Albufereta 1, second half of the 1st century AD
Country: Spain
Place: Bay of La Albufereta, Alicante
Coordinates (approximate): 38.36, -0.43
Type: Roman merchant ship
Identified: No
Dated: Second half of the 1st century AD, based on the tituli picti on the amphorae.
Beam: Unknown.
Keel Length: Unknown; the keel was not found.
Length Overall: Estimated at 13–14 m.
Number of Masts: Unknown.
History of the wreck
The ship, carrying a cargo from Baetica, sank in the Bay of La Albufereta (Alicante), relatively close to the port of Lucentum, in an area sheltered and protected from storms. The excavation was carried out in 2002 under a collaboration agreement between several public institutions (Márquez and Molina 2005; Fernández et al. 2008; Juan Fuertes 2008). The wreck is dated to around the second half of the 1st century AD through the study of a rich assemblage of preserved tituli picti.
Description of the site
The wreck lies at a depth of 5 m. The surviving portion of the hull corresponds to one of the sides of the ship, close to the turn of the bilge; the keel was not located. The remains, measuring 8 × 1.80 m, preserved 29 frames and 6 strakes of planking, some of them made up of several lengths of plank (Figure 1).
A chain of pistons of wild olive/olive wood (Olea europaea) from the ship’s bilge pump was found, still connected to one another. Associated with the hull fragment were also part of what might be a mat, some basketry handles and fragments of a net. Numerous ropes of various sizes were also found, one of which stood out for its thickness; it was interpreted as the ship’s mooring line and ran away from the site.
Figure 1. Plan and sections of the Albufereta 1 wreck; C = frame, T = strake (after Juan Fuertes 2008: 165).
Cargo
The ship carried a homogeneous cargo, stowed in a single operation at the port of departure. It consisted of Dressel 20 olive-oil amphorae, stowed over approximately one tonne of circular copper ingots known as galápagos. Vine shoots were also found in the hold together with the copper ingots. The amphorae preserved a rich assemblage of tituli picti, which date the wreck.
Ballast
Not reported.
Anchors
Not reported.
Guns
Not applicable.
Iron concretions
No iron concretions were observed on the upper faces of the frames when they were lifted, which suggests that the ceiling was not fastened to the hull. Some ceiling planks bore remains of copper concretions, presumably from the ingot cargo.
Hull Remains
The surviving hull is a section of one side of the ship near the turn of the bilge, 8 m long and 1.80 m wide, with 29 frames and 6 strakes of planking (Figure 1).
Keel, keelson and mast step
Not preserved; the keel was not located.
Frames
The framing is robust, consisting of well-sawn timbers of rectangular section with an average moulded dimension of 18 cm and an average sided dimension of 9 cm. The space between frames (malla de separación) is 14 cm. The frames are fastened to the planking with treenails, an average of 9 per linear metre of frame, 1.8–2 cm in diameter. Numerous iron nails were driven blind (a punta perdida) from the outside of the hull, unrelated to the position of the treenails and spaced about 10 cm apart (Figure 2). The rhythmic alternation observed in the framing suggests an alternating sequence of floor timbers and half-frames.
Figure 2. Distribution of the wooden treenails (cabillas) and blind iron nails (clavos a punta perdida) in frame C-7, now missing from the wreck; clavijas = pegs locking the mortise-and-tenon joints (photo: C. de Juan Fuertes).
Planking
The planking strakes are on average 5.9 cm thick and 29 cm wide, of Aleppo pine (Pinus halepensis). Their lengths vary, the longest being strake T3, almost 8 m long. The only complete length of strake preserved is in T4, 5.90 m long. The planks are edge-joined with mortise-and-tenon joints; the tenons, of olive wood (Olea europaea), measure 9.4 cm in width, 11.4 cm in depth and 1.2 cm in thickness. Lengths of plank within a strake are joined with simple diagonal scarfs.
