:10But they've all been numbered.
15:14It seems we've found it that way, doesn't it?
15:16Yeah, now it is.
15:17It wasn't before, but now it is.
15:19Off towards there, please.
15:26Oh, sorry.
15:28Sorry.
15:29No, that's okay.
15:30Immaculate work.
15:32Chris has just got to kill a boy.
15:35Sorry, Reuben's just getting a bit of loose material.
15:41Am I in the way there?
15:42No, no, you're fine.
15:43I don't want you filming when I'm not holding it.
16:04Alright, sorry.
16:34Yeah.
17:04Alright.
17:35Okay.
17:44So these are the places that would have been...
17:47They're actually...
18:04Oh, come on.
18:34Come on.
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