Cap Béar 3, third quarter of the 1st century BC
Country: France
Place: Cap Béar, near Port-Vendres (Pyrénées-Orientales), at a depth of 40 m
Coordinates (approximate): 42.51, 3.14
Type: Small Roman coastal trading vessel
Identified: No
Dated: Third quarter of the 1st century BC, based on the Dressel 12 amphorae (Liou and Pomey 1985: 551).
Beam: Unknown.
Keel Length: Unknown; 1.50 m preserved.
Length Overall: Estimated at 12–15 m.
Number of Masts: Unknown; a mast step is preserved but has no mortise for the mast.
History of the wreck
The Cap Béar 3 wreck lies at a depth of 40 m off the département of Pyrénées-Orientales, near Port-Vendres.1 It was discovered in 1982 and excavated in 1984 by Colls. Its state of preservation was considered exceptional, with its cargo in situ. However, the depth and poor visibility did not allow good archaeological recording by drawing and photography, so there are many gaps in its study. Nevertheless, it is notable as the wreck in which the fastening of the frames to the hull by internal lashings was identified for the first time.2
As a coastal trading and redistribution vessel, the heterogeneity of its cargo is explained by its having sailed from, or called at, a major port of Tarraconensis or Narbonensis before it sank.
Description of the site
The wreck lies at a depth of 40 m. The hull remains3 are in relatively good condition, preserved over a length of 8.20 m and a width of 8.70 m, with the keel, a keelson serving as mast step, stringers, ceiling strakes, 13 frames and several strakes (Figure 1).
Figure 1. Plan of the excavation of the Cap Béar 3 (Colls 1982, DRASSM archive).
Cargo
The cargo of this small coaster is an example of heterogeneity, with amphorae of various origins. There were 148 Dressel 1B amphorae, which cannot be confidently assigned to Campania or Etruria and may be Hispanic copies, given the similarity of their fabrics to those of Laietanian amphorae.4 The ship also carried Catalan wine amphorae such as Pascual 1 (50 examples, with stamps) and Laietana 1 (at least 6), and Dressel 12 amphorae with Baetican salted fish. The latter allowed the wreck to be dated to the third quarter of the 1st century BC (Liou and Pomey 1985: 551).
Ballast
Not reported.
Anchors
Not reported.
Guns
Not applicable.
Iron concretions
Not reported.
Hull Remains
The preserved hull, 8.20 m long and 8.70 m wide, includes the keel, a keelson serving as mast step, two keelsons, stringers, ceiling strakes, 13 frames and several strakes (Figure 1). The Cap Béar 3 cannot be considered a ship with a pinched bottom; it is rather a rounded hull, or perhaps flat in its central part, which was not studied.
Keel, keelson and mast step
The keel, with 1.50 m preserved and a rising profile, has a trapezoidal section 21 cm high and up to 20 cm wide (Figure 2), with a bevelled rabbet. It is joined to the stem by a trait de Jupiter (rayo de Júpiter) scarf of classic type. The garboard strake, on the face in contact with the keel, likewise has a slight bevelled rabbet, giving it a slightly polygonal section, to obtain the deadrise the shipwrights wanted in this part of the hull near the beginning of the stem, where the angles gradually close.
On the ship’s centreline, over the keel, two keelsons reinforce the framing, flanking the mast step fore and aft (Wicha 2010: 98). The one near the stem is 1.37 m long, 12.5 cm wide and 12 cm high, ending in a bevel near the mast step. It is fastened with nails. The keelson in the after part has a preserved length of 1.50 m, a width of 12 cm and a height of 7 cm. It is fixed onto the framing by means of notches and grooves in its underside that fit over the frames. It has two small mortises for stanchions.
The timber identified as the mast step (Figure 3) was perfectly preserved, 3.24 m long. It is similar in form to that of the Plane 1 wreck. It is wider at the after end (20 cm) than towards the bow (13 cm). Its underside was cut with alternating notches for the floor timbers and recesses to fit over the half-frames. Mechanically, the floor timbers give a good hold against the longitudinal stresses on the mast step, while the half-frames flanking it on both sides reinforce it and prevent transverse stresses from displacing it. Paradoxically, the characteristic mortises for the foot of the mast were not found in it, which raises doubts about the propulsion of this ship.
Figure 2. Cross-section of the hull of the Cap Béar 3, showing the shape of the keel and the garboard strake and the system of fastening the frame to the hull (Pomey et al. 1988: 3).
Figure 3. Drawing of the mast step, which does not have the characteristic mortises for the mast (Colls 1982, DRASSM archive).
Frames
The framing consists of a regular alternation of floor timbers and half-frames (Figure 4), with a room-and-space (malla) of 15 cm, which is wide compared with the average moulded dimension of the half-frames, 7.5 to 9.5 cm, and their sided dimension of 8.5 cm. This alternation disappears near the stem, where only floor timbers reinforce the hull transversely. The half-frames do not reach the keel but end on the garboard strake, with the face nearest the centreline smoothly bevelled without angles, which recalls the Cavalière and Palamós wrecks. The floor timbers under the mast step have notches to engage the grooves in the underside of the mast step; these seem to follow a rhythm along the side faces of the floor timbers. They also have a central limber hole of rectangular section, about 5.5 cm wide and 2.5 cm high.
