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When skeletal timbers emerged from intertidal deposits at Sand o’Erraby beach on Sanday, Orkney, earlier this year, they were soon identified as part of a shipwreck – specifically, the midships section of a vessel’s lower hull. Current thinking is that the ship was possibly of Dutch manufacture, and perhaps 17th-century in date; if so, it would be one of only nine wrecks of this time period known in Scotland.
As the 8.5m by 4.5m section of hull weighed an estimated 8-10 tons, it was too large and heavy to recover intact using equipment available on the island – and so the wreck was carefully disassembled under the supervision of Wessex Archaeology and Dendrochronicle staff, with the help of local volunteers coordinated by the Sanday Heritage Group and the island’s Development Trust.
Now, thanks to a grant from the National Heritage Memorial Fund – secured with the islanders’ blessing by the Orkney Islands Council’s Culture team – the wreck has undergone crucial initial conservation, by carefully transferring and submerging timbers in a vast steel tank designed by Waterfront Group, to start the desalination process and prevent them from drying out.
The full conservation process might see the water within the timbers eventually replaced with a stable substance like polyethylene glycol (as seen with the Mary Rose and the Newport Ship) or glucose (as with the Poole Iron Age logboat).
Text: Rebecca Preedy / Image: Paul Sharman and Orkney Island Council
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