Ship 'sailed to Continent in 2000BC'
Submitted by Andy B on Friday, 23 March 2001 Page Views: 613
DiscoveriesThe Electronic Telegraph Thursday 22 March 2001 By David Derbyshire, Science CorrespondentSCIENTISTS may have discovered Britain's oldest cross-Channel ferry, a plank boat that sailed 4,000 years ago.
New dating techniques have revealed that ancient timbers found on the banks of the Humber Estuary in 1963 came from the oldest plank boat found in Western Europe. Similar boats may have carried stone slabs from Wales to England during the construction of Stonehenge.
The boat is one of three found at Ferriby, East Yorkshire, over the past 70 years. More than 52ft long, it was made from huge oak planks sewn together with twisted yew branches. It had room for 18 paddlers and possibly a mast.
Archaeologists believe that it may have been seaworthy and could have carried metal, furs and amber from the Continent. The first boat was found in 1937 by Ted Wright. He found another in 1940 and a third in 1963. The 1963 boat has been dated to 2030 BC-1780 BC, with the most likely date 1900BC. The others are a few hundred years later.
Mr Wright, a fellow of the Royal Society of Antiquaries, was 13 years old when he found three oak planks sticking out of a mud bank on the Humber. "This is what I have always hoped for," he said. "It is only since 1998 that it was thought that it could be substantially older than we expected. The quality of craftsmanship is fabulous."
The vessel is part of an exhibition at Hull and East Riding Museum for National Science Week.
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