RECENT DREDGING IN CATTEWATER, 
405 
The length of the wreck appeared to be about eighty to ninety 
feet, and prior to dredging it was entirely covered by silt. 
Before disturbance by the dredger, the timbers were framed and 
in place, just apparently as she lay when misfortune overtook her. 
A considerable portion of the keelson was recovered, buried ten 
feet under the surface of the mud. 
The removal of this timber was very troublesome and difficult, 
delaying operations ; for after each assault of the dredger, the 
detached portions had to be found by a diver and brought to 
surface. In this manner a barge -hold full of various sorts and 
sizes of oak and beech was collected. 
Resting on the wreck was a large amount of ballast, consisting 
of large, heavy, water-worn pebbles and flints. It was estimated 
that about 240 tons of the former and ten tons of the latter were 
dredged and discharged into the hoppers. 
I am indebted to Mr. G. F. Watson for a shipbuilder's opinion 
on the timber. He reports examining stem, keelson, with mast- 
step and many floors, futtocks, timbers, and planks, of rough 
workmanship. Abundance of timber was evidently used in the 
construction, the scantlings being sufficient for a craft of 300 tons 
register, according to modern rules ; the room and space 23 to 24 
inches from the seating of the floors, roughly chipped out of the 
dead wood. All the timbers are English oak, and the planking 
beech, of 2 J inches, or half an inch to three-quarters of an inch 
less than modern requirements ; the keelson 1 4 inches sided, and 
about the same moulded. The floors were evidently attached to 
the keel with iron bolts, but no other portions seem to have been 
connected with iron. The probability is that the vessel was compara- 
tively short, deep, and broad, and the longitudinal was apparently 
deemed of second consideration to the transverse strength. The 
heavy framing may have been required from the rough way in 
which it was put together. Timbers are not well squared, and 
scarphs short in stem and keelson. No chocks appear to have 
been used. 
After expressing his inability to determine the age of the ship, 
Mr. Watson considers the wreck to represent a vessel of about 
300 tons burthen — not a man-of-war, and of no great age ; but 
how she became buried so deep in the silt is a problem he consigns 
to the tender mercies of geologists. 
Fortunately for the peace of mind of these gentlemen, evidence 
