Maritime Archaeology Programme

Bagenkop – Episode Two – The missing clinker

// November 8th, 2011 // No Comments » // Announcements, Other archaeological projects

Diver on the old/ new Bagenkop wreck

Undoubtedly one of the great advantages of studying Maritime Archaeology at the SDU is the possibility to develop and gain more experience from little projects alongside the main study programme. With exercising the practical activities, such as diving, measuring, making drawings underwater and dredging, comes the responsibility of planning and managing diving operations, under supervision of our teachers. But the second attempt to find a clinker built shipwreck in Bagenkop was very special for a few of us. This was the first time, when a group of students was asked to hold the task alone.

The group was four students strong and eager to work. The preparation started a few days before leaving to the island of Langeland. After we were given tasks and problems to solve during the trip, we prepared the equipment. Finally the day had come. We hit the road on Wednesday, after class. Three and a half hours drive through the beautiful landscapes of Jylland and Fyn brought us to Bagenkop right after sunset. We were expected in Maritime Efterskole, where our accommodation had been organised. Very hospitable hosts welcomed us with supper. We finished the day with a little walk to the beach and the marina.

We woke up at dawn. The rising sun forecasted nice weather for diving. After breakfast we drove to Rudkobing to pick up a boat and meet Christian Thomsen from Langeland Museum. We came back to Bagenkop, launched the boat and prepared diving equipment. The shipwreck hunt began. The sea was calm and the visibility perfect. First we decided to circulate a bit in the area checking if we could see anything interesting on the bottom. We finally anchored at the place located with the GPS coordinates, that we were given by Christian. The first diver – Dominic, started circular search around sinker poking seabed with a spike. I was sitting in the boat, fully dressed as a standby, when the sun reminded itself, that it was not really present during the summer. I was impatiently waiting to be next in the water. Firstly, because I wanted to be the one who would find the wreck, secondly to cool down. Finally my turn had come. First the crew had moved the sinker to a new place, where I continued the circular search. I found some wood. Unfortunately none of the pieces were worked and the promising long, cylindrical timbers were just branches. At noon we headed back to the harbour, where Christian joined us. The following dives were not prosperous. We moved from place to place hoping for the best. In the afternoon four cylinders with air were emptied and the clinker built shipwreck remained undiscovered.

However good archaeological research is useless if not published. The same way, if maritime archaeology is not popularized there will be no interest in it. That evening we gave a presentation for the students at Maritime Efterskole. Xenius gave a short lecture on maritime archaeology in general. André presented the field school in Germany that took place this summer and I mentioned a few words about the Norwegian one. Christians task was to explain what had brought us to Bagenkop.

The Baltic Sea was very calm the next day. Its’ surface looked like the surface of a lake, and the water was crystal clear. Again we started the day with cruising around hoping that we could spot anything from the surface. We snorkelled probing the seabed with a long pike. Two short dives succeeded with the relocation of the shipwreck found here in August. We sailed back to the harbour, where we met Jens and Bo, who came to Langeland that morning. We discussed what was next, and we decided to focus on the known shipwreck and to stop looking for the mysterious clinker built ship. The aim of the next dives was to gather most information possible e.g. ship orientation, length and width of the site, position, some construction details, how deep under the sediment were the ship, and so on. We dredged, measured, drew for next hours, emptying the last cylinders. We answered all the questions and prepared the site for the first year students who will come to Bagenkop the next summer for their field school.

The project did not only succeed, because we gained new information about the Bagenkop shipwreck, but also because it showed that the way the Maritime Archaeology Programme is designed, prepares students to conduct projects on their own.

Edgar Wróblewski

Thesis database online!

// September 22nd, 2011 // No Comments » // Announcements

Our new master thesis database is now online. We will be adding data to provide a complete overview of master thesis projects at the Maritime Archaeology Programme. Most theses will be available for direct pdf download as well. Check it out here!

Finding a shipwreck…

// August 30th, 2011 // No Comments » // Maritime Archaeology Masters Programme, Other archaeological projects

A towed diver survey - or manfish fishing...

There is a certain thrill that comes with diving on a shipwreck, which conceals a story of its life, daily use, and those frantic last moments onboard the sinking vessel. The imagination often leads the charge, piecing together a storyline of origin, function, and cause, since the insightful details found in artefacts and ship construction are often slow to reveal themselves or finite. Fact finding aside, ultimately it is the unknown that the fuels the “thrill” sensation that one gets from wreck diving and draws one into the deep.

