Science and local sleuthing identify a 250-year-old shipwreck on a Scottish island
Through a mix of high-tech science and community research, they have an answer. Researchers announced Wednesday that the vessel is very likely the Earl of Chatham, an 18th-century warship that saw action in the American War of Independence before a second life hunting whales in the Arctic — and then a stormy demise.
'I would regard it as a lucky ship, which is a strange thing to say about a ship that's wrecked,' said Ben Saunders, senior marine archaeologist at Wessex Archaeology, a charity that helped community researchers conduct the investigation.
'I think if it had been found in many other places, it wouldn't necessarily have had that community drive, that desire to recover and study that material, and also the community spirit to do it,' Saunders said.
Uncovered after 250 years
The wreck was discovered in February 2024 after a storm swept away sand covering it on Sanday, one of the rugged Orkney Islands that lie off Scotland's northern tip.
It excited interest on the island of 500 people, whose history is bound up with the sea and its dangers. Around 270 shipwrecks have been recorded around the 20-square-mile (50-square-kilometer) island since the 15th century.
Local farmers used their tractors and trailers to haul the 12 tons of oak timbers off the beach, before local researchers set to work trying to identify it.
'That was really good fun, and it was such a good feeling about the community – everybody pulling together to get it back,' said Sylvia Thorne, one of the island's community researchers. 'Quite a few people are really getting interested in it and becoming experts.'
Dendrochronology — the science of dating wood from tree rings — showed the timber came from southern England in the middle of the 18th century. That was one bit of luck, Saunders said, because it coincides with 'the point where British bureaucracy's really starting to kick off' and detailed records were being kept.
'And so we can then start to look at the archive evidence that we have for the wrecks in Orkney,' Saunders said. 'It becomes a process of elimination.
'You remove ones that are Northern European as opposed to British, you remove wrecks that are too small or operating out of the north of England and you really are down to two or three … and Earl of Chatham is the last one left.'
Wars and whaling
Further research found that before it was the Earl of Chatham, the ship was HMS Hind, a 24-gun Royal Navy frigate built in Chichester on England's south coast in 1749.
Its military career saw it play a part in the expansion — and contraction — of the British Empire. It helped Britain wrest control of Canada from France during the sieges of Louisbourg and Quebec in the 1750s, and in the 1770s served as a convoy escort during Britain's failed effort to hold onto its American colonies.
Sold off by the navy in 1784 and renamed, the vessel became a whaling ship, hunting the huge mammals in the Arctic waters off Greenland.
Whale oil was an essential fuel of the Industrial Revolution, used to lubricate machinery, soften fabric and light city streets. Saunders said that in 1787 there were 120 London-based whaling ships in the Greenland Sea, the Earl of Chatham among them.
A year later, while heading out to the whaling ground, it was wrecked in bad weather off Sanday. All 56 crew members survived — more evidence, Saunders says, that this was a vessel blessed with luck.
Community effort
The ship's timbers are being preserved in a freshwater tank at the Sanday Heritage Centre while plans are discussed to put it on permanent display.
Saunders said that the project is a model of community involvement in archaeology.
'The community have been so keen, have been so desirous to be involved and to find out things to learn, and they're so proud of it. It's down to them it was discovered, it's down to them it was recovered and it's been stabilized and been protected,' he said.
For locals, it's a link to the island's maritime past — and future. Finding long-buried wrecks could become more common as climate change alters the wind patterns around Britain and reshapes the coastline.
