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Shipwreck

My favourite shipwreck: Warwick

In this short video, Ammandeep discusses her favourite shipwreck Warwick:   Of the shipwrecks that I have dived, this will always be my favourite shipwreck as studying her opened my eyes to the fascinating world that is Maritime Archaeology! Warwick sank in 1619 in Castle Harbour, Bermuda as a hurricane swept across the islands. The ship broke free of her moorings, at King’s Anchorage, and was dashed against the surrounding reefs and cliffs. Continue reading →

SS City of Medicine Hat

In this short video, Dani explains why SS City of Medicine Hat is her favourite shipwreck. Check out her blog entry on other shipwrecks from her home province. Transcript Hello! My name is Dani. I'm a student at the University of Southampton and I'm a facilitator on the course. My favourite shipwreck is the SS City of Medicine Hat. It was found in a city called Saskatoon, which is in central Canada - that makes it about three days' drive from the nearest ocean. Continue reading →

The Warship Vasa – Part 2

Vasa is an example of a wreck that was raised first and excavated after. A team led by Per Lundström consisting of ten archaeologists, a photographer and an artist, were charged with the task. Working conditions were exceptionally harsh. The ship had to be sprayed constantly with cold, fresh water to keep it from drying out, meaning that the team had to work in an invariably wet environment. Garden hoses and spray nozzles were used to wash away the black mud covering Vasa’s decks. Continue reading →

The Warship Vasa – Part 1

Today, it is hard to imagine, but during the 17th and 18th centuries, the Kingdom of Sweden was an aggressive entity – one of the great European powers – that asserted territorial control over much of the Baltic region. When Gustav II Adolf (1594-1632) acceded the Swedish throne in 1611 he inherited wars with Russia, Denmark and Poland. Gustav Adolf was the grandson of Gustav I – or Gustav Vasa as he is widely known today – the first of the Vasa dynasty. Continue reading →

The Loss of the Gribshunden (1495) and Preliminary Archaeological Investigations

Guest post on Gribshunden by Rolf Fabricius Warming Gribshunden, also known as Gripshunden, and Griffone, was a large Danish warship employed in the fleet of King John I (Danish: Kong Hans) who reigned in Denmark from 1481 to 1513. Gribshunden appears in some of the earliest Danish fleet records and is amongst the first Danish vessels to be described as a carvel. Continue reading →

Mud, glorious mud (and maybe some sand)

Understandably, there is often a focus on maritime archaeological sites that lie underwater and many of the most impressive or important ones, like the Mary Rose, or the Vasa are discussed during the shipwrecks course. We are also familiar with sites on land that have their origins in maritime worlds, ship burials like Sutton Hoo, or silted up harbour sites such as Myos Hormos in Egypt. Continue reading →

‘Belgica’: whaler and research ship

In this short video, Thomas talks about his favourite shipwreck: Belgica.   The Belgica,  built as the whaler Patria in 1884 in Svelvik, Norway, became Belgium's most illustrious research vessel after it was bought and refitted by Adrien de Gerlache. The ship and its crew were the first to spend the winter on the ice of Antartica when the ship got stuck on the 28th of February in 1898. Only 13 months later, the crew managed to dig a canal to free the ship from the ice. Continue reading →

T – 24 hours

After a lot of hard work by a huge number of people the Shipwrecks and Submerged Worlds course goes live tomorrow.  I and my colleagues have been spending the weekend reading through the different elements trying to iron out any minor issues, all the while thinking about how it will be received.  At points while we were putting this together it felt like we'd taken on an impossible challenge. Continue reading →