Image Credit: The timbers and hull planks emerged on a beach in Studland Bay after Storm Chandra. National Trust, Pam White
Experts think the newly unearthed timbers may have come from the “Fame,” an armed Dutch merchant vessel that sank off the Dorset coast in 1631
By Sarah Kuta
In late January, Storm Chandra swept across the United Kingdom, causing widespread damage and disruption. But the heavy rains and powerful winds did more than just rattle rooftops and topple trees. They also may have exposed part of a 17th-century shipwreck that sank off southern England nearly 400 years ago.
Archaeologists are now hard at work excavating the historic remains, which are thought to be part of the Fame, also known as the Swash Channel wreck, an armed Dutch merchant vessel from the port of Hoorn that sank off the Dorset coast in 1631.
Much of the ship was discovered in the 1990s. After nearly a decade of underwater investigation, archaeologists successfully recovered part of the wreck in 2013. They hauled up an elaborately carved rudder, leather shoes, bones from animals used to feed the crew, cannons, wooden barrels, and other artifacts.
Read the full article on Smithsonian Magazine:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/shipwreck-timbers-appeared-on-a-beach-after-a-storm-they-had-been-buried-beneath-the-sand-since-the-17th-century-180988260/
