The Dover boat was discovered 6m below the ground in Dover in 1992. It’s a large, Bronze Age, prehistoric sewn-plank boat, dated c. 1550 BC. Over 9m of an estimated total length of 11m of the boat was recovered. The boat consisted of four sculpted oak planks, joined together by sets of yew withy stitches, wedges and larger timbers. It is one of the best preserved complex prehistoric boats to be found in Europe.
Richard Darrah was involved both in examining and drawing conclusions about the timber used in the boat and in a subsequent reconstruction. He contributed three chapters to the book ‘The Dover Bronze Age Boat’. He also prepared a museum display for Dover Museum.
Chapter 6: Illuminating the original shape of the Dover boat timbers
A comparison is made between the characteristics of the oak timber excavated and modern oak. This comparison allows conclusions to be drawn about how the wood has been compressed over time. Correcting for this distortion of the timber has enabled the original boat dimensions to be estimated, helping our understanding of the shape, construction and functioning of the boat.
Chapter 7: Woodland Management and Timber conversion
This describes the size and quality of the oak trees from which the timber was acquired and looks at how this timber would have been extracted. Evidence suggests that the timber comes from several different trees. The trees had straight trunks of at least 11m long and 1m in diameter. This type of wood will have come from a dense, high forest.
The time involved in felling, halving and cutting the tree to length is estimated at 100 skilled person hours and the time taken to move the timber was estimated at 200 person hours/mile traveled.
Chapter 9: The reconstruction experiment
In 1996 a 3m long reconstruction of the midsection of the boat was undertaken, using Bronze Age tools. Two oak logs were used. There were four main stages to the reconstruction:
Making the tools
Splitting the logs
Shaping the blanks
Assembling the boat
Lessons were learnt about the production and use of bronze tools and about how the joints and waterproofing of the boat worked. From the time taken to make the reconstruction the time taken to make the Dover boat was estimated as 10 men, working 8 hours days, taking 25 days.
Clark, P, Ed. The Dover Bronze Age Boat. English Heritage, 2004.
Richard produced a museum display for Dover Museum, showing a section of the Dover boat. This demonstrates how the moss packing makes the boat waterproof.
Richard talking to Prince Charles on a visit to Dover Museum
2. The Ferriby Boat
The Ferriby boat is a Bronze Age boat. During a half size reconstruction Richard supervised the shaping of the timbers.
The Ferriby boat reconstruction
Sailing in the reconstruction
3. The Canewdon Paddle
The Canewdon Paddle is a Bronze Age oak paddle, which was found in Essex. Richard was involved in a full size reconstruction of the paddle. He found that the reconstruction weighed over 4kg and was too heavy to have been used as a paddle. The 'paddle' must have been an oar instead. There are two types of oars, steering oars and normal oars, the 'paddle' is perfectly weighted to be a normal oar. This makes it a very important find, as it is the earliest example of oars being used in Northern Europe.
The Canewdon Paddle being held by Edwin Gifford who funded the project.
