These
days Netsel Marina in Marmaris is host to a most unusual vessel.
Grantedly, if we would disregard the two side rudders in plantane
timber, several stone anchors and of course a massive square
sail, she is perhaps not even too different from the cargo
vessels of the Med, which have served as late as the second
half of the twentieth century. But still, who sails nowadays
such a vessel?
This
project is the brainchild of a dedicated group of scientists
of various disciplines and of craftspeople, the 360DERECE group. Their aim is to rebuild and to reconstruct
historic vessels and their program is diverse: Next to this
replica of the Antiquity, the famous "Kayik"s of
Izmir; a "Triremes", a galley of the Antiquity;
a "Tirhandil", the trading and sponge diver vessels
of the Aegean - all these are their objects of interest.
The
Uluburun wreck was discovered by a sponge diver, Mr. Mehmet
Cakir in 1982 off
Uluburun close
to Kas (N 360 07,9' E 0290 41,0'). Its
stern rested at 44 m, the bows at 52 m. Some artifacts had
been spilled down to 62 m. The National Geographic Society
provided the means to excavate her and in 1984 work started
by the team of Prof. George Bass of Texas A&M University.
After an incredible number of more than 22.400 dives mankind
has managed to rebuilt the puzzle sufficiently in order to
attempt a reconstruction, the Uluburun II.
 The
antique vessel sank in a storm around 1300 BC. At that time
mankind was still in the Bronze Age, steel had yet to be discovered.
And indeed her main cargo were copper and tin ingots, the
raw materials for bronze. Next to the main cargo a huge number
of very valuable artifacts, including the seal of Queen Nofretete
of Egypt could be salvaged after the "long sleep".
The excavated remains of the original vessel rest today in
the Bodrum Museum for Underwater Archaeology in the Crusader's
Castle. For the
wreck site location click map to the right.
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The
"Swallows Tail" scarph, caulked only where caulking
makes sense. These and other details show that already
in the Bronze Ages in the Eastern Med vessels of high
sophistication were built. |
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View
into the holds. Today it doubles as a cozy cabin for the
crew. |
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The
famous stone anchors. 1300 BC - even the wood anchor yet
to be discovered. |
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Two
sophisticated and huge side rudders, similar to oars serve
to control the vessel. They are made of plantane timber.
The rest of the vessel is made of pine, in lieu of cedar,
extinct in the Lebanon and under protection on the Turkish
Taurus mountains. |
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Leaking
caulking - the ancient mariner had to fight these leaks
as much as todays seamen. |
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New
meets old. An Azimuth motor cruiser in the background,
the plough anchor next to the stone one. |
The
"Tabled and Hooked Scarph" or the "Phoenician
Scarph" of the Romans, a principal shipbuilding element
still today.
"SCARF
or SCARPH, the joing of two timbers by bevelling off
the edges so that the same thickness is maintained throughout
the length of the joint. In the construction of a wooden
ship, the stem and sternposts are scarfed to the keel.
A scarf which embodies a step in the middle of the joint,
so preventing the two parts from drawing apart, is called
a lock scarf. It is a joint of great antiquity, having
been used by the early Egyptian and Phoenician shipbuilders."
The
Oxford Companion to Ships and the Sea, p. 756
Peter Kemp, editor,
Oxford University Press, 1976 and 1988
(as
quoted here)
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