Medieval shipwreck mistaken for underwater ‘rubbish’
After centuries at the bottom of the English Channel, the remains of one of England’s oldest shipwrecks have finally returned to land. Yet the reason it took maritime archaeologists so long to recover objects from the 13th-century mortar wreck was not due to its depth or the ravages of time. The wreckage was mistaken for modern construction debris.
“Our skipper said, ‘Have you ever dived on that mark? We said, ‘No, because it’s rubbish, there’s nothing there,'” Bournemouth University maritime archaeologist Tom Cousins told the BBC recently.
However, a subsequent inspection in 2019 showed otherwise. Instead of a pile of abandoned quarry fragments, Cousins and his colleagues found parts of the oldest surviving medieval English ship hull, as well as a cargo of stone tools used for grinding food. Named for its contents, experts quickly determined that the mortar wreck dates back to around 1250.
Situated about a mile off the coast of Dorset and around 93 miles southwest of London, the ship built of Irish oak also carried a pair of grave slabs carved from Purbeck stone. Medieval architects valued this heavy building material because masons could polish it to resemble marble. Quarried only from the Isle of Purbeck in southern England since the days of the Roman Empire, Purbeck stone was used in historic sites like Westminster Abbey and the Tower of London. Archaeologists have located other examples of this stone as far away as Denmark.
“The 13th century was the height of the marble industry. You won’t find a church or cathedral without Purbeck marble,” Cousins added.
The maritime archaeologist believes that this intense demand could explain the disappearance of the mortar wreck. While documenting and recovering parts of the ship and its cargo, researchers noticed a crack in the hull. Cousins suggests that this “bloated” variant of a Viking ship likely succumbed to its 29.5 tonnes of stone cargo.
Many of the artefacts are now on display at Poole Museum, including one of the tomb slabs whose ornate stonework resembles the art seen on the tomb of Stephen Langton, who was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1207 to 1258.
“When we first heard about the discovery of the mortar wreck, we were so excited to play our part in this whole story,” said Joe Raine, the museum’s collections manager, in a recent exhibition announcement, adding that the exhibition can now educate visitors “who may know nothing about the Purbeck stone trade or medieval shipping.”
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