The archaeologists posit that the vessel sank during its departure from the Dorset coast, bound for an unknown destination with its precious cargo of Purbeck stone.ĭivers recovered two intricately carved gravestone slabs. Irish oak was a popular material for medieval shipbuilders, meaning the timbers may have been exported from Ireland to England. Tree-ring analysis of the ship’s wooden hull showed that it was built out of Irish oak trees felled between 12, during the reign of Henry III. Marine archaeologists from Bournemouth University formally investigated the wreck soon after, recovering raw Purbeck stone (a type of limestone made from the shells of freshwater snails), two engraved slabs, cauldrons, mortars used to grind grain into flour and assorted kitchenware. When Small sent a colleague to explore the site a few months later, they quickly returned with a centuries-old copper cooking pot. “I have probably been over it myself thousands of times, but it was only when I noticed a few strange readings on the scanner one day that I realized there might be something down there.” “Millions of boats have probably sailed over that spot since this vessel sank,” Small tells the i newspaper’s Cahal Milmo. The Mortar Wreck is England’s oldest known protected wreck site with a visible surviving hull.Ĭooking pots, mugs and other kitchenware found in the wreck Per a statement from Historic England, the vessel-newly dubbed the “ Mortar Wreck” and afforded the highest level of government protection-is “extremely rare,” as no other wrecks of 11th- through 14th-century ships have been found in English waters to date. In summer 2020, local charter boat skipper Trevor Small discovered the wreck at Poole Bay, where the low-oxygen water, sand and stones helped preserve the 13th-century ship and its cargo. Meara adds, “Whatever happened, it’s a lost investment, and it would likely have cost someone a lot of money.” The vessel’s heavy cargo may have played a role in its demise, “particularly if the … stone was pitching around in a storm,” says Hefin Meara, a marine archaeologist at Historic England, to the Telegraph’s Craig Simpson. Some 750 years ago, a ship loaded with intricately carved gravestones, Purbeck limestone and grinding mortars sank off the coast of Dorset, England, just over a mile from the nearest harbor.
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