'One of the biggest things I've got out of this project is realizing how much the past in Sanday is just constantly with you — either visible or just under the surface,' said Ruth Peace, another community researcher.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Times
4 hours ago
- Times
Scientists' discovery could stop breast cancer spreading
Scottish scientists have made a discovery that could help stop breast cancer spreading to other parts of the body. Experts at Cancer Research UK Scotland Institute and the University of Glasgow have found there are key metabolic changes that take place before tumours grow elsewhere. Their work is being hailed as a significant breakthrough because it is often cancer moving from the breast that kills patients. • How I told my sons that I had a rare form of breast cancer Researchers writing in the journal EMBO Reports said identifying the metabolic changes offered a vital window to intervene. Detecting these changes early could allow therapies to stop cancer cells moving around the body and forming tumours elsewhere. Dr Cassie Clarke, lead researcher, said: 'This study represents a major shift in how we think about preventing the spread of breast cancer. By targeting these metabolic changes as early as possible we could stop the cancer progressing and save lives.' About 56,800 people are diagnosed with breast cancer in the United Kingdom each year and 11,300 people lose their lives to the disease. Dr Catherine Elliott, Cancer Research UK's director of research, said: 'Discoveries in cancer research have made huge strides in making breast cancer a far more treatable disease than ever before. • Why the way we diagnose, label and treat cancer is changing 'However, metastasis — when cancer spreads — is a major factor in breast cancer becoming harder to treat, especially if the cancer returns months or even many years later. 'This discovery gives us new hope for detecting and stopping metastasis early and ensuring people have many more years with their families and loved ones.' The study focused on how breast cancer changes the immune system so it cannot tackle cancer cells as they begin their spread. The researchers found that cancer changes the metabolism — the way cells make and use energy — of specific immune cells, resulting in them releasing a prominent metabolite called uracil. Uracil is a molecule key to essential processes in the body which was found to help distant organs build a 'scaffold' to grow secondary tumours elsewhere in the body. By blocking an enzyme called uridine phosphorylase-1 (UPP1), which produces uracil, the scientists were able to stop this scaffold forming in mice and restore the ability of the immune system to kill secondary cancer cells to prevent metastasis. This opens the door to potentially powerful new tools to tackle cancer. Detecting uracil in the blood could help spot early signs of cancer spread, while blocking UPP1 with drugs could stop the spread before it starts. • The Times View: It is time to be optimistic about cancer The research was funded by Cancer Research UK, the Wellcome Trust, the Medical Research Council, Breast Cancer Now and Pancreatic Cancer UK. Simon Vincent, chief scientific officer at Breast Cancer Now, said: 'The researchers discovered that high levels of a protein called UPP1 may make some cancers, including breast cancer, more likely to spread to other parts of the body, where the disease becomes incurable. 'In mice, targeting the UPP1 protein before secondary breast cancer developed led to fewer secondary breast tumours and a boosted immune response in the lungs. 'Now we need more research to see if this new insight can be turned into new drugs that stop secondary breast cancer, and potentially other secondary cancers, in their tracks. With around 61,000 people living with secondary breast cancer in the UK, research like this is vital.' The team are further investigating exactly how UPP1 changes the behaviour of immune cells, exploring the role of immune cell metabolism in early breast cancer initiation, and testing the ability of drugs that block immune cell metabolism to prevent cancer occurring.
The Sun
15 hours ago
- The Sun
Mysteries of 2,300-year-old mummy Bashiri ‘The Untouchable' revealed after researchers refused to unwrap ancient fabric
MODERN technology has helped shed further light on an Ancient Egyptian mystery after spending millennia under wraps. The Bashiri Mummy, also known as the "untouchable one", has long remained unravelled - as researchers have feared causing damage to the intricately wrapped fabric. 5 5 5 It is believed by some sources that Egyptologist Howard Carter discovered this mummy in the Valley of the Kings. This is the same area he would famously go on to uncover King Tutankhamun's tomb. But according to Discover magazine, the most that is known for sure is that the "untouchable one" was found, but that no researchers have dared attempt to unfurl its cloth. Prior to the invention of X-ray and CT scanners, people would unwrap these ancient mummies to study them - causing severe damage. New technology has lessened the need for such methods of study, allowing researchers to learn more about ancient artefacts while inflicting less harm on them. It brings them one step closer to understanding the mysteries of the Bashiri Mummy. The untouchable one's face wrappings are said to be unique, featuring a pattern resembling the base of a pyramid. According to the American Museum of Natural History, "In the past, the only way to learn about a mummy was to unwrap it. "But this widespread practice destroyed the mummy, often detaching body parts." Scans have now revealed fresh details about the mummy. Researchers have established that the Bashiri Mummy would have been an adult man who stood about 5.5 feet tall. He would have lived in the Ptolemaic Era - which spanned from 305 BC to 30 BC. This makes the mummy around a staggering 2,300 years old. The X-ray scan also showed an inscription of the man's name, according to the Egypt Museum. However, it is not fully clear if Pacheri or Nenu are written, leaving some mysteries around the mummy still unresolved. The museum added that the mummy's encasement was decorated with "various scenes arranged in registers, notably the mummy lying on a bed, surrounded by the goddesses Isis and Nephtys, and the four sons of Horus." "Finally, the casing around the feet has two images of the funerary god Anubis," it adds. It is not the only incredible discovery of the Ancient World unveiled in recent weeks. A network of dimly lit tunnels under Rome's Capitoline Hill could soon become the city's latest tourist hot spot. The secret underground city covers some 42,000 square feet under the Ancient Roman Forum - and reaches depths of 985 feet below the surface. It is expected to be open for visitors from late 2026 or early 2027, CNN has reported. 5 5
