Divers are racing to save the shipwreck from seafloor decay.
A medieval shipwreck, possibly doomed by bad weather and its heavy load of stone cargo, including mortars, cauldrons and gravestones, is now getting star treatment as maritime archaeologists begin efforts to preserve its remains off England's southern coast, amid revelations that it is the oldest nearly-intact shipwreck in the country.
Despite surviving the centuries, the remains of the Mortar Wreck now face a new obstacle. The shifting sands at the bottom of Poole Bay recently uncovered several parts of the wooden hull, which will likely deteriorate quickly now that they have been exposed to the water, Cousins told Live Science.
Heavy cargoSkipper and diver Trevor Small first detected sonar indications of the Mortar Wreck beneath his boat in 2019. He told Live Science that he'd regularly made the same voyage over several years, but had seen nothing there before, so it was likely that a storm had exposed the wreck by shifting the sands in Poole Bay.
Image 1 of 2Image 1 of 2Image 1 of 2It's not known exactly why the vessel sank, but it's likely that it foundered after a sudden change in the weather. Medieval shippingTree-ring analysis of the exposed timbers show they were made of Irish oak — a tree species that also grows in England — that had been felled between 1242 and 1265, during the reign of the English King Henry III, Cousins said.It's rare for submerged wood to survive for very long; and the wreck's remarkable state of preservation seems to be, in part, thanks to the soft sand on the floor of Poole Bay, which covered the hull soon after the sinking, he noted.
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