Western Ledge Reef Wreck Timber Analysis - Bermuda
"The Western Ledge Reef Wreck: continuing research on the late 16th-/early 17th-century Iberian shipwreck from Bermuda" by PIOTR BOJAKOWSKI. Post-Medieval Archaeology 45/1 (2011), 18–40
The Western Ledge Reef Wreck Project, Bermuda
Project Directors: Piotr Bojakowski, Katie Custer Bojakowski
INA Research Associates
Location: Bermuda National Museum (incorporating Bermuda Maritime Museum)
Project Dates: 2007 - present
Period: late 16th Century
Nautical archaeology is more than a study of seafaring technology; it is an examination of the ambitions and motivations of nations for purposes of trade, exploration, and colonization. It is also the preservation of friable cultural heritage, which otherwise might disappear forever. In such context, the purpose of this project, undertaken by Piotr Bojakowski and Katie Custer Bojakowski; is to study the timbers, analyze the remains, and reconstruct the structure of the late 16th-century Western Ledge Reef Wreck, aka Santa Lucia, (site IMHA 3) from Bermuda (Fig. 1).
Unlike other 16th-century Caribbean parallels such as the Highborn Cay Wreck from the Bahamas, the Molasses Reef Wreck from the Turks and Caicos Islands, or the San Esteban Wreck from South Padre Island, the preservation of timbers and artifacts from the Western Ledge Reef Wreck is phenomenal for the tropical waters of Bermuda. With the exception of the bow section, the wreck consists of almost the entire bottom of the vessel. This includes a keel, remarkably preserved keelson with a mast step and 6 buttresses, 14 floor timbers with characteristic dove-tail mortise-and-tenon joints, 21 first futtocks, external planks, ceiling planks, but most of all the entire stern assembly (Fig. 2).
The provisional research indicates that the Western Ledge Reef Wreck was excavated and recorded between 1988 and 1991. This work was carried out by both Texas A&M University (1988-1990) and East Carolina University (1990-1991). During the summer of 2007, Bojakowski and Custer-Bojakowski returned to the site to evaluate the condition of the timbers and study the excavation records. Based on an inventory, there are at least 125 individual timbers, which correspond to the original timbers stored in three protected outdoor tanks at the Bermuda Maritime Museum (BMM) grounds. Although the research still continues, the results of this project will constitute a crucial part of Bojakowski’s doctoral dissertation.
Figure 1. Location of the site (image created by P. Bojakowski)
Figure 2. Model of the wreck structure (photo courtesy of the BMM)