News & Events

Senior Lecturer at Bournemouth University and Project Leader of the Swash Channel Wreck Project, Dave Parham, featured in the Telegraph, talking about what the wreck is in build up to the surfacing.

The 130ft ship, bigger than the Mary Rose, will have its 27ft, 2.4 tonne rudder surfaced today and is considered a “highly anticipated event”.

So far there are several clues to what the ship was and why it sank and with over 1000 artefacts recovered, people are starting to piece together the true identity of the Swash Channel Wreck. Some believe that the ship was a Spanish Armada vessel (San Salvador), which was lost in 1588. But on further inspection the vessel’s timber frame was felled in 1628 from forests in the coastal region of the Netherlands-Germany Border.

From this, the ship is most likely a Dutch owned artefact.

“I’m surprised we haven’t found any reference to a sinking.” Parham added.  “There is usually some sort of argument or claim that gives you your starting point. It doesn’t appear to have survived in the popular memory, as others have. We have been working on names, but there is no smoking gun, which is surprising, because it is a big ship and its sinking would have been a big event.”

Dave Parham goes on to explain that the facial carving that appears on the uncovered rudder could “provide a breakthrough” and that the carving is similar to one found on a Swedish ship wreck.

“It is an artistic object, which may give information about its origins”.

The Swash Channel Wreck is a project funded by Bournemouth University, English Heritage, the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Poole Harbour Commissioners.

Dean Eastmond

Dean is a student at Budmouth College in Weymouth, who is working at Bournemouth University in the Press and PR Department. He joined BU on a Sir Samuel Mico Scholarship, which provides 10 students from his college with essential work experience for four weeks over the summer.