From the Archives: In 1629, the Batavia, a ship of the Dutch East India Company, met disaster off the coast of Australia. A new analysis of the shipwreck’s tree rings uncovers how such vessels were built to advance European colonialism.
Tree rings in a cross section of an oak hull plank from the ship Batavia, which sank in 1629, hold clues to the 17th-century timber trade in Europe.and has been republished under Creative Commons.the Dutch East India Company ship Batavia in 1629 is perhaps the best-known maritime disaster in Australian history. The subject of books, articles, plays, and even an opera, Batavia was wrecked on a chain of small islands off the coast of Western Australia.
The Dutch ship was 45.3 meters long and 600 metric tons in size. It sank on its maiden voyage to Southeast Asia. The shipwreck was found in the 1960s off Morning Reef and was excavated in the 1970s. Knowing more about these timbers helps us understand the Dutch success in world trade, including how they managed to build such large ocean-going vessels and so many of them.Batavia’s remains provide a rare archaeological resource for tree-ring examination because exact dates of its construction and sinking are known.
The Dutch lacked domestic timber resources to supply the bustling shipbuilding industry and yet would have needed hundreds, perhaps thousands, of oak trees to build Batavia. Marta Domínguez Delmás and Aoife Daly extract a sample from the Batavia ship with a dry-wood borer driven by a power drill.This growth pattern is very similar for trees of the same species growing in the same area.
The timber was processed shortly after the trees were felled. All this demonstrates that Batavia’s builders were skilled craftspersons, intimately familiar with the properties of the wood they used.The oak timber used in Batavia’s hull planks came from two forests. Trees from near Lübeck in northern Germany were used above the ship’s waterline, while timber from the Baltic region of Northeastern Europe was applied exclusively below the waterline., who used it for panels on which to paint.
Canada Latest News, Canada Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Astronomers Have Revealed a Black Hole's Photon Ring for the First TimeUsing data from the Event Horizon Telescope, a team of astronomers have calculated the photon ring of M87*.
Read more »
Everything new streaming on Prime Video in September 2022All of the new releases coming to Prime Video in September 2022, including The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.
Read more »
‘The Rings of Power’ to Screen First Two Episodes in Theaters Ahead of Series PremiereMiddle-earth may be going from film to television with Amazon’s new series “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power,” but it turns out that that doesn’t mean the franchise…
Read more »
Suarez powers Mariners as Athletics lose first game of 10-game homestandLoss to Seattle Friday night underscores A’s dilemma with a tough schedule the rest of the way.
Read more »
Why recently transplanted palms might not be looking so good in the gardenPlus, everybody needs a break occasionally, fruit trees included.
Read more »