Cavalière, c. 100 BC
Country: France
Place: Bay of Cavalière, east of Le Lavandou (Var), 500 m from the rocky shore, at a depth of 43 m
Coordinates (approximate): 43.14, 6.44
Type: Small Roman Republican coastal trading vessel
Identified: No
Dated: c. 100 BC, based on coins from Numidia, Marseille and Carteia.
Beam: 3 m (Roman 1997: 97).
Keel Length: 9.50 m.
Length Overall: 13 m (Roman 1997: 97).
Number of Masts: One, stepped in the first third of the hull.
History of the wreck
The Cavalière wreck was discovered by Charlin in 1972 and excavated in four planned campaigns between 1974 and 1977 by Lequément and Charlin, with the logistical and financial support of DRASM (Charlin, Gassend and Lequément 1978). Three votive coins were found at the foot of the mast; unfortunately they were very worn and have been lost. A group of coins of very varied geographical origin was also found during the excavation, from Numidia, Marseille and Carteia, which helped to date the wreck to around 100 BC.
The Cavalière is a small coastal vessel, 13 m long and 3 m in beam, with a burden of 23 t (Roman 1997: 97). As its cargo shows, however, it either frequented major ports where goods of varied origins could be obtained, or it sailed all over the western Mediterranean. In the opinion of Guibal and Pomey, the shipyard that built the Cavalière was probably on the coast of Campania, Calabria or Illyria (see Wood).
Description of the site
The wreck lies east of Le Lavandou, in the bay of Cavalière, at a depth of 43 m and 500 m from the rocky coast. The hull was very well preserved from stem to sternpost and up to the turn of the bilge, over a length of 13 m and a width of 3 m, one side being better preserved than the other (Figure 1).
Figure 1. Plan of the Cavalière wreck (after Charlin, Gassend and Lequément 1978: 61).
Cargo
The unusual cargo of this ship was domestic pork, salted or smoked, of which numerous bones have survived. There were also about thirty amphorae: seven Dressel 1A, eight Dressel 1C and ten Lamboglia 2, together with four Punic amphorae and two from Kos. The pottery on board included Campanian A (forms Lamboglia 27, 36 and 5), Campanian B (forms Lamboglia 2, 4 and 5), a probable imitation of Campanian C (forms Lamboglia 4 and 7), a small olpe close to form 44b, a grey-ware biconical vessel of Emporitan production and five Iberian kalathoi. There was also common ware: containers, plates, cooking pots, lamps, fishing weights and sounding leads.
Ballast
The wreck had a substantial layer of basalt and limestone stones in the stern area, serving as ballast, of twofold origin: the subalkaline basalts come from the volcanic area of Liguria, as well as from the Côte d’Azur (Cap d’Ail) and the Sardinian coast; the limestones have a similar origin, the Côte d’Azur and Sardinia.
Anchors
A lead anchor stock was also preserved.
Guns
Not applicable.
Iron concretions
Not reported. The keel–garboard joint is reinforced with copper nails, and large bronze nails fasten the garboard strake to the floor timbers.
Hull Remains
The keel, the sternpost heel or skeg, the mast step, twenty planking strakes, forty-five frames and four ceiling strakes were preserved (Figure 1). Some lead sheets found on the wreck relate to small repairs to the hull, not to a complete sheathing.
Keel, keelson and mast step
The keel is 9.50 m long and of rectangular section, measuring 11 cm wide and 16 cm high in its central part. For the joint with the garboard strake there is a bevelled rabbet, 7 cm wide, cut in the side faces of the keel. The work carried out within the programme Dendrochronologie et dendromorphologie des épaves antiques de Méditerranée (Pomey and Guibal 1995) detected traces of fabric in the rabbet, used to improve watertightness, as well as the tacks used to fix it. The fastening of the keel to the garboard strakes was reinforced by copper nails driven obliquely from the outside. The joint with the sternpost (1.50 m long, 10 cm wide and 15 cm high) is a trait de Jupiter (rayo de Júpiter) scarf, with its locking key inserted horizontally (Figure 2). At this point the keel measures 7 cm wide and 13 cm high. The sternpost widens over a short distance of 10 cm to 11 cm, and this width is maintained to the end. The side faces of the sternpost have a very gentle notched rabbet, which becomes more marked along the whole preserved piece (Charlin et al. 1978: 62).
