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England’s Oldest Surviving Shipwreck Is a 13th-Century Merchant Vessel

• smitty1e 4y ago
  Isn't "surviving shipwreck" a bit of an oxymoron? One either survived, or wrecked, no?
  • hcs 4y ago
    > The Mortar Wreck is England’s oldest known protected wreck site with a visible surviving hull.
• gerdesj 4y ago
  The oldest bit in the title is "oldest protected wreck site". That's a designation made by a politician - Secretary of State. It certainly isn't the oldest wreck site hereabouts. The wreck is off the Dorset coast. This cargo vessel was carrying gravestones fashioned from Purbeck limestone. Purbeck is also in Dorset and the quarries are still running and I believe they are at least Roman occupation old (43AD+, let's ignore the 55/54 JC shenanigans) if not older. So whilst this wreck is quite old, it feels like a continuous link to a fairly recent past (if you squint a bit). Now it gets a bit complicated because Portland (also Dorset) stone is also heavily quarried and you may be familiar with the term Portland Cement. Southern Dorset seems to have an embarrassment of stony riches. Moving north from there you have Ham Stone from Ham Hill near Yeovil, Somerset (hand up - local) - again heavily quarried by the Romans and still is and then Bath Stone etc. The product on that ship could have been mined a month ago and worked last week.