Page 23 - Loss of the VOC Retourschip Batavia, Western Australia, 1629

Figure 11. An airlUt being used to remove sand overburden on the wreck site, nole the lifting ..ay (left) and the hull timbers (right)
The excavation
Tbe fast excavation season
The excavation needed to be carefully planned, to take into account the prevailing direction ofthe swell and surge which was along the axis o f the site, north towards the reef. It was in this direction that loose material tended to be driven. The site, in its undisturbed state, before the exca- vation started, appeared to be in a stable state. The surface of the site was loosely concreted together with coraline algae to form a c r u s t Once this crust was broken there would be a tendency for the loose material below to be scoured out during storms. The stem area was selected as the starting point for the excavation, because it was the easiest area to work; the bow area was more turbulent and less often suitable for diving. The complex of anchors and cannon ID, 11 and 12, in the middle of the site, formed a barrier to scouring, so it was decided that this would be the northern-most limit of excavation. The initial excavation objective was to run a trench across the site, in order to get someideaofthestratigraphyandtodetermineiftherewas any surviving hull structure. The building blocks area seemed to be the most obvious place to start, as it was thought that any surviving ship's structure would almost certainlyhavebeentrappedundertheweightoftheblocks. However, after most of the building blocks had been
removed and a test hole dug at co-ordinate 130100 to a depth of 1.2 m, there was still no sign of structure to be found. Also, the conceptofdigging a trench on this site was shown by experience to be out of the question, since any resemblance to trench walls were rapidly scoured o u t It was, however, quite feasible to clear an area systemati- cally, gradually lowering the level by removing the coral lumps and building blocks in the area. During this initial phase of the excavation, there was an extreme paucity of artefacts. As the cleaning operations progressed west- wards across the site, the artefacts increased in number, and several complete stoneware jugs were found around cannon 5. Work then started on cleaning around cannon 7 and 8 in preparation to their removal from the site. Follow- ing a prolonged bad weather period, timber.; were found to have been exposed by thescouring action occurring around cannon 5. Three frames running east-west across the site were resting on what appeared to be outer planking run- ningnorth-south.Exploratoryexcavationshowedthatthis represented the northern extremity o f a section o f the side of the ship, three metres wide,lying between the eastings 105 and 108 of the co-ordinate system. How far back this structureextendedwasnotclear,butitseemedunlikelyto extend beyond 110 or further west than easting 099.
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