New hope that 'incredible' 400-year-old Orkney shipwreck can be identified

The remains of the ship's wooden hull were exposed on an Orkney beach by a storm earlier this year | contributed

Archival records and tree-ring analysis might help shed light on the identity of the wreck

When a storm uncovered the remains of an “incredible” wooden hull of a wrecked ship on an Orkney beach earlier this year, a race against time began to preserve it.

With the fragile beams now safely ensconced in a specially built tank of fresh water, the detective work can begin in earnest as archaeologists attempt to work out how old the vessel is, where it came from and how it met its fate.

Nick Hewitt, of Orkney Isles Council, said that, based on what is currently known, “it’s entirely possible it hails from one of the naval superpowers of the time”, with suggestions it could be a ship of Dutch design built sometime in the 1600s.

It might seem improbable that it could be identified. However, last year it was determined that a wreck found off the Sussex coast was a Dutch warship called the Klein Hollandia – built in 1656 and involved in the second Anglo-Dutch war – partly through archival research and analysis of the wood’s tree rings. So there is a chance this story may have more exciting chapters yet.

New hope that 'incredible' 400-year-old Orkney shipwreck can be identified

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