Modern Man Tries to Build a 3,500 Year Old Boat from the Bronze Age and Fails

IO9 ^ | May 14, 2012 | Casey Chan

[DogByte6RER]

Modern Man Tries to Build a 3,500 Year Old Boat from the Bronze Age and Fails

A team of people from 2012 tried to re-create and build a boat from 1550 BC, the Bronze Age, but failed spectacularly. When the ship was lowered into the ocean, it immediately filled with water and started sinking. Yikes, we suck.

The team was made up of British archaeologists and craftsmen who have been hammering away and building the boat with Bronze Age tools and methods for the past three months. The boat it was based on, used oak planks sewn together with yew lashings. It sounds like a wonderful project, right? Let's see how the building chops of modern men stack up with ancient techniques! Sadly, we embarrassed ourselves.

The boat, which is a half-sized replica of the original Bronze Age boat found in Dover back in 1992, didn't even have anybody in it when it was lowered into the harbor yet it had to be lifted out of the water immediately. The team even popped champagne at the launch but will now go back and patch the boat up to see if they can at least get it to stay afloat. Good luck!

[DogByte6RER]

A team of specialist archaeologists built the vessel over three months on the Roman Lawns at Dover Museum Photo: PA

[DogByte6RER]

More with champagne popping cork launch video at:

Video: That sinking feeling... Bronze Age boat replica fails to float

http://www.kentonline.co.uk/kentonline/news/2012/may/14/bronze_age_boat_video.aspx

(You gotta love the headline “...replica fails to float” - As if it were the boat’s fault that it sunk!)

[WorkingClassFilth]

The lines are similar to a kit kayak I helped build once. The craft was constructed with plywood sheets sewn together and tacked onto ribs. Of course, we moderns used fiberglass and resin on the seams. Worked pretty good, too.

[Red_Devil 232]

Liberals with no common sense build a boat, and it sinks? Who is surprised?

[CynicalBear]

Every wooden boat leaks when first put in the water either after first being built or having been out of the water for an extended period. Don’t those dumb arses realize that the wood has to swell? If they seal it tight before putting it in the water it will fail when the wood swells when they do put it in the water.

[21twelve]

“The boat, which is a half-sized replica of the original Bronze Age boat found in Dover back in 1992...”

I’m wondering - did they also find it at the bottom of some lake or river....?

[RegulatorCountry]

Something’s missing, and that would be a coating to provide waterproofing. Pitch was used for this purpose going back to Biblical times and before. I doubt the recovered Bromze Age craft would float as discovered even if intact, if this was as painstaking a half scale replica as it sounds.

[2111USMC]

Looks like a canoe.

[dfwgator]

They said that it could not be done,
He said, "Just let me try."
They said, "Other men have tried and failed,"
He answered, "But not I."
They said, "It is impossible,"
He said, "There's no such word."
He closed his mind, he closed his heart...
To everything he heard.

He said, "Within the heart of man,
There is a tiny seed.
It grows until it blossoms,
It's called the will to succeed.
Its roots are strength, its stem is hope,
Its petals inspiration,
Its thorns protect its strong green leaves,
With grim determination.

"Its stamens are its skills
Which help to shape each plan,
For there's nothing in the universe
Beyond the scope of man."
They thought that it could not be done,
Some even said they knew it,
But he faced up to what could not be done...

...And he couldn't bloody do it!

-Benny Hill

[DogByte6RER]

It doesn’t say ...

More coverage at:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2143630/Boat-1550BC-Crew-created-replica-worlds-oldest-sea-going-boat-abort-maiden-voyage—begins-sink.html

[molson209]

Liberals with no common sense build a boat, and it sinks? Who is surprised?

Not as smart as Bronze Age people , who knew what they were doing

[JRandomFreeper]

You would be amazed at the number of anthroplogists that I've cooked dinner for that had zero clue about the real world.

I generally heard "That's not possible" soon followed by "How the hell did you do that"?

/johnny

[verum ago]

Seems like a good representation of how taxpayer money is used.

[freedumb2003]

Kon Tookie tookie?

[JRandomFreeper]

They have the tools, they have the plans, they have the materials.

What they don't have is the skillsets. Those don't get preserved in dirt.

/johnny

[smokingfrog]

I guess they didn't have this back in the Bronze Age.

[DogByte6RER]

ping

[M-cubed]

the reason why the boat sank in the study ...is..we need more funding to understand why?

The reason why the boat floated originally is...we need to get from here to there...

[muawiyah]

Obviously you have to let the wood swell. That will press the planks tight against the caulking ~ reindeer moss and lichens would help ~ if pressed into rope made from heavy fiber of some kind.

Once the wood swells, you bail the water out and it should float.

Although these guys seem to think the wood they were working with was OAK, maybe the part they tested on the original was oak, but the rest of it may well have been birch planking. It's much lighter, exceedingly water-tight, and flexible enough to allow the caulk to work correctly.

Now, commentary about "Biblical" meaning "real old", the Bible has parts that are clearly from the Bronze Age ~ and so was the original boat. They are contemporaries. However, if you want some "real old" wooden relics you need to check out frozen tundra in the far North. Wood can and is eaten by everything you can imagine. It's rare to find worked plank that is really really really old ~ although recently someone discovered some fire hardened point sticks that may date back to the last interglacial! (that'd be more than 110,000 years ago).

[dfwgator]