[BenLurkin]

There is another possibility which to me seems quite likely.

That the device was made much later than the date of the shipwreck, that it was being transported by sea over the wreck and due to a second wreck or some act of vandalism, caused to sink onto the older wreck, where it was eventually found.

IIRC, devices with this level of sophistication were being developed as early as the late renaissance.

[LiteKeeper]

There is too much corroborating evidence to the contrary and an early date

[SunkenCiv]

"That the device was made much later than the date of the shipwreck," isn't possible. The device was inside a concretion that was part of the wreck debris. Interestingly enough, off Turkey some years ago an "age of sail" wreck was found near some scary rock; under it was a sandwich of two other wrecks, the oldest being ancient. Each had hit the rock in turn, probably in the night, and each sank to rest on the same bit of seabottom.

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