The stem rises at an angle of 30° to the axis of the keel. The garboard strake is joined to the stem by mortises and tenons spaced 5 cm apart, reinforced by nails driven obliquely every 30 cm. At 90 cm from the trait de Jupiter scarf joining the keel to the sternpost there is a reinforcement (heel or skeg) of the same width and 1.30 m long, forming a piece 26 cm high (twice the height of the sternpost) (Figures 2 and 7), with a very horizontal underside, as in the Kyrenia, Marsala, Cap del Vol and Palamós wrecks. The sternpost and skeg were joined by at least three vertical tenons (7 cm wide, 11 cm high and 1 cm thick), locked by pegs.
From frame M41 aft to M11, the floor timbers have a semicircular recess in their upper and side faces to house the mast step, which is very elongated and acts almost as a keelson, improving the strength of the backbone (Figure 3). The mast step, poorly preserved, has a somewhat irregular rectangular cross-section, 18 cm wide and an estimated 16 cm high. At M31, where the foot of the mast was, the mast step is 26 cm wide and 21 cm high. The analysis of the upper faces of the floor timbers indicates that the total length of the piece should have been 7.50 m. It has two mortises for locking wedges parallel to the main mortise, 28 cm apart. The mortise for a board locking the front of the mast is not adjacent but opposite, some tens of centimetres away, which is unusual. The curved shape of one of the faces of the main cavity indicates the position of the mast and the location of bow and stern.1 The arrangement of the mast step shows that the mast was in the first third of the length of the hull. Three votive coins, now lost, were found at the foot of the mast.
Figure 2. Axonometric views of the sternpost and its heel, with the trait de Jupiter scarf joining it to the keel. Note how the rabbet changes along its length (after Charlin, Gassend and Lequément 1978: 63).
Figure 3. Axonometric reconstruction of the arrangement of the mast step up to the mortise for the foot of the mast in the Cavalière wreck (after Charlin, Gassend and Lequément 1978: 75).
Frames
Fifteen floor timbers and thirty half-frames are preserved, alternating rhythmically with a room-and-space (malla) of 15 to 18 cm. The floor timbers have a slightly triangular profile, 20 cm moulded at the ship’s centreline, decreasing to 10 cm at the ends, and 9 cm sided. The floor timbers are continued by futtocks, which in some cases are placed with their side faces against the floor timbers rather than as a simple continuation of them. On their underside, over the keel, the floor timbers have triangular limber holes 8 cm high. Very importantly, large bronze nails were driven from the outside of the hull to fasten the garboard strake to the floor timbers. The second strake was also fastened to the floor timbers at the ends of the hull.
The method of fastening the framing to the hull was not correctly identified during the original excavation (Pomey 2002c: 598), when it was thought that wooden treenails in sets of two, driven from the outside, fastened the hull and frames. It was in 1995, during sampling within the programme Dendrochronologie et dendromorphologie des épaves antiques de Méditerranée (Pomey and Guibal 1996), that the system of fastening the framing to the hull by lashings locked by wooden treenails was identified. The lateral stresses borne by the fastenings between the hull and the framing can be seen in Figure 4.
The treenails vary in diameter between 1.5 and 1.9 cm, grouped in pairs 5 cm apart (the groove joining them is 1.55 cm wide and 0.7 cm deep) (Wicha 2010: 66), with about 30 cm between each pair. They have a flat cut on their side face to make room for the lashing cord. The presence of pitch on the treenails conceals the plant fibres. Pairs of treenails alternate with single treenails.
Figure 4. Detail of the system of fastening the frames to the hull by lashings locked by treenails (drawing by Rival, CCJ-CNRS, after Pomey and Guibal 1996: 57).
Planking
Two metres of the starboard side and between 80 cm and 1 m of the port side were preserved. The thickness of the planking strakes is very constant, 3 cm, but their width varies between 14 and 20 cm. There are more than ten bevelled scarfs on the starboard side joining the lengths of plank in a strake (Figure 1). The mortises are 6 cm wide, 12 to 13 cm deep and 0.6 cm thick. The locking pegs are 0.9 cm in diameter on the inner face of the hull.
The garboard strake has a polygonal, sculpted section, its inner and outer faces slightly rounded, with the angles needed to soften the pinched lines from the keel to the second strake. In no case, however, can the hull lines be described as excessively pinched; they are rather rounded, but with a somewhat prominent keel (Figures 5 and 6). The garboard strake is 4 cm thick at the edge in contact with the keel and 3 cm at the edge in contact with the second strake (Figure 5). Another particularity is the reinforcement of the backbone by an additional plank fitted on the outside of the hull, joining the keel, the garboard strake and the second strake, only in the area of the sternpost (Figure 7).
