Non-destructive texture characterisation of copper bolts recovered from the Deltebre I site (1813)

MALAMUD, FLORENCIA; NORTHOVER, PETER; NORTHOVER, SHIRLEY; NNEJI, STEPHEN; KELLEHER, JOE; CIARLO, NICOLÁS C.; GELI MAURI, RUT

Steventon

Congreso; Neutron Imaging and Engineering Meeting (NIEM); 2023

ISIS Neutron and Muon Source, STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory

In June 1813, after an unsuccessful expedition to liberate the city of Tarragona from the Napoleon’s troops, eighteen ships of the combined British, Sicilian and Spanish fleet supervised by Lt. Gen. John Murray, were surprised by strong gales and ran aground in the Ebro delta. Almost 200 years later, local settlers found the wreck of one of the five ships that could not go further. Since 2008, the Deltebre I site has been the subject of archaeological study by the staff of the Catalan Centre for Underwater Archaeology of the Archaeological Museum of Catalonia. Here, five types of bolts were selected for spatially resolved neutron texture analysis: a stern knee bolt (M15), a keelson bolt (M16), a rudder bolt-nail (M18), a planking bolt (M5), and a sternpost bolt (M14). The spatially resolved texture results indicate that at least three different methods were most likely used to manufacture the structural bolts from the Deltebre I site: drawing, casting, and forging and/or rolling.