There is another type of thrill or degree of excitement altogether that comes from hunting for an unknown shipwreck, and that was the situation a few of the student’s from SDU’s Maritime Archaeological Program (MAP) were in again this past Wednesday, August 17th. The responsible museum, Øhavsmuseet, requested MAP’s assistance in locating a shipwreck that was reported by a local swimmer, who had supplied the museum with some photos, coordinates taken from a map, and an approximate depth. The blurry images were almost completely indiscernible and if anything misleading. It was hypothesized at first that the photos showed overlapping strakes, hence a clinker vessel, but when found the strakes turned out to be flush with one another or carvel built.

The coordinates posed their own problems considering they were general and not specific, which gave a wide and uncertain search area. The best piece of evidence that we had to go with was the approximate depth of three meters, since the south Danish Sea like its close counterpart the Baltic Sea has almost no tidal fluctuations to confuse that matter. Now and in this type of situation the lack of a tidal range can be seen as a luxury when compared to my home back in Canada on the Pacific coast, where the tidal range is 2.5 to 4 meters at certain times of the year.

The shallow depth also allowed for a variety of search methods that did not solely depend on a dressed diver in the water. The wreck, however, still did not present itself on a golden platter despite the shallow depth and the relatively good visibility from the deck of our boat. The dynamic forces of the sea move innumerable amounts of sand along Denmark’s exposed coastlines uncovering and covering wrecks constantly. This matter of sedimentation was monumental in hampering our efforts due to the time lag of a year between the initial report of the wreck to local archaeological authorities and our boats packed with divers, gear, and departing the harbour of Bagenkop, on the southern tip of Langeland, ready to initiate a search of the shipwreck in question.
The anticipation of going on such a dive mission, for an unknown shipwreck, has its own unique degree of excitement that is present from the moment one is afforded the invitation to take part. From my personal experience, it is a subtle sense of excitement that creeps out of one’s sub-conscious mind into their consciousness at random times during the days leading up to the day of departure. The thought lingering a short while at the forefront of one’s mind, which is then momentarily captivated by the approaching adventure and potential discovery, receding again to let prior thought resume. In sum, my first dive was highly anticipated days in advance.
Sun and blue skies greeted us in Bagenkop’s harbour basin where we launched our boat, and the good weather was only momentary interrupted during the day with a brief rain event and cloudy skies. The sun and shallow water allowed for the most basic search methods to be utilized that proved to be fast and efficient in both locating and investigation suspicious features on the seafloor bottom. A buoy tied to a weight was dropped at the location of the coordinates received from the local swimmer that then marked the center of the search area. A hundred meters radius established the parameters of the search area around the buoy to accommodate the rough coordinates that we had obtained and were working with.
All hands on deck scanned the seafloor bottom from the boat and suspicious features were investigated with nothing more than a dry-suit, fins, and a mask. Formal search patterns were utilized to cover the whole area in question three times, but it turned up nothing more than long straight branches masquerading as frames. Anti-climatically, the search was called off after two and half hours and it started to seem more and more likely that the coastal sedimentation processes had covered over the wreck again. Departing the search area was done with hopeful eyes desperately combing the sea-floor bottom, not ready to give up completely. Suspicious straight contours invited one last burst of excitement and enthusiasm as three divers eagerly jumped ship to investigate, but it turned out to be nothing more the orderly lines of dark fine gravel resting on top of the white sand. Now in the water, Dominic, Jens and I we were in no quick hurry to get back into the boat and call the search fruitless, so we separated to find ourselves some wooden “fruit”. Ironically, it was within these last informal 10-15 minutes of swimming around that turned our day from fruitless to fruitful. Jens keen eye identified the straight edge of a frame that was barely exposed and measured on the surface a meager 30 centimetres in length and extended out of the sand but a few centimetres in a large sandy expansive area. Deceivingly, neither organic growth nor ballast stones marked the frame nor the wreck’s location both of which were assumed would have been good wreck indicators. Alas, we found something and the excitement of the discovery resonated throughout the group as everyone eagerly jockeyed into position to see the elusive ship remains from the surface as Jens was the first to investigate further with diving equipment. The wreck was further exposed using hand wafting to move the sand and then recorded with video, photos, and an off-set drawing.

What we saw: Seemingly part of a carvel built vessel...