Figure 5. Section of the keel showing the shape of the garboard strake, with its upper and lower faces slightly rounded (after Charlin, Gassend and Lequément 1978: 69).
Figure 6. Sections of the Cavalière wreck (after Charlin, Gassend and Lequément 1978: 60).
Figure 7. Axonometric view of the external longitudinal reinforcing plank joining the garboard strake to the keel (after Charlin, Gassend and Lequément 1978: 64).
Ceiling, thick stuff, and wales
Over the frames, only four ceiling strakes of the hold were preserved. They are 15 cm wide and 3 cm thick, and are fastened to the framing by nails in pairs at each frame, the nails being 5 cm apart.
Caulking
Traces of fabric were found in the keel rabbet, used to improve watertightness, together with the tacks that held it in place. Pitch covered the treenails of the lashings.
Size and scantlings
A small coastal vessel 13 m long and 3 m in beam, with a burden of 23 t (Roman 1997: 97). The rounded hull with a somewhat prominent keel, the light planking (3 cm) and the frames of 9 × 20 cm at a room-and-space of 15–18 cm characterise the structure.
Table 1. Scantling of the timber remains of the Cavalière Shipwreck
| Timber | Sided [cm] | Molded [cm] |
| Keel At sternpost scarf | 11 7 | 16 13 |
| Sternpost With heel (skeg) | 10–11 10–11 | 15 26 |
| Keelson | – | – |
| Maststep At mast foot (M31) | 18 26 | c. 16 21 |
| Buttresses | – | – |
| Floor timbers | 9 | 20 (centre) – 10 (ends) |
| Futtocks | – | – |
| Room-and-space At central frames | 15–18 | |
| Planking Garboard | 14–20 – | 3 4–3 |
| Ceiling | 15 | 3 |
| Main mast Ø Chock | – – | – – |
The mast step is estimated at 7.50 m long. Planking and ceiling: sided = width, moulded = thickness.
Wood
The species used in the construction of this ship is of great significance: Bosnian pine (Pinus leucodermis) for the keel, planking, frames, ceiling strakes and mast step (Rival 1991: 20–30). This species of pine points to a restricted geographical origin, unlike what is usual with other Mediterranean species. In the opinion of Guibal and Pomey, the shipyard that built the Cavalière2 was probably on the coast of Campania, Calabria or Illyria.
Bibliography
Charlin, G., Gassend, J.-M. and Lequément, R. 1978. L’épave antique de la baie de Cavalière (Le Lavandou, Var). Archaeonautica 2: 9–93.
Guibal, F. and Pomey, P. 2002. Essences et qualité des bois utilisés dans la construction navale antique. L’apport de l’étude anatomique et dendrochronologique. Forêt méditerranéenne 23.2.
Guibal, F. and Pomey, P. 2003. Timber supply and ancient naval architecture. In C. Beltrame (ed.), Boats, Ships and Shipyards. Proceedings of the Ninth International Symposium on Boat and Ship Archaeology, Venice 2000, 35–41. Oxford: Oxbow.
Pomey, P. 2002c. Une nouvelle tradition technique d’assemblage antique: l’assemblage de la membrure par ligatures et chevilles. In H. Tzalas (ed.), Tropis VII. 7th International Symposium on Ship Construction in Antiquity, Pylos 1999, 597–604. Athens.
Pomey, P. and Guibal, F. 1995. [Full reference to be completed.]
Pomey, P. and Guibal, F. 1996. Dendrochronologie et dendromorphologie des épaves antiques de Méditerranée: épave de la Roche-Fouras. Bilan scientifique du DRASSM 1995, 56–57. Paris.
Rival, M. 1991. La charpenterie navale romaine. Matériaux, méthodes, moyens. Travaux du Centre Camille Jullian 6. Paris: CNRS.
Roman, R. 1997. Étude architecturale comparative de sept navires de commerce gréco-romains et byzantins. Doctoral thesis. Lille: ANRT.
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 The interpretation is that the vertical face of the main mortise faced the stern. This is justified by the mechanical stress exerted by the sail during navigation, with parallels in cases where the position of bow and stern is clearly defined (e.g. Saint Gervais 3), and by the ease it gives for lowering the mast aft, of which there are examples in iconography.
2 “For the Cavalière ship, assuming construction either on the Campanian or Calabrian coast or on the Illyrian coast, the Bosnian pine formations were never more than 50 km from the coast” (Guibal and Pomey 2002: 100; Guibal and Pomey 2003: 38; translated from the French).