building a bronze age boat for Time Team

[robin wood]

I have been off the forums for a while whilst building a bronze age boat in Dover. It was the most amazing project to be involved in and three months hard graft culminated in a manic week last week with working 7am Thursday to 4am Friday then 8am Friday to 2am Saturday to get ready for the launch. Time Team were there for much of the project filming for a special which will probably go out in the Autumn.

This was back in February hewing the first timbers.

Bronze axes and adzes with rawhide lashings

beginning to look like boat timbers

adze at work

The worksite

Tony Robinson inspecting proceedings

casting bronze tools

carving the stern piece

beginning to fit it all together, this is around 1 am last Thursday night, Phil stuck with us lending a hand until after 2am.

here you can see the way the two base timbers are joined with wedges hammered across through a raised rail. It seems a bizarre jointing system but then this is 1550BC so 2000 years earlier than Viking ships and 3000 before the Mary Rose.

4am and the base 4 planks are sewn together.

next day was my birthday so Time Team folk provided us with lots of red bull, ginger beer and cake, real woodworkers sharpen their pencils and cut their cake with axes.

1 am teabreak

great teamwork stitching the last planks and laths into place.

crazy tiredness but a great team spirit and determination to be ready for the launch just kept us going somehow.

still working as the marquee filled with press the next morning

and finally she was on the trailer ready to go off for the launch

Off she went hotly pursued by Time Team crew whilst we were left behind to tidy up the site and put the tools away.

Launch itself was not so successful but never mind, it was the most amazing woodworking project I have ever been involved in and is now off to form the centrepiece of a major bronze age exhibition touring to France, Belgium then back to UK.

Lots more photos on my blog

 

[paul atkin]

Great post Rob, i am just a bit envious

 

[Harvestman]

I bet you learned loads from that. What a great experience.

 

[vizsla]

Real old school workmanship i love it. You will have to let us no when its on tv. Thanks

 

[Dreadhead]

simply braw, amazing work there and great to see old tools working just as good alongside new ones

 

[HillBill]

Nice one Robin. I love seeing the end results of all the hard work of dedicated and skilled craftsmen. I salute you and all involved mate.

 

[rik_uk3]

Wey Hey,,,,,,,, I like that

 

[mountainm]

Fantastic! Thanks for sharing.

 

[Dannytsg]

Wow that's amazing! Great work!

 

[RonW]

Awesome!
Now that is some skill!

 

[bushwacker bob]

Thanks for that Robin. Brilliant stuff.

 

[sandbender]

Great pics.

Allegedly there is one of those at the bottom of Loch Tay near the Crannog, there just isn't any interest or money to get it out of there.

 

[robin wood]

Great pics.

Allegedly there is one of those at the bottom of Loch Tay near the Crannog, there just isn't any interest or money to get it out of there.

Stitched plank boats are very very rare beasts, are you sure it's "one of those" in Lock Tay. Bronze age dugouts by contrast are remarkably common. During excavations of 150 yards of riverbank at Must Farm recently they discovered no less than six.

 

[Shambling Shaman]

Good post, would love to be involve in the sort of stuff


PS.
Kerry Ely is my cousin in law

 

[sandbender]

Stitched plank boats are very very rare beasts, are you sure it's "one of those" in Lock Tay. Bronze age dugouts by contrast are remarkably common. During excavations of 150 yards of riverbank at Must Farm recently they discovered no less than six.

No I don't think that the one in Loch Tay is a dug out, but then perhaps my imagination is playing a role here, the archeologist who told me about it painted a picture in my mind and I saw (or wanted to see) a stitched plank boat. Maybe Toddy will pop by with a definitive answer (she wasn't the archeologist I speaking to).

 

[Bluebs4]

Wow this took me back to the building of the Matthew in Bristol, it was built in full view so followed it as much as possible , well done lovely work.

 

[robin wood]

Wow this took me back to the building of the Matthew in Bristol, it was built in full view so followed it as much as possible , well done lovely work.

Remember seeing the Mathew at Bristol Festival of the Sea in 96, was great.

 

[Tengu]

Didnt the Saami (who were apparently great boatbuilders) make stitched plank boats?

 

[boatman]

Didnt the Saami (who were apparently great boatbuilders) make stitched plank boats?

As did the Chumash in North America and they still do on parts of the Indian Coast. The technology of sewn-plank boats has been established for over 4000 years.

I did wonder if lifting the Dover Boat before lowering it into the water hadn't put strains on the stitches that would not have happened had it been pushed into the water from a slipway or beach. A sewn boat is not a homogenous hull as is one of glued or plastic construction, even clinker built has many more fastening points than does a sewn one but even so they have to be handled carefully lest they be strained.

 

[Barn Owl]

Nice one Robin.

How do the bronze edges hold up under use?