A fascinating ship top

In the summer of 2002 the well preserved remains of a mediaeval ship were discovered during excavation works for a new Arts Centre on the banks of the River Usk in central Newport. It is in an excellent state of preservation and is the most complete example of a ship of the fifteenth century surviving in Northern Europe.

Artefacts and remnants of clothing found by archaeologists show that our ship was trading with Portugal during the 1400s. Finds recovered from within the vessel include 15th century coins, Portuguese pottery, large lumps of cork, stone cannon balls and engraved brass straps.

Initially dubbed "the Welsh Mary Rose", the Newport Ship has been described as a cross between a caravel and a Viking longship. It was in excess of 25 metres in length and, unusually, the hull remains largely intact.

Newport City Council, in collaboration with the National Assembly for Wales, committed £3.5m to preserve the ship’s timbers prior to display in a purpose built gallery. This remarkable find has been internationally acclaimed and Charles Barker of the prestigious Mary Rose Trust has described it as "…probably more important than the Mary Rose...".

What did she look like? top

Reconsruction drawing by Anne Leaver after Owain Roberts

The ship had a central mast with a square sail and possibly smaller sails at the prow and stern.

Tree-ring dating has already shown that one of the timbers used for an abortive repair came from an oak tree felled between September 1465 AD and April 1466 AD. Other timbers used in the construction of the ship have not yet been dated because a match has not yet been found for the tree ring patterns. The current suggestion is that the ship may have been originally constructed in South West France or on the Atlantic coast of Spain or Northern Portugal where no dated tree ring sequences are yet available. Timbers used to construct the supporting cradle on which she was finally berthed have been dated to 1467-68.

The ship was constructed by building up successive runs of overlapped oak hull planks before the framing timbers (commonly called 'ribs') were inserted.

The ship lay with its bow to north (upstream) on the western bank of the tidal River Usk close to the original harbour and castle of the town. The prow and the stern have been cut off during excavation of the cofferdam sunk to enable construction of the arts centre orchestra pit.

Much of the port side was hacked off and parts of the interior dismantled, but the starboard side, which has collapsed outwards, is much better preserved.

It is possible to 'speculate' about the design of the vessel in general terms because of the known scale, evidence of its construction and range of artefacts recovered from its hold.

Illustrations of other contemporary vessels can be seen on the mediaeval town seals of Tenby in Wales and the Channel port of Dover. Other illustrations may also be seen in manuscripts held by the British Museum.

Why this ship is important top

The ship's importance to our maritime history and traditions cannot be over-estimated as there is no parallel ship to compare this discovery with in Europe. It is earlier than the famous Mary Rose, Henry VIII's flagship currently under conservation and public display in Portsmouth. Only a handful of medieval ships have ever been found in Britain and even reused fragments of these ships are extremely rare.

For Wales, this discovery complements finds of ancient boats from the Gwent Levels
including the Romano-Celtic boat from Magor (c 280-320 AD) and a medieval boat found in the eroding foreshore at Magor Pill (1240 AD). This new startling find confirms this area of SE Wales as the most prolific source of such early maritime discoveries in Britain and places it in a unique position in the sea-going history of these islands.

The Newport Ship may answer a number of questions on the evolutionary step between a long ship and a later trading cog/caravel, typical of North European vessels upon which commerce relied, and is contemporary with the first ships that explored the Americas and the coast of Africa.

Sir Harry Jones, then leader of Newport City Council said "the ship is magnificent." It is the only extant example of an armed merchantman of this period. There are strong links with Portugal as Portuguese coins, pottery and large lumps of cork bark were found inside the ship. It had decking and fragments of the superstructure were still visible. The ship was probably laid up for a refit and then abandoned.

The Newport Ship is therefore of immense potential value – as recovery and research continue, its secrets will be uncovered revealing a window on to the world during the Age of Discovery, over a hundred years before the time of Drake.

Seamen of this period may be considered the astronauts of their time, as they sailed across the Atlantic to fish on the Grand Banks, protected by their not inconsiderable nautical skill, their faith, and lucky charms. A Luke 4:30 strap end found in the Newport ship is just such a charm, to protect an item, possibly a piece of a helmet, from danger. Ships would have been armed, to protect against piracy, and in war would have served as warships. Such vessels could have carried salt fish, necessary for strict religious observance of the 15th century, around Europe. Fortunes were founded on trade. Ships such as this would have carried British wool and cloth out of the Severn ports, and returned with spices, wine and other goods. It is of a type possibly used as transport for Welsh archers during the Hundred Years War, and could have involved in the Wars of the Roses.

