The Norman’s Bay Wreck, East Sussex: Tree-Ring Analysis of Ship Timbers
Author(s): Nigel Nayling
This report summarises work undertaken to assess and sample in situ timbers of a wreck lying underwater in Norman’s Bay, East Sussex with a view to providing a dendrochronological date and a likely provenance for the timbers, to assist in characterising, and possibly identifying the wreck. Samples were taken from framing timbers exposed on the seabed along the eastern extent of the surviving hull. Tree-ring series from five of these samples have been correlated with mean sequences from the Eastern Netherlands and Westphalia. The dating suggests that the parent timbers were felled some time after AD 1659. Although this dating does not refute the tentative identification of the wreck as being that of Resolution, a British 70-gun Third Rate that sank during the Great Storm of 1703, the apparent provenance of the timber might favour identification of the wreck as one of a number of Dutch vessels that foundered in the area following the Battle of Beachy Head in AD 1690.
- Report Number:
- 25/2008
- Series:
- Research Department Reports
- Pages:
- 11
- Keywords:
- Dendrochronology Maritime
