Warwick : An English Galleon from 1619 Rigging Reconstruction

Summary

WARWICK, an English race-built galleon belonging to Sir Robert Rich, arrived at Castle Harbor, Bermuda on October 20th, 1619. Its mission was to bring settlers, supplies, and Captain Nathaniel Butler, from England to the newly established plantation colony at Jamestown, Virginia. At the end of November, a hurricane drove the ship into shallow reefs and steep cliffs where it sank. WARWICK was fully excavated under the direction of Dr. Piotr Bojakowski and Dr. Katie Custer between 2010 and 2012. This paper presents a hypothetical rigging reconstruction based on these archaeological finds, analogous shipwrecks that have been excavated, 16th and 17th-century ship treatises and dictionaries, and ship iconography. Further, applications of rigging reconstructions to seafaring life will be discussed because a large part of understanding past humans is to study their activity. For crew, adjusting and maintaining the rigging was one of the main activities on the ship. Sailor physiology and rigging reconstructions may provide a new way to understand shipboard life.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2014   •
• Recent Developments in Ship Reconstruction

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): SYM-70,06