In conclusion, the day actually generated more questions than answers. What we can say is that we found part of a carvel boat, made of pine, fastened with trenails and bolts, and a saw was utilized in its construction. Pine construction might point to its origin being Norway, Finland, or Åland, Sweden, but that is nothing more than an educated guess at this time. What we cannot say is if the ship that we found was the one we were looking for? The blurry photos taken a year prior do clearly show construction details of a clinker vessel.

What the finder saw: A clinker built vessel?

It was not uncommon for quite some period of time for shipwrights to employ both methods of construction in their hull design. For example, lapstrake was favoured until the turn of the bilge and then continuing with carvel. Furthermore, clinker vessels were also refurbished or converted to a carvel construction by adding a second layer of flush planking to the hull’s exterior. It may also be the case that there is more than one ship in the same location and that their components have become intermixed. It was and is still common practice to beach derelict boats along the shoreline near harbours in remote, undeveloped areas, and the harbour of Bagenkop is only 2-5 minutes away, has been in use for some time, and the area surrounding it is still vacant farmland abutting the beach. Another interesting story that needs further research is locating the exact entrance for an inland passage route that once existed somewhere along that stretch of beach in front of the wreck just next to Bagenkop, possibly the wreck’s story is in some way connected to this passage route. Without a doubt SDU’s MAP is intrigued by the confusing results of our first dive in Bagenkop, its mysterious shipwreck, and we all eagerly await our next visit.

Xenius Nielsen
2nd year Masters Student- MAP
BA Anthropology
Commercial Diver

Newsletter 26 is out!

// August 22nd, 2011 // No Comments » // Announcements

Newsletter 26 has been out for a while, but with a very busy summer with field schools in Norway and Germany, we never got around to upload it. So here comes the web version. You can also find it on our Publications page.

Hedvig Sophia 2011, Day 20

// August 21st, 2011 // No Comments » // 2011 Fieldschool, Germany, Fieldwork Projects

A tired but very happy field school crew!

If we count the first day, this is actually day 21 of a tiring, wet but successful field school. Today was a day of cleaning and packing, with a small detachment of Kiel University divers going out to the wreck one last time to cover the trench with sandbags and ballast stones.

I’d like to say thanks, first of all to all participants from Esbjerg and Kiel for the great work and energy.

Thanks obviously also go to Dr Martin Segschneider of the -Archäologisches Landesamt- for facilitating and supporting this year’s field school.

We’d also like to thank our maritime support team, consisting of the Nordwind crew, the Bussard with skippers Jörn and Karl and Jan and Günther, skippers of the SKS Herzallerliebst.

Many thanks to Amandine for advising on and organizing the finds handling and storage during the excavation.

Last but certainly not least, we would like to thank our Schilksee facility managers and the Sailing Centre of the University of Kiel for putting us up and putting up with us. I think letting us move into the gym after our campsite flooded really saved the day!!! THANKS!

Watch this spot for further news, information on the processing and ultimately the field school report!

Jens Auer

Hedvig Sophia 2011, Day 19

// August 21st, 2011 // No Comments » // 2011 Fieldschool, Germany, Fieldwork Projects

Finishing the drawing...

The morning started with the biggest waves that have been sighted during the whole field school. So we weren’t able to return to our wreck. But for the first time since many days, the weather turned during noon.

Around 10 o’clock we were able to hop onto Nordwind to fulfill the last tasks – recording and drawing. This went very well. The whole trench that had been prepared during the last diving days was completely drawn by different teams. So in the end we got both, plan view and profile. The results of many excavation hours are now illustrated on two sheets.

In the afternoon the sun showed up and the waves became smaller and smaller. It was also the first almost quiet day on Northwind, because compressor, pump and everything else that wasn’t needed stayed on land. Between dives we were able to chill in the sun or meet in the galley. Our happiness was on its highest point when Captain Gerdi and the boy on board, Julian gave us a complete box of expired Cola-Lemonade mixes!
So this last full day of this year’s field school at the Prinsessan Hedvig Sophia turned out to be very successful. It ended with a dinner with good soup and the knowledge that we achieved a lot, because all tasks that had been planned before the campaign could be fulfilled.

