KENT, ENGLAND—Live Science reports that a section of the hull of an Elizabethan ship was found last spring while workers were dredging up gravel in a flooded quarry on the Dungeness headland in southeastern England. Dendrochronological analysis of more than 100 timbers from the hull indicate that the English oak trees used to build it were felled between 1558 and 1580. At that time, the quarry was likely to have been much closer to the coastline than it is today. The vessel may have wrecked on the rocks, or it may have been abandoned there if it had become unseaworthy. Marine archaeologist Andrea Hamel of Wessex Archaeology and her colleagues said the ship had been built in the “carvel” construction style, in which flush hull planks were nailed to an internal frame. This construction technique was replacing older building styles during this period, so the hull will help scholars understand the transition, according to Antony Firth of Historic England. The timbers will be reburied in the quarry’s protective layer of silt once the researchers have completed documenting them with laser scanning and digital photography. To read about the origins of crewmembers of an English warship that sank in 1545, go to "Tudor Travelers."
