Characteristics of the boat

But what is the exact nature of what the excavations in the port of Dover have brought to light?

The surviving hull of ‘BOAT 1550 BC’ is around 2.3 metres broad and 9.5 metres long. One end of the boat, for various reasons, could not be recovered at the time of excavation. The state of preservation of the boat was remarkable, with the toolmarks of its fabrication clearly visible, in addition to the survival of organic materials used to make the boat watertight.

In essence, the boat remains consist of four planks, hewn from logs of huge, straight-grained oak trees without side branches, whose presence would have shown as knots in the wood. Such trees are very rare in Western Europe today.

Two flat planks form the bottom, with cleats and rails to allow their jointing with other timbers. These planks were joined together at the base of the hull along a central joint and connected with transverse timbers. Curved side planks were sewn to the bottom part of the boat with twisted withies of yew (taxus baccata). These side planks also possess side cleats carved out of the solid wood. The prow of the boat consists of pieces of wood forming a ‘Y’, though it is clear that important pieces of timber are missing here. One can equally suggest that there was another side plank on each side, raising the freeboard of the original vessel. Clearly the boat had been deliberately dismantled when it was abandoned.

The boat in Dover Museum © G. Naessens