The metal sheathing and fastenings of wooden ships. Archaeometallurgical study of Carron, Ancla Macuca, HMS Forth and El Pesquero sites located at the Gulf of Mexico (late 18th to mid 19th Centuries)

ARANO, DIANA; CIARLO, NICOLÁS C.; BETHENCOURT, MANUEL; CARRASCO, GUADALUPE; BARBA, HELENA

Lisboa

Congreso; 43rd International Symposium on Archaeometry (ISA 2020/2022); 2022

After four decades of research, the Vice-Directorate of Underwater Archaeology of the National Institute of Anthropology and History in Mexico (SAS-INAH) recorded around 400 underwater archaeological contexts in the Gulf of Mexico and Mexican Caribbean. One of the great challenges has been the correlation of historical, archaeological and material information for dating and assessing the provenance of the vessels. The archeometallurgical analysis of copper-base sheathing and hull fastenings (bolts and nails) stand as a relevant mean for the interpretation of modern shipwrecks. During the 18th century and the dawn of the 19th century, the naval construction in the European nations was focused on increasing the quality of wooden vessels for the Atlantic sailing, given the conditions of tropical waters. For instance, the introduction of metal sheathing to protect the ship´s bottoms from the action of wood boring organisms, was an essential measure. The studies developed in metallurgy and mining, combined with archeological data from shipwrecks, historical research and characterization of sheathing and fastenings samples from the shipwrecks Carron, Ancla Macuca, HMS Forth (1849) and El Pesquero, located at Campeche Bank and coast, allow assessing its main technological features. Furthermore, the results obtained helped to date the remains and discuss the sites formation processes, in particular the existence of palimpsests on two of the sites studied.