As noted above, the importance of this wreck lies in its being the first in which Colls documented internal lashings locked by treenails, alternating with single treenails, for fastening the frames to the hull. Each frame of the Cap Béar 3 follows a regular scheme: starting from the centreline, the fastening to the hull begins with an internal lashing and continues alternately with a single treenail or another pair for a lashing, creating an overall staggered (quincunx) pattern of these fastenings when seen from above (Figure 5). The cylindrical treenails have diameters of 1.3–1.4 cm to 2.2 cm (Wicha 2010: 98); the distance between the two treenails of a lashing pair is 3.5 to 4.5 cm, and the average distance to the single treenail between the lashing pairs is 13.5 cm. The channel for the lashing in the upper face of the frames is 1 cm, with an equivalent one in the outer face of the planking strakes, so that the plant fibres are never exposed on the outside; they were also protected by resin. There are also blind nails (a punta perdida) between the single treenails and the lashing pairs. The cord itself is made of plant fibres of cypress or juniper (Cupressus, Juniperus), twisted in a single strand.
Figure 4. Axonometric view of the Cap Béar 3, showing the arrangement of the floor timbers with the notches to house the mast step, the shape of the limber holes in the floor timbers, how the half-frames do not reach the keel, one of the keelsons, and the removable ceiling strakes and stringers (Colls 1982, DRASSM archive).
Figure 5. Arrangement of the pairs of treenails and single treenails along the frames. A pair of treenails always falls on the garboard strake (galbord), and from there the arrangement alternates for each strake of the hull (virures du bordé), creating a staggered pattern of these fastenings (Colls 1986, DRASSM archive).
Planking
The strakes are 2.5 to 4 cm thick, with an average width of 20 cm. The spacing of the mortises joining the strakes varies from 7.7 to 9 cm; the mortises are 3.3 to 4.7 cm wide and 0.5 to 0.7 cm thick, their depth being unknown. The tenons, well fitted, have average widths between 4 and 4.5 cm and a thickness of 0.4 cm. The locking pegs were driven from the inside of the hull and vary in size, from 0.9 to 1.3 cm in diameter on the inner face and from 0.7 to 1.2 cm on the outer face (Wicha 2010: 97).
Ceiling, thick stuff, and wales
Both the keelsons and the mast step are flanked by two removable ceiling strakes, 13 and 14 cm wide and 1.5 to 2 cm thick, which begin an alternation, across the whole excavated area, between removable ceiling strakes and stringers. The stringers are more robust, 21 cm wide and 3.5 to 4 cm thick, and are nailed onto the framing.
Caulking
Not reported. The lashings were protected with resin (see Frames).
Size and scantlings
A small coastal vessel of about 12–15 m in length. The framing is light, with half-frames of 8.5 × 7.5–9.5 cm at a room-and-space of 15 cm, and the planking is 2.5 to 4 cm thick.
Table 1. Scantling of the timber remains of the Cap Béar 3 Shipwreck
| Timber | Sided [cm] | Molded [cm] |
| Keel | 20 (max.) | 21 |
| Keelson Forward Aft | 12.5 12 | 12 7 |
| Maststep Mortise | 13–20 – | – – |
| Buttresses | – | – |
| Floor timbers | – | – |
| Half-frames | 8.5 | 7.5–9.5 |
| Room-and-space At central frames | 15 | |
| Planking | 20 (avg.) | 2.5–4 |
| Ceiling Removable strakes Stringers | 13–14 21 | 1.5–2 3.5–4 |
| Main mast Ø Chock | – – | – – |
Mast step 3.24 m long, 20 cm wide aft and 13 cm forward. Planking and ceiling: sided = width, moulded = thickness.
Wood
According to the identifications by J.-L. Vernet: frames, Aleppo pine (Pinus halepensis); tenons, holm oak (Quercus ilex); stringers and treenails, silver fir (Abies alba); keel, planking and ceiling strakes, pine (Pinus?). The lashing cord is made of cypress or juniper fibres (Cupressus, Juniperus).
Bibliography
Liou, B. and Pomey, P. 1985. Recherches archéologiques sous-marines. Gallia 43.2: 547–576.
Pomey, P. 1986. [Full reference to be completed.]
Pomey, P., Long, L., L’Hour, M., Richez, F. and Bernard, H. 1988. Recherches sous-marines. Gallia Informations 1987–1988.1. Paris: CNRS.
Wicha, S. 2010. Caractérisation d’un groupe d’épaves antiques de Méditerranée présentant un assemblage des membrures par ligatures végétales: approche architecturale et paléobotanique. Saarbrücken (doctoral thesis, Université de Provence, Aix-en-Provence, 2005).
Notes
1 An underwater site of historiographical importance for the development of underwater archaeology in Catalonia, because of its geographical proximity. The excavations were visited on numerous occasions by collaborators of the CASC (Centre d’Arqueologia Subaquàtica de Catalunya) together with Nieto, among them the author.
2 In 1986 Pomey related it to a long tradition of sewn ships assembled with lashings, while stressing that this was “the first time such an example is attested in the westernmost part of the Mediterranean. Moreover, the use of a partial system of lashings for the assembly of the frames alone, while the rest of the structure, and notably the planking, is assembled in the usual way by mortise and tenon, is quite unique and, to say the least, surprising from a technical point of view” (translated from the French).
3 Much of the data on this wreck has been taken from the unpublished doctoral thesis of Marlier.
4 M.-P. Jézégou reviewed the material deposited in the stores at Port-Vendres, and at least 17 examples of the Dressel 1B type have Laietanian fabrics (Wicha 2010: 95).