The ship, along with its stone cargo, including two exquisitely carved marble tombstones, was discovered by a local charter boat operator in 2020, after storms disturbed the seabed near a busy shipping route. The excavation revealed the “remarkably preserved” timber remains of one side of its hull, which had been weighted down and protected by the ship’s cargo of dressed and rough Purbeck marble. Archaeologists were able to determine that the overlapping timbers were made of Irish oak and – using tree ring analysis – came from trees felled between 1242 and 1265, during the reign of Henry III. While the sites of a small number of Bronze Age shipwrecks are known from their remaining cargo, their timbers have long since disappeared, making this the oldest surviving shipwreck in England. Prior to this discovery there were no known seagoing shipwrecks in English waters between the 11th and 14th centuries. Planks of wood from the hull. Photo: Bournemouth University/Historic England “This is a really, really important discovery,” said Hefin Meara, a marine archaeologist at Historic England, who oversees the protected wrecks on behalf of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. “This is a ship loaded with cargo coming out of somewhere. It’s a cliché, but it’s a time capsule – this is a ship that does exactly what it was intended to do. And we can learn so much from it.” The two carved headstones are similar to examples still seen in churches of the time, but unlike them are in pristine condition, their chisel marks still visible. Each is decorated with a different style of cross, which until now archaeologists thought dated to different periods, Meara says. “But this shows that in fact these designs were contemporary and in use at the same time. And so the question is: are these things custom made? Or are they speculative and shipped? “This is a testament to the industry – they mine the stones, they carve them, they dress them. And it shows that these are really desirable products [being] they are exported everywhere, all along the coast of England, to Ireland, to the Continent. And this gives us a really interesting clue that it wasn’t just the stone itself that was desired. It’s the skills of the local artisans.” Items found in the wreck. Photo: Bournemouth University/Historic England Two other recently discovered wrecks have also received the same level of government protection. Both were found on the Shingles Bank near the Isle of Wight, a well-known navigational hazard for ships sailing past the Needles in the Solent. Although these wrecks are not that old – they date back to the 16th and 17th centuries – they are also “extremely rare”, according to Heritage England. The oldest ship, labeled NW96, carried a cargo of pre-1580 lead bars and stone cannon balls. The ingots, of fixed size and weight, would have been used as currency for trade and later turned into anything from bullets to lead pipes or ceiling flashing. Subscribe to First Edition, our free daily newsletter – every morning at 7am. BST Several cannon were found on the other Shingles Bank vessel, NW68, one of which was scuttled in Amsterdam between 1621 and 1661. Archaeologists believe the vessel was probably of Dutch origin and may have been involved in the Battle of Portland in 1653 during the first Anglo- -dutch war. Like the Dorset wreck, both of these vessels were found by local divers with detailed knowledge of the sea, which Meara said was “just really exciting”: “It’s great to have this collaboration between us and recreational divers, rangers boat and archaeological companies. It just goes to show what happens when we all work together. We’re making these exciting discoveries.” This article was amended on 20 July 2022. Archaeologists say the timber used to build the ship came from Irish oaks felled between 1242 and 1265, which was during the reign of Henry III, not Edward III as an earlier version said.
