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Bevaix Boat

The document describes a 1st-century Gallo-Roman wreck discovered in Lake Neuchatel, Switzerland called the Bevaix boat. The remains of the 19.4 meter oak boat and a modern reconstruction are displayed in a museum. The boat had flat bottom construction without a keel and internal oak frames arranged in pairs to form the sides.

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72 views2 pages

Bevaix Boat

The document describes a 1st-century Gallo-Roman wreck discovered in Lake Neuchatel, Switzerland called the Bevaix boat. The remains of the 19.4 meter oak boat and a modern reconstruction are displayed in a museum. The boat had flat bottom construction without a keel and internal oak frames arranged in pairs to form the sides.

Uploaded by

Ajay Bharadvaj
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Bevaix boat - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.

org/wiki/Bevaix_boat

Bevaix boat
The Bevaix boat is a 1st-century Gallo-Roman wreck from the
Bay of Bevaix, Lake Neuchatel, Switzerland. The remains of the
ship, and a modern reconstruction, are on display at the
Laténium archeology museum.

Contents
The boat
Framing
Caulking
References

The boat
The Bevaix boat was built from large oak planks and measured
19.40 metres (63.6 ft) in length and around 2.90 metres (9.5 ft) in
beam. It is characterized by a flat bottom and the complete
absence of a keel or any central plank. Its four principle bottom
planks were arranged one besides the other in a way that the first
plank forms the stern and the last one forms the bow. The beam
of the boat was determined by the addition of L-shaped bilge
strakes. These strakes allowed a direct transition between the flat
bottom and the sides of the boat. The spaces left between the
bilge strakes and the four large bottom planks were filled by two
planks with an irregular outline. The purpose of these last planks was to obtain appropriate symmetry
of the bottom. The upper strakes, those above the bilge strake, did not survive. However, evidence of
caulking, found on the upper edges of the bilge strakes clearly suggests that the sides had been
heightened by at least one or two strakes. This, in turn, led to estimates suggesting that the maximum
height of the boat was about 0.80 to 0.90 metres (2.6 to 3.0 ft).

Framing
Twenty-two pairs of internal frames, also made of oak, were arranged head to tail to give almost
vertical sides. All the pairs consisted of two timbers, each made of a single naturally bent timber
which was cut from a tree junction (main trunk as floor support, and branch junction as side support).
In every case, frames were always installed in pairs covering the whole length of the bottom, but
alternatively supporting only one side of the hull. The only exception is a sixth pair, which was a single
piece of oak with a mortise cut in the center to function as a mast-step. The framing was fastened to
the planks with some 300 iron nails driven from inside. They passed first through the frame, and then
the strakes. Any projecting end was clenched at the right angle (double-clenched according to some
sources).

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Bevaix boat - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bevaix_boat

Caulking
The Bevaix boat presents a very distinctive caulking technique, which clearly differentiated it from
similar finds of this period from other parts of Europe. It was observed that caulking was consistently
present between all the planks of the boat. First, a string was inserted into the seam. Next, this string
was covered by layer of mosses, which in turn was held by a wooden lath that was secured with
thousands of little caulking nails, inserted into the seams from the outside.

References
Arnold, B. 1975. The Gallo-Roman boat from the Bay of Bevaix, Lake Neuchatel, Switzerland,
IJNA 4: 123-141
Arnold, B. 1980. Navigation sur le Lac Neuchatel; une esquisse a travers le temp, Helvetia
Archaeologica
Arnold, B. 1979. Gallo-Roman boat finds in Switzerland, CBA Research Report 24: 31-5
Gardiner, R. 1996. The Earliest Ships: 66-7

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