PEEHISTORIC NAVAL ARCHITECTURE. 631 



For many years tradition spoke of an ancient vessel having been 

 wrecked on the muddy banks of the Hamble, and a few fragments of 

 blackened wood, covered with seaweed, were pointed to from time to 

 time when they were visible, at very low water in a double and parallel 

 row. 



The attention of Mr. E. P. Loftus Brock, the honorary secretary of 

 the British Arch geological Association, having been directed to the 

 subject, he collected many of the facts from the gentlemen who had 

 been most instrumental in bringing it to the public notice, and from his 

 report I quote:' 



" I am informed by Mr. Herbert Guillaum, of Botley, that about fifty 

 years ago a rough carving was discovered accidentally, by an inhabi- 

 tant of this district, to form a part of a wreck, and it was removed with 

 the fore part of the ship. It is spoken of as having been the figure- 

 head, and having the form of an animal resembling a lion. It was 

 removed, and its whereabouts can not now be traced. 



" The course of a small rivulet having within very recent times been 

 turned into the river, the thick bed of mud covering the wreck has 

 been by degrees remo\'ed and the broken timbers were much more dis- 

 tinctly visible, and much local curiosity to learn more of the form of 

 the vessel was evinced. Francis Crawshay, esq., having become the 

 owner of some property in the locality at Burkedan, undertook tlie 

 work of exploration with considerable spirit and api)ears to have 

 spared neither time nor money in carrying it out. 



" The vessel i)roved to be of very considerable dimensions, being about 

 130 feet in length and extending from close to the water's edge into the 

 stream. On the mud being dug out to the depth of about 10 feet, the 

 upright timbers, which were 14 inches by 10 inches, Avere found to 

 be planked over with three layers of planks, varying from 4 to 

 inches in thickness. These had been bent to the shape of the ship and 

 their edges were beveled. The joints had been caulked with moss 

 and fern leaves, and these were found to be so perfect that the exact 

 outlines of the leaves could be made out. The timbers, which are 

 I)robably oak, were nearly black or cliocolate color by age, and of 

 great hardness, but the grain of the wood was very distinctive when 

 sawed through. Traces of fire were visible upon some of the timbers. 

 Mr. Crawshay's excavations were continued down to the keel of the 

 vessel, and the length, 130 feet, was taken along it.^ Old saw-marks 

 were distinctly traced on many of the timbers, and the instruments 

 used must have been of much greater thickness than those now in use, 

 in one place the saw-cuts being ^ of an inch. The timbers were put 

 together with oak trenails, 1^ inch in thickness and about 20 inches 



' Read before the British Arc,h;eologieal Association, thirty-secoiid aiinnal iiieot- 

 iiif^, at Eveshaui, August 16 to 21, 1875. 



-^ Its leugth is mucli greater than that of any other aucieut vessel yet met with. 

 The celebrated ship found in the Rother was about 60 feet long. 



