Page 24 - Loss of the VOC Retourschip Batavia, Western Australia, 1629

Figure 12. Removing a frame from lhe wreck site, prior to raising onto the workboat
The frames were loosely attached to thestrakes. and. as a temporary measure. they were held in place wiLb bags of coral. Excavation progressed aft. exposing more ribs. and east, to try and find the keelson. The latter was not found. the structure terminating quite abruptly along the line of the strakes. As Lbe excavation progressed aft. the number and quality of the artefacts increased. Cannon 5 was removed,fromontopofthetimber,whichthenshowedthe structure sloped downhill quite noticeably towards the aft area of the wreck site.
At this point. it was decided to dismantle the structure andraiseit.becauseofthedangerofstormsdestroyingLbe uncovered timbers. Thirty ribs were removed and raised in the lifting uay. after Lbey had been tagged and recorded (see recording techniques). The strakes were then tagged and photographed. Small strakes, that had scarf joints close to the northern extremity of the timber, were re· moved. Strakes which were too long to handle with the existing facilities were cut into two sections, 2.5 m in lengLb. with the chain-saw. It was found that the outer planking consisted of two layers of strakes, with a further
OUler layer of Lbin. pine sheathing.
Towards the end of the fust season, the area around
cannon 1 and 2 was cleared of coral, and cannon 3 was raised. A t this poin~ 5.5 m o f timber had been recovered and excavation of this had reached northing 070. The rest ofLbetimberwascoveredwithplasticsheetingandseveral hundred bags of coral, and the excavation was wound up for the winter.
The second excavation season
The fust phase of Lbis season was to clear the concre-
tionoverlyingthetimbersaftofnorthing070.Thisproved to be extremely difficult because the concretion contained a large number of iron cannon balls and. as they were cleared furtherafl, theconcretion became thicker.ltquickly became obvious that Lbe hammer-and-pick technique was unsatisfactory. A series of experiments showed that the use of small explosive charges (circa 10 grams) was Lbe most satisfactory technique for proceeding in this area (for more details see techniques). Following each charge. the loose cannon balls were excavated .,nd the broken concre- tion spoil was airlifted off the site. Many delicate, iron artefacts were recovered from this concretion, including bar-shot and iron spoons. A 1.5 m section of timber was cleared. The ceiling planking was sawn through, and raised. The ribs were then removed. and finally the outer strakes were cut through wilb the chain-saw and raised.
The excavation then proceeded further aft. and cannon 1 and 2 were raised. Once these were clear. five large lodging knees were uncovered. running at a slight angle to the strakes. The cannon ball concretion lay over and in between these knees, which made exuaction difficult The western-most knee and thus the highest on the side of the ship, lay directly under cannon 2. The cannon ball concre- tionstartedeastofthenextknee,andwasassumedthatthis was part of some sort of stern shot locker. Complex decking in this area was noted, presumably the floor of Ibe gun deck. The cannon balls had, therefore, spilled across the side of the ship when it rolled over on its port side. The deckactedasabarrier,preventingthecannonballsrolling further west.
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