Mud releases ship after 700 years
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Your support makes all the difference.The wreck of a ship that set sail more than 700 years ago with a cargo of iron ore on board was raised from the Welsh mud in the early hours of yesterday morning.
The remains of the ship, described as one of the most important medieval maritime finds this century, was lifted with equipment from the construction of the second Severn river crossing. The operation had been delayed since last Thursday because of strong winds.
Information about the finding of the Magor Pill boat - named after the nearest village to the site - 12 months ago has been restricted in order to protect the wooden vessel, lying in the Gwent mudflats of the Severn estuary.
Archaeologists have used tree-ring technology to date the boat, which would have put to sea when Henry III was on the throne and Prince Llywelyn ab Iorwerth (Llywelyn The Great) ruled much of Wales.
The boat is thought to have been 12.5m long and 3m wide with tall figureheads at each end, and may have resembled vessels in the Bayeux tapestry.
Dr Mark Redknap, a medievalist at the National Museum of Wales, said: "It is the most important find from the medieval period since Graveney in 1970. This boat will tell us a lot about the period, about European boat building, about the development of entrepreneurial enterprises and about early industrial development."
He said the boat was believed to be taking the cargo from the Forest of Dean when it sank.
A spokesman for Cadw, the Welsh ancient monuments body, said "The boat was about one metre beneath the mud when it was found and we think that about 50 per cent of the boat remains - the bow section.
"Boats of this type represent the medieval desire to explore, travel and trade, and this new find will be of great value as the hull is sufficiently intact to permit reconstruction and the study of how it was built, propelled, loaded and operated, and what it was used for."
The boat was raised by Laing-GTM, the consortium building the second bridge across the Severn. A giant excavator dug trenches beneath the boat and a cradle lifted it clear of the mud, protected by a plywood frame and a foam seal. It will go to the National Museum of Wales in Cardiff for a four-year programme of cleaning, recording and conserving.
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