Ceiling, thick stuff, and wales
The floor of the hold, beneath the copper ingots and the vine shoots, was formed by a series of parallel planks (Figure 3). Some of them were heavily deformed and broken, with remains of copper concretions. Apparently none of them served as a longitudinal reinforcement, since they did not appear to be physically attached to the frames. They were laid in an orderly pattern, a strake made up of several short planks alternating with a strake consisting of one long plank, both types of the same thickness. The ceiling was apparently not attached to the hull, since no iron concretions were observed on the upper faces of the frames when they were removed, which could indicate that it was frequently taken up to clean the bilge. Once placed inside the hull, the planks would rest butted against each other (a tope) by gravity, and once the ship was loaded, the weight of the cargo would hold them in place throughout the voyage. The Napoli A and Napoli C wrecks offer a very close parallel for this arrangement, although in those wrecks the planks acting as stringers are fastened to the frames and are thicker.
The hull has a wale (cinta de carena) fitted directly over one of the planking strakes. Following the logic of the construction process, this longitudinal reinforcement was therefore added after the shell had been assembled, either during construction or later, possibly even as a repair, as in the Napoli A. It is fastened to strake T-6 with numerous cylindrical wooden treenails 1.8 cm in diameter. Its distal end has an angular finish, which must certainly be related to the stern of the ship.1
Figure 3. Views of the plan. The centre view shows the arrangement of the ceiling planks, alternating what may have been fixed and removable planks (after Juan Fuertes 2008: 166).
Caulking
Not reported.
Size and scantlings
This was a small ship, with a length estimated by observation at 13–14 m and a burden which, according to the 18th-century French navy formula,2 could have been between 19 and 34 t. Its approximate draught could have been 1.30 m (2/3 of its theoretical depth in hold). The author interprets it as a vessel that would have sailed up the Guadalquivir to the port of Hispalis to load as close as possible to the centres where olive oil was produced and packed, hence its short length and shallow draught, although the thickness of its planking and its tight frame spacing suggest a very robust vessel.
Table 1. Scantling of the timber remains of the Albufereta 1 Shipwreck
| Timber | Sided [cm] | Molded [cm] |
| Keel | – | – |
| Keelson | – | – |
| Maststep Mortise | – – | – – |
| Buttresses | – | – |
| Floor timbers | 9 (avg.) | 18 (avg.) |
| Futtocks | 9 (avg.) | 18 (avg.) |
| Room-and-space At central frames | 14 (space) | |
| Planking | 29 | 5.9 |
| Ceiling | – | – |
| Main mast Ø Chock | – – | – – |
avg. = average dimensions for all frames; floor timbers and half-frames are not distinguished in the source. Planking: sided = width, moulded = thickness.
Wood
Planking: Aleppo pine (Pinus halepensis). Tenons: olive (Olea europaea). Bilge-pump pistons: wild olive/olive (Olea europaea). The species of the frames, treenails, ceiling and wale are not reported.
Bibliography
Fernández, A., Aguilera, A. and Berni, P. 2008. El pecio romano de la Albufereta (Alicante): un documento de época pre-flavia. In J. Pérez and G. Berlanga (eds), Actas de las V Jornadas de Arqueología Subacuática, 231–246. Valencia.
Juan Fuertes, C. de 2008. La construcción naval del pecio de la Albufereta (Alicante). Un velero de comercio del s. I procedente de la Bética. Saguntum 40: 161–176.
Márquez, J. C. and Molina, J. 2005. [Full reference to be completed.]
Pomey, P. and Rieth, E. 2005. L’archéologie navale. Paris: Errance.
Notes
1 If we consider the position in which the chain of bilge-pump pistons was found [the note breaks off here in the source text].
2 According to the French navy formula: length 43.20 ft × beam 14.19 ft × depth 7.09 ft / 94 × 0.75 × 0.979 = 34 t; length 43.20 ft × beam 10.80 ft × depth 5.40 ft / 94 × 0.75 × 0.979 = 19 t (cf. Pomey and Rieth 2005: 44).