The Vessel
The distribution of the wreckage and the scattered cargo indicates that the ship was between 15 and 16 meters long. It was constructed by the "shell-first" method, with mortise-and-tenon joints similar to those of the Graeco-Roman ships of later centuries.
Even though there has been a detailed examination of Uluburun’s hull, there is no evidence of framing. The keel appears to be rudimentary, perhaps more of a keel-plank than a keel in the traditional sense. The ship was built with planks and keel of Lebanese cedar and oak tenons. Lebanese cedar is indigenous to the mountains of Lebanon, southern Turkey, and central Cyprus. The ship carried 24 stone anchors. The stone is of a type almost completely unknown in the Aegean, but is often built into the temples of Syria-Palestine and on Cyprus. Brushwood and sticks served as dunnage to help protect the ship’s planks from the metal ingots and other heavy cargo.
Read more about this topic: Uluburun Shipwreck
Famous quotes containing the word vessel:
“Frequently also some fair-weather finery ripped off a vessel by a storm near the coast was nailed up against an outhouse. I saw fastened to a shed near the lighthouse a long new sign with the words “ANGLO SAXON” on it in large gilt letters, as if it were a useless part which the ship could afford to lose, or which the sailors had discharged at the same time with the pilot. But it interested somewhat as if it had been a part of the Argo, clipped off in passing through the Symplegades.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The frost was on the village roofs as white as ocean foam;
The good red fires were burning bright in every ‘longshore home;
The windows sparkled clear, and the chimneys volleyed out;
And I vow we sniffed the victuals as the vessel went about.”
—Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894)