Boa Vista 1: context and construction details of an early modern ship discovered in Lisbon, Portugal (original) (raw)

Boa Vista 1 and Boa Vista 2: first data on two Early Modern ships discovered in Lisbon (Portugal)

Archaeological excavations carried out in the riverside area of Lisbon, revealed the remains of two ships: Boa Vista 1 and 2. The chronological sequence indicates that a 19th century embankment covered a wide anchorage, with archaeological remains ranging from Roman times until the 18th century. The two wooden ships were abandoned or lost in this anchorage, probably sometime between mid-17th and mid-18th centuries. Boa Vista 1 is a small vessel and features «architectural signatures» that are common in the Mediterranean area, but no clear parallels have been published to date. Boa Vista 2 is a larger vessel, and there are also no clear parallels. Both are therefore essential and unique sources to study post-medieval shipbuilding. Assuming the hypothesis that Boa Vista 1 and 2 were built on the Iberian Peninsula or on its colonial territories, they are an important starting point for the review of available sources on the subject.

Naval Architecture Applied to the Reconstruction of an Early XVII Century Portuguese Nau

Marine Technology, 2007

The Portuguese sailed yearly on the India Route during over two centuries, between the early XVI century and the XVIII century. Most ships employed in this route belonged to the Nau type and were among the largest and strongest ships of their time. Although extremely interesting, there is presently very little knowledge about the technical characteristics of these ships. The reason is that they were built in a pre-industrial era when technical design and documentation procedures almost did not exist. The method that is presently being applied by the authors to investigate the technical characteristics of these ancient ships combines the analysis of archaeological remains, the interpretation of contemporary texts on shipbuilding and modern Naval Architecture techniques. The paper starts by describing the ship wreck discovered recently at the mouth of the Tagus River, known as the Pepper Wreck, which was identified as the Portuguese ship Nossa Senhora dos Mártires, lost in this place on its return voyage from Cochim, in India, on September 14, 1606. This is the first significant ship wreck of a Portuguese Nau comprehensively excavated and analyzed by Nautical Archeologists and in fact the resulting data made possible the study presented here. Based on the analysis of the archaeological remains and on contemporary texts, including Portuguese shipbuilding treatises, a reconstruction of the lines plan and rigging is proposed, as well as the lightweight and cargo distribution on board. The cargo spaces resulting from the reconstruction of the hull are evaluated using ancient tonnage measurement techniques and modern Naval Architecture techniques to evaluate the cargo capacity of the ship. The intact floatability and stability of the ship are also investigated and compared with a modern stability criterion appropriate for large sailing vessels.

Sheathing and Pay Techniques in the Boa Vista 1 Ship (Lisbon, Portugal)

Journal of Maritime Archaeology

Between September 2012 and February 2013, archaeological excavations carried out in the riverside area of Lisbon (Portugal) revealed the remains of two wooden ships: Boa Vista 1 (BV1) and Boa Vista 2 (BV2), both dating from the late seventeenth or early eighteenth century. BV1 ship consists of scattered hull timbers which were damaged and out of their original positions. Some of the ship’s hull features are common in the Mediterranean like a composite keel with butt joints and hook scarfs in the connection between floors and futtocks, while others are well-known Iberian shipbuilding features like the transition between the keel and the sternpost being made through a single piece, the heel. A unique feature was a layer of animal hair between the sheathing and the hull planking. This paper focuses mainly on the study of wooden sheathing, including but not limited to the analysis of its conventional “architectural signatures”. The latest results concerning animal hair identification wi...

Early modern reused ship timbers from Boqueirão do Duro, Lisbon, Portugal

Archaeonautica

Archaeological excavations conducted at the riverside area of Lisbon (Boqueirão do Duro, Santos) in 2016 revealed archaeological remains from the 18 th to the 19 th centuries, including the remains of a late 19 th-century factory named Vulcano e Colares built on top of an ancient beach and later port. The waterfront archaeological contexts were wide-ranging. There were several timbers from a large ship dismantled on the beach, port structures that reused ship elements, and an assemblage of pre-shaped timbers. Among the dismantled elements were keels, keelsons, stems, floor timbers, futtocks, hull planks, wooden sheathing, and an uncommon find, three complete bilge pumps.