The Guardian
17 hours ago
- The Guardian
Spanish discovery suggests Roman era ‘church' may have been a synagogue
Seventeen centuries after they last burned, a handful of broken oil lamps could shed light on a small and long-vanished Jewish community that lived in southern Spain in the late Roman era as the old gods were being snuffed out by Christianity. Archaeologists excavating the Ibero-Roman town of Cástulo, whose ruins lie near the present-day Andalucían town of Linares, have uncovered evidence of an apparent Jewish presence there in the late fourth or early fifth century AD. As well as three fragments of oil lamps decorated with menorahs and a roof tile bearing a five-branched menorah, they have also come across a piece of the lid of a cone-shaped jar bearing a Hebrew graffito. While experts are split over whether the engraving reads 'light of forgiveness' or 'Song to David', its very existence points to a previously unknown Jewish population in the town, which eventually fell into decay and abandonment 1,000 years later. The discovery of the materials has led the team to consider whether the ruins of a nearby building, assumed to be an early Christian basilica dating from the fourth century AD, could perhaps have been a synagogue where Cástulo's Jewish community came to worship. When the site of the supposed church was first excavated between 1985 and 1991, archaeologists assumed it was a Christian edifice. 'During the 2012-2013 [dig], we found the roof tile with the five-armed [menorah],' said Bautista Ceprían, one of the archaeologists working on the Andalucían regional government's Cástulo Sefarad, Primera Luz project, which aims to uncover the town's Jewish history. 'Until that moment, we didn't know that there could have been a very small Jewish community in Cástulo.' In a recently published paper, Ceprián and his colleagues David Expósito Mangas and José Carlos Ortega Díez consider the possibility that the 'church' could in fact have been a synagogue. They argue that the lack of Christian materials in the site, combined with an absence of evidence of burials or religious relics – which would normally be expected in a Christian church of the era – could point to its use as a Jewish temple. A nearby baptistry, in contrast, has already yielded Christian finds and burials. Jewish religious law, however, forbids burials within 50 cubits (23m) of a residential area. 'When we looked at the interior of the building a little more closely, there were some strange things for a church; there was something that could have been the hole for a big menorah,' said Ceprián. 'It's also strange that this building doesn't have any tombs.' The authors also point to the site's architectural features, such as its layout, which is reminiscent of some synagogues found in Palestine. 'Synagogues of that time could be more square in shape than Christian basilicas because in Jewish worship, there's usually a central bimah [raised platform], which people sit around,' said Ceprián. 'In a church, the priest performs the rituals in the apse, which means things are more rectangular.' Then there is the location of the possible synagogue; it would have sat in an isolated part of town near a ruined Roman bathhouse that would have been feared and hated by the local bishops. Sign up to Headlines Europe A digest of the morning's main headlines from the Europe edition emailed direct to you every week day after newsletter promotion 'The Roman baths were the last pagan place that remained in a city,' said Ceprián. 'It was something diabolical and therefore something that had to be outside the Christian world. It seems to be the case that the baths in Cástulo had already been closed by the end of the fourth century, or the beginning of the fifth century.' He argues that the synagogue's location, so close to a font of paganism, would have helped the local Christian hierarchy in its efforts to conflate Judaism with unholy practices: 'The Jews would have had few options and at that moment it's clear that it's the bishops who are fundamentally organising the town – and it would allow them to relate Jews with evil.' If the researchers' theories were to be confirmed, the Cástulo synagogue would be among the very oldest Jewish temples on the Iberia peninsula. Spain's handful of surviving original synagogues are mainly medieval. The most recently discovered synagogue, in the Andalucían city of Utrera, dates from the 1300s. The problem for Ceprián and his colleagues – as they acknowledge – is the lack of written historical corroboration. 'I'm sure there will be criticism, which is totally legitimate – that's how science works and how it has to work,' he said. 'But of course we believe we've provided data with enough seriousness to allow ourselves to posit it.' Whether the building was a church or a synagogue, those digging up Cástulo have uncovered evidence of what would appear to be a small Jewish community living, if only for a while, in peaceful coexistence with their Christian neighbours. As the centuries wore on and the church propagated the otherness of Spain's Jewish inhabitants in order to forge and galvanise a Christian identity, there were pogroms and, finally, the expulsion of the country's Jewish population in 1492. 'It shows us that there was a good coexistence between all the different social groups or faith groups that were there at that time,' said Ceprián. 'But later, from the time when the Christian church begins to grow stronger in the Roman government, you start to get powerful groups opposed to those who are weaker in society. Oddly, that's something that's happening now, too.'
