- the Sutton Hoo Ship is one of the most important discoveries in British archaeology
- after 1,400 years underground, the oak used in the ship’s construction has been eroded and compressed into an ultra-fine skin of carbon
- there is a strong probability that the original ship was not propelled exclusively either by oar or by sail but by a common-sense combination of both
- modern accounts and photographic evidence shows that Sæ Wylfing sailed very well indeed with the wind abaft the beam
82 years after the ghostly remains of the Sutton Hoo ship were discovered the debate still rages – as the longboat propelled by sail, oar, or a mixture of both? Bruce Stannard investigates says an article on Yachting.
Absence of hard evidence
Although rapid advances in technology such as ground-penetrating radar and carbon dating have taken much of the guesswork out of modern archaeology, there are times when the absence of hard evidence need not be an insurmountable barrier to intuitive understanding. The Sutton Hoo Ship is the case that underscores the point.
The Sutton Hoo Ship
When the astonishingly vivid imprint of the ship was uncovered in 1939, a team of archaeologists from the British Museum took great care to measure and record in detail every aspect of the ship and the golden grave goods buried with the body of King Rædwald, the 7th-century
The present condition
After 1,400 years underground, the oak used in the ship’s construction had been eroded and compressed into an ultra-fine skin of carbon, but it showed the regularly spaced locations of 14 pairs of thole pins on the gunnels which once served as the fulcrums for the oars of a rowing crew of 28.
An intriguing anomaly
Although no oars were found, the position of the pin remains clearly pointed to oars as a means of propulsion. There was, however, one intriguing anomaly. On either gunnel, about amidships, there were no thole pins.
Possibility for chainplates
Their absence could reasonably be interpreted as evidence for the possible location of what we now call chainplates – attachment sites for the shrouds that may once have helped to support a mast.
For more info visit Sutton Hoo Ship
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Source: Yachting Monthly
