This article was originally published on my WordPress blog – March 2014. Still a hero? A reconstruction of Drake’s Golden Hind, London 2013. People have all sorts of heroes and heroines – actors, musicians, sports stars, even politicians. The late Tony Benn, who sadly died a couple of days ago, was…
This article was originally published on my WordPress blog – March, 2017. A photomosaic of the Fame wrecksite. (C) Bournemouth University The Swash Channel leads to the main entrance of Poole Harbour in Dorset, and this is where the Swash Channel Wreck lies. The original name of the ship has been lost…
This article was originally published on my WordPress blog – July 2016. Conjectural sketch of a balinger (C) Ian Friel 2015. Balingers were the frigates of medieval sea warfare: relatively fast, relatively small and suitable for a wide range of tasks, short of taking on a major enemy ship singlehanded….
This article was originally published on my WordPress blog – October 2015. The site at Bursledon: to the left, the site of the Grace Dieu, to the right, the possible site of the Holy Ghost. ‘But how do we know that?’ is a good question for people to ask of historians and…
This article was originally published on my WordPress blog – August 2017. Although this 1956 reconstruction was intended to represent the Pilgrim Fathers’ 120-ton ship Mayflower of 1620, its design was largely based on late 16th century English sources. As such it gives a good idea of the appearance of the privately-owned ships in the…
This article was originally published on my WordPress blog – June 2017. The Great Ship of Snargate, late 15th/early 16th century (colour enhanced for greater clarity) Why does a medieval church in a small Romney Marsh village contain a large and very old painting of a warship? The village of Snargate…
This article was originally published on my WordPress blog – May 0214. The St Winnow ship carving, late 15th/early 16th centuries The storm is violent, and eternal. Clouds like thick folds of cloth gather over the ship. A demon’s face looks out from one corner of the sky, its bulging…
This article was originally published on my WordPress blog – February 2014. The site of the Grace Dieu, during fieldwork in the 1980s. The ship was huge, in medieval terms: the archaeologist in the red wetsuit is standing on the end of the keel at the stern – the other end…
This article was originally published on my WordPress blog – February 2014. Modern-day Climping Beach – once part of the village of Atherington From tales of Atlantis to the Arthurian romance of Lyonesse, there is no shortage of legends about land that has sunk beneath the waves, but inundations of…
This article was originally published on my WordPress blog – January 2014. The remains of the steamship Hoche, 2012 I was nine years old, on holiday in Devon. We were staying in a cottage on the rocky north Devon coast, just south of Hartland Point, and went for a walk along…
This article was originally published on my WordPress blog – July 2014. Not the ship called Barry, but a small fishing boat near Nerja, Spain, 1984: it carries the sort of apotropaic eyes on the bow that could be seen on ships in the ancient Mediterranean Emotional. Cultural. Spiritual. Political. Legal,…