Felix Roesch

Hedvig Sophia 2011, Day 18

// August 21st, 2011 // No Comments » // 2011 Fieldschool, Germany, Fieldwork Projects

Our wonderful community tent (and most other tents) under water - very fitting for an underwater field school

After 72 hours of constant rain, we woke up by the noise of small waves swapping against our tents. No, the big flood didn’t return over night, but the ground was totally soked from the water so that a lake surrounded our tents. The circus tent, our meeting place and kitchen was also completely flooded. First we made fun of the whole thing and started taking group pictures in the lake at our camping ground. But later, when we arrived at the site and big waves where attacking the boats, it became clear that we have another day off – the sixth.
Back at the camp Jesus showed up – in person of the sailing facility handyman – and allowed us to stay in the warm, dry gym and to use some more rooms to dry our tents and to eat. This was very much appreciated!!! Thanks again!!!
The rest of the day, the group continued with processing, the evening was free.

Felix Roesch

Hedvig Sophia 2011, Day 17

// August 21st, 2011 // No Comments » // 2011 Fieldschool, Germany, Fieldwork Projects

A very wet group shot...

August 11 was a very productive day for underwater operations on the Hedvig Sophia for the 2011 field school. All goals set out for the day where nearly completed.
The keelson was fully exposed, dredging was wrapped up, dredge equipment was returned to shore, and all parts cleaned with fresh water. 50 sandbags were brought to the excavation site, dumped overboard, and placed at the base of the excavated trench. The sand bags will be place on the exposed wreck after the excavation is complete and finally ballast stones will be placed on top of the sand bags to protect the wreck from further erosion and wood burrowing worms. A new baseline was establish from the keelson (marking the center of the ship) to the outside planking of the hull at the base of the trench, which runs parallel with a massive 50 x 50 cm rider. All timbers in the trench were also marked with cow tags and the recording of the basic dimensions of each timber began. The new baseline and the cow tags (used to number each exposed timber in the trench) will be used to complete the final documentation of the wreck, which will include drawing the excavated trench in detail. The detailed drawing will be an essential component of our final analysis of the ships construction.
Finds for the day included, pottery shards, pieces of clay pipes, leather fragments, a glass bottle top that still contained a cork, part of a barrel lid, a barrel stave, a mysteries piece of folded lead, and what appears to be a coil of copper alloy (?) wire.
The wet weather held all day and despite strong winds the short fetch from the west/southwest prevented high seas from halting diving operations. Almost three weeks of diving operations and the growing experience of students, and all parties included, started to show themselves today, which allowed the group to overcome the elements and make up for the two days of consecutive down time due to poor weather (strong winds and a long fetch equaling rough seas) preventing diving operations from commencing.
It is my feeling that today was one of our best days working together as a team and it made my job as the site director very easy and enjoyable.

Xenius Nielsen

Hedvig Sophia 2011, Day 16

// August 21st, 2011 // No Comments » // 2011 Fieldschool, Germany, Fieldwork Projects

An excursion into the mud---

It was a sunny day. Warm, just a little bit of wind, the visibility under water was nearly up to 42 meters. Perfect diving conditions! And after our totally awesome diving day, everybody got free ice cream. Hoooray!

Sometimes waking up by the wind blowing against your tent could be very disappointing. No sun, no free ice cream. Just rain and too much wind which meant another day without diving, but we tried our best to seize the day. In the morning we stayed in the office and had a very useful session of taking a lot of pictures and learning the best way to enhance their quality. After a tasty lunch, Sunhild took us on a wonderful trip and showed us the beautiful countryside of Schleswig-Holstein. We finally made it to the excavation of Neolithic shell-middens which we planned to visit originally. Dr. Söncke Hartz and Dr. Carsten Mischka very kindly told us everything about the site history and showed us the whole excavation area. Because it’s an excavation under sea-level, some students offered their work as low-water divers. After another scenic tour home, we ended the day with pasta and kebab.

Krister Albert

Hedvig Sophia 2011, Day 15

// August 15th, 2011 // No Comments » // 2011 Fieldschool, Germany, Fieldwork Projects

Recording in our "office"...

Diving days don’t always go as planned, that’s what I learned today as a site director. The morning started early with a nice surprise, when we sort of realised one after the other that our main shower key was broken and the nearest toilet was 500 meters away. While eating master Crumble without milk, we also learned that the diving day was cancelled due to bad weather and the crazy wind. Plan changed, we all walk to the office recording finds from the previous days. The television crew from channel NDR was also present to film us as professional ‘finds’ recorder. After lots of pottery, shoes, sheets, numbers and confusion we ended our day with recording lots of pottery, shoes, sheets numbers and confusion !

French Canada (Veronique Laplante)