632 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1891. 



apart, securing the three thicknesses of boardiug to the uprights. 

 Tlie edges of the boarding were nailed together by iron square nails 

 with some round heads, now very much decayed. Tlie wreck is said to 

 be that of a Danish ship. Its large dimensions warrant this supposi- 

 tion, but it may be unwise, as has been done, to endeavor to fix its 

 being abandoned on the spot where now found after so many centu- 

 ries, to the Danish invasion of Wessex, 871, or to the attacks uj^on 

 Southampton, a century later." 



Unfortunately the researches terminated rather abruptly, the board 

 of trade seizing the wreck and placing it in the coastguard house at 

 the mouth of the Hamble. 



The BroHcn Boat^ (Plate lxxxiv). — On occasion of the enlargement 

 of tbe port of Danzig an ancient but well preserved wreck was discov- 

 ered near the A'illage of Brosen, about 1,000 feet from the present shore 

 line, and buried in sea sand to a depth of 15 feet. These two facts give 

 evidence of the antiquity of the vessel. The oldest chart of the mouth 

 of the Vistula, publislied in 1651, designated the place upon which this 

 vessel was found as solid land, while the Westeri^lattcr, one of the favor- 

 ite beaches of Danzig, now covered with a dense forest, was then a mere 

 shoal. The rapid descent of the Vistula, together witli the running ice 

 which i^lows the shores, may be considered as the cause of the changes 

 that have taken place in the configuration of the coast; yet, if the 

 Westerplatter required almost 250 years for its development and the 

 growth of forest, the place of the find, being located at three times the 

 distance from the beach, must, reasonably, have required three times 

 that space of time for the change from water to laud, and the depth of 

 the sand would indicate even a greater antiquity. 



The utensils, too, found with the ship would indicate a higher antiq- 

 uity. They consist of a bronze compass-[ ? ]lamp of 4A inches diameter, 

 2.^ inches high, and in the form of a flattened bulb, with cylindrical 

 projection downward;^ a furrow on either side would point toward a 

 handle within which it was swung. The lamp shows on top an aper- 

 ture of 1| inches, closed by a lid; three burners within a triangle were 

 l)laced upon the arc. 



Within the ship were found furthermore an iron ball of 1^ inches 

 diameter, a drinking-glass of light-green color and supplied with a leaf- 

 like ornamentation, two incomplete human skeletons of large propor- 

 tions, the bones of Avliich were partly broken an<l had turned black. 



The ship measured 57 feet in length by 10 feet in width and 5 feet in 

 height. Being open on top, and the upper ends of the ribs being broken 

 off, it may be surmised that its depth was greater than 5 feet and that 

 it may have had a deck, which possibly had been raised by the waves 

 and drifted away. 



' Ausgraljung cincs Wrackes am Ufer des Baltisdien Moeres, l>ei Danzig. Von M. 

 Biscbofi". In Leipziger Ulustrirte Zeitung. No. 1542^ 18 Jannar, 1873. (Translation.) 