Ria de Aveiro F: a probable early 16th century colonial shipwreck in the Portuguese coast

Memorias: Revista Digital de Historia y Arqueología desde el Caribe colombiano, 2020

The Ria de Aveiro F site was discovered during preventive archaeological works carried out in the scope of the 2002 expansion of Aveiro’s harbour into the Ria de Aveiro, a lagoon system located in northern Portugal which played a great role in the salt trade of the Early Modern period. Despite the global destruction of the context caused by the dredging works, several well preserved structural elements were recovered. They belonged to two ships, a carvel-built one and a clinker-built one. The former features several construction characteristics that are common in the Mediterranean. The latter possibly corresponds to a small support boat. Beside the structural findings, several rigging elements wooden and rope artifacts, some pottery shards, ballast stones and a limestone cannonball were also recovered. The global study of the findings allowed to assign these remains to a chronology around the first half of the 16th century. Wood identification analysis were recently carried out; the results indicate the use of tropical, South American species in the construction of the clinker-built vessel. This data allows us to suggest that this site may belong to an initial phase of the relationship between the Americas and the Iberian Peninsula.

Initial construction evidence of the Bou Ferrer shipwreck, a large vessel of the Early Roman Empire

Archaeonautica

We present a basic summary of the research conducted on the Bou Ferrer shipwreck since 2006, which has provided interesting new data about a navis oneraria well dated to the second half of the 1st century AD. Despite that fact that only one major trench was excavated up until 2017, about 55 m 2 of wooden structures in a good state of preservation have been revealed, providing information about her construction. There are construction elements that may be considered common for Roman Period wrecks, as well as others with fewer archaeological parallels. The presence of a double garboard is not unprecedented in the 1st century AD, but deserves further study. Many hull pieces, from the lower wale to another that we consider as an upper wale, are sufficient elements to propose a preliminary measurement of width amidships. These lines, combined with the stowed amphorae carrying fish sauces, open the possibility that a third perishable cargo might also have been transported. Keywords Baetica, Dressel 7-11 amphorae, Roman shipbuilding, shipwreck Résumé Cet article présente un résumé des recherches menées sur l'épave Bou Ferrer depuis 2006. Les premières campagnes ont fourni de nouvelles données sur une navis oneraria bien datée de la seconde moitié du I er siècle apr. J.-C. En dépit du fait qu'une seule grande tranchée ait été fouillée jusqu'en 2017, ce sont environ 55 m 2 de structures en bois, en bon état de conservation, qui ont été mis au jour, fournissant d'importantes informations sur la construction du navire. Si certaines caractéristiques de la construction se rencontrent communément sur les épaves de la période romaine, d'autres offrent moins de parallèles archéologiques. La présence d'un double galbord n'est pas sans précédent au I er siècle apr. J.-C. mais mérite une étude plus approfondie. De nombreuses pièces de la coque, conservées de la préceinte basse à la probable préceinte haute, permettent de proposer une première évaluation de la largeur d'origine au maître couple. Cette estimation des dimensions, combinée au calcul de l'encombrement des amphores contenant des sauces de poisson, pose la question de la présence éventuelle d'une troisième cargaison périssable qui aurait disparu.

The Mazarrón 1 Shipwreck: an iron-age boat with unique features from the Iberian Peninsula

International Journal of Nautical Archaeology, 2018

This preliminary report describes hitherto unknown boatbuilding features of the Mazarrón 1 hull remains. The vessel presents hybrid boatbuilding techniques using both pegged mortise-and-tenon plank-edge fasteners and sewn seams employing longitudinal continuous stitching, and a unique keel scarf. It is an important source of information for the development of shipbuilding in the western Mediterranean during the Iron Age.

The structures of Atlantic shipbuilding in the 16th century. An archaeological perspective

Sixteenth-century shipwrecks originating in Iberia, England and the Mediterranean may be distinguished by attributes that have typological value. This paper seeks to understand why these attributes vary regionally, and to discover their underlying social and technological structures. Emphasis is on Euro-Atlantic shipwrecks, as compared to Mediterranean and Northern European regional characteristics. Loewen, Brad. 2001. The structures of Atlantic shipbuilding in the 16th century. An archaeological perspective. In Francisco Alves (ed.), International Symposium on Archaeology of Medieval and Modern Ships of Iberian-Atlantic Tradition, p. 241-258. Centro Nacional de Arqueologia Náutica e Subaquática / Academia de Marinha, Lisboa.