CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

On March 13th 1770 the British sloop of war HMS Swift, commissioned to go to Port Egmont at the Falkland/Malvinas Islands, struck a submerged rock and sank in the estuary of what is currently Puerto Deseado, in Argentinean Patagonia. The wrecksite of HMS Swift is characterized by its outstanding preservation, and the excavation conducted so far has revealed a great variety of artifacts [[1]]. Among these artifacts, two ceramic jars containing solid materials were recovered as well as a small ceramic pot with a substance similar to an ointment. The three solids were firstly analyzed by FTIR in order to get information on the type of substances we were dealing with. The contents of both jars showed the presence of lipids, as salts of fatty acids in jar Nr. 57 and as a mixture of free fatty acids and their salts in jar Nr 55. The FTIR spectrum of the ointment-type sample confirmed its organic nature. These preliminary results enabled us to design the analysis protocol we would follow in order to determine the composition of the three samples. These were further analyzed by gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry. Lipid components in samples 55 and 57 were analyzed as their methyl esters. Sample 57 showed the presence of palmitic acid (16:0) as the major component together with stearic (18:0) and oleic (18:1) acids, and minor amounts of other fatty acids (12:0, 14:0, 17:0, 21:0, 22:0, 23:0, 24:0, 25:0 and 26:0). This composition is characteristic of spermaceti, a slight greasy white substance without much taste or odor, obtained from the sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus). Spermaceti consists principally of cetyl palmitate (ester of cetyl alcohol and palmitic acid), C15H31COO-C16H33. Its properties made it very useful as an ingredient in cosmetics, leatherworking and lubricants. The substance was also used for making candles, for the dressing of fabrics, and as a pharmaceutical excipient, especially in ointments. Given the archaeological context in which the jars containing this substance were found, the most likely use seems to have been for making candles. [1] Elkin, Dolores, Amaru Argüeso, Mónica Grosso, Cristian Murray, Damián Vainstub, Ricardo Bastida and Virginia Dellino. Archaeological research on HMS Swift: a British Sloop-of-War lost off Patagonia, Southern Argentina, in 1770. International Journal of Nautical Archaeology 36 (1), 32-58 (2007)