Page 24 - Kennemerland VOC ship, 1664 - Published Reports

NAUTICAL ARCHAEOLOGY, 2.2
metal detector within a series of 40m equi- lateral triangles arranged around these can- nons failed to reveal anything further in this area.
Once we became aware of the true identity of Stoura Stack we moved our search area accordingly and found five anchors, a large area of concretion, and a great many yellow bricks. We extended our search into the harbour guided by the tradition of the Kennemerland being swept there by the tides. A large number of yellow metal bolts were found near Peerie Stack where the Advena is known to have wrecked in 1912. Most of the items located in the harbour were found to the north west of Cella Stack. Wreckage of the Advena (1912), Nordwind (1906) and Kennemerland (I664) were found in close proximity to each other. Three stoneware Bellarmine flagons were raised from this area together with a modern ship’s bell and com- pass. In the closing days of the expedition four well preserved iron cannons were found to the north of this search area. Attempts to use the swimline technique to make a syste- matic search of the entire harbour area were frustrated by the thick kelp which concealed even large items from divers on a moving line, despite visibility which on occasions exceeded 30 m.
Survey methods
Our plans of the search area were based on the now out-of-print 1902 Ordnance Survey 6 in map of the Out Skerries and a very clear aerial survey photograph of the harbour and South Mouth.
The three widely separated areas in which the remains of the Kennemerlandwere found were positioned in relation to the landmass by using a theodolite to take bearings from survey stations on the south-west corner of Grunay, Stoura Stack and Ubda. Surface marker buoys were held vertically over arte- facts by divers whilst bearings were taken.
Survey methods on the seabed varied according to site conditions. To the east of Old Man’s Stack it was sufficient to position accurately the two cannons and then sketch in the surrounding gulleys using our network of 40m triangles as a framework. In the
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South Mouth off Stoura Stack and in the harbour simple triangulation methods were used t o measure the horizontal distances between all prominent features and artefacts.
Before leaving Birmingham a computer program was developed and tested which would enable Aston University’s ICL 1905 E computer, linked to a graph plotter, to pro- duce detailed contoured maps from simple tape measurements. A suitable site to use this survey method was only found rather late in the expedition and rough weather unfortunately forced its abandonment.
Fhds
The main aim of the expedition was to locate and survey the wreck of the Kennemerland. There was no attempt at systematic site excavation. Finds were only raised when required to identify positively the site as being either that of the Kennemerland or of modern wrecks such as the Advena (1912). Finds are grouped below according to their area of location (see Figs 2 and 3).
Old Man’s Stack
Cannons 1 and P 4 J
A badly corroded iron cannon (No. 1) was found wedged beneath a rock overhang 40 m from the western tip of Old Man’s Stack at a depth of 8m. The only remaining distin- guishable feature was the muzzle opening. It was 6ft (1-85m) long and 1ft(0.3m)in diameter at the breech. The bore was 5.5 in (0.14 m).
A second iron cannon (No. 2), in similar condition, was found in a hollow 32 m farther west. It measured 6 ft 5 in (1~ 9 m5 ) in length and 1ft 2in (0.35 m) in diameter at the breech. Part of the muzzle appeared to have broken off or corroded completely away.
A number of lead musket balls with dia- metersrangingfrom0-4-0.7in(0.014018m) were found in gravel behind the second cannon.
Concretion 1
A small patch of concretion to the north of the second cannon was found to contain cannon balls and pieces of timber.