The resting place of the ship was on the edge of the former Friary fields, and the presence of a cradle supporting the ship indicates it was berthed for repair, and may have been abandoned during the Wars of the Roses.

Artefacts and finds top

Artefacts, such as timber bowls, leather shoes, woollen clothing, a comb, gaming counters, stone cannon shot, rope, rigging, barrel-staves and coinage have been recovered. Other finds include a large amount of thick rope surrounding the lower hull, a leather boot, other leather remnants, pieces of slag, and brushwood - uniquely, lengths of rope and associated rigging tackle have also been retrieved.
(photograph by permission of Newport Museum & Art Gallery)

Amongst the finds to have been identified is a finely preserved archer's leather wrist guard complete with lining and showing evidence of crafted perforations in the shape of a heart and tooled Latin inscription. A fragment of formed glass has been identified as being part of an hour glass used for navigation purposes.

Two metal strips were found between the ship's futtocks. One of them engraved with the text medium illorum separated by a stylised cross measures about 10cms.

(photograph by permission of Newport Museum & Art Gallery)

One strip is attached to a a large lump of base metal identified as the right cheek guard of a soldier's helmet. The engraved text may originally have read:

IHESUS AUTEM TRANSIENS PER MEDIUM ILLORUM IBAT AVE MARIA GRACIA…OMINUS TECUM.

This biblical text combining Luke IV. 30 with the Angelic Salutation was regarded as a protection against thieves. A similar inscription can be seen on a leather casket in the British Museum once owned by a 15th C Flanders merchant. The text was common at the time and a similar legend can be found on standard type gold nobles of the period:

IHC AUTEM TRANSIENS PER MEDIUM ILLORUM IBAT.

There is tantalising evidence of the later history of the ship. The remains of a pump for emptying the bilge was found near the mast step and two further pumps were found, one in the stern and one in the bow. Experts wondered if these extra pumps were installed because the ship was badly leaking. They had already identified a catastrophic crack in the mast step leading to speculation that she may have suffered severe damage in a violent storm, forcing her to limp into port.

The hull showed signs of heavy wear and a number of other repairs had been undertaken. A final discovery surprised archaeologists working on the supporting cradle when human skeleton remains were uncovered in the mud.

To view some of the artefacts recovered from the ship please click here

What stage is the recovery at? top

The Newport Ship has now been lifted in over 1700 pieces and transferred to water storage tanks.

The last part of the keel was removed on Saturday 9th. November 2002. This was a week later than anticipated; the delays caused partly by bad weather and high winds. During the storms part of the perimeter wall around the site was blown over!

However work continues on the detailed recording of the dismantled timbers and much has to be planned for the next stage of the programme to eventually display a reassembled ship. The prow of the ship was excavated after the completion of the construction work of the orchestra pit but the stern remains buried in the ground.

The current stage of the project is called a post-excavation assessment. The archaeologists will identify as far as possible everything that now needs to be done. A selection of the timbers are being cleaned and recorded in the greatest detail before they can be properly conserved. The specialists will be looking at the way the ship was constructed, trying to work out details of the performance of the ship, its carrying capacity, sampling timbers, materials and sediments within the ship for all types of evidence. Even mud from around the ship will be sampled to find out what conditions were like at the time.

Eventually the City Council will have to decide, with the help of a panel of experts, how best to conserve the timbers and how to reconstruct the ship within the confines of a new theatre basement. All this is going to take many years. In the meantime the smaller objects and finds from the ship will need to be properly recorded and conserved.

To view an outline plan please click here

To view copies of the Council plans for the basement please click here

Some interesting facts top

	There were in excess of 1700 timbers used in her construction.
	In 1497 John Cabot set sail in The Mathew from Bristol on a voyage of discovery to Newfoundland.
In a return of shipping compiled during the reign of Elizabeth I, Newport reported two ships of 100 tons - the Green Dragon mastered by one Richard Baker and the White Eagle mastered by William Peche. Records show that these were the only known ships of this size in the whole of the South Wales area although larger ships heve been reorded for the port of Bristol.
To avoid customs duties Newport was often used as a staging post by ships bound for Bristol during the 16th Century.
A 1522 Crown survey of the possessions of the late Lord Buckingham recorded the following: "Newport ...haith a goodly haven commyng unto hit, well occupied with small Crayes whereunto a veray great shippe may resoorte and have good harbour."
In 1492 Christopher Columbus set sail in the Santa Maria on his voyage to the New World hoping to discover a passage to the Far East. Instead he found what we now know as America - the rest is history.