Ladispoli, turn of the era
Country: Italy
Place: Off Ladispoli, near Rome (Lazio), at a depth of 12 m
Coordinates (approximate): 41.94, 12.07
Type: Roman merchant ship carrying wine in bulk (dolia ship)
Identified: No
Dated: Turn of the era, based on the stamps on the Arretine ware.
Beam: Unknown.
Keel Length: Unknown; 6.30 m preserved.
Length Overall: Unknown.
Number of Masts: Unknown.
History of the wreck
The Ladispoli wreck lies near Rome, off the town that gives it its name. It was excavated between 1983 and 1985. The identification of the workshop of C. PIRANUS in the in planta pedis stamps allowed Minturnae to be identified as the port where the ship was fitted out with its cargo. The stamps on the Arretine ware allowed the wreck to be dated to the turn of the era.
Description of the site
The wreck lies at a depth of 12 m. The surviving connected remains of the hull measure approximately 6.60 × 3.30 m and have very flat lines over a sandy seabed (Figure 1).
Figure 1. Plan of the hull remains. The ceiling planks and mast step are shown by dotted lines (after Carre 1993: 13). The details of pegs, treenails and nails are not exhaustive (Carre 1993: 12).
Cargo
The main cargo consisted of five large dolia of two different types, together with numerous fragments of others, which covered the remains of the hull. At both bow and stern the ship also carried Campanian Dressel 2-4 amphorae, as well as some decorative elements of a kline, with a wooden duck’s head bearing impressions of inlaid coloured stones, and a physician’s kit.
Ballast
Not reported.
Anchors
Not reported.
Guns
Not applicable.
Iron concretions
Not reported. There are traces of nails on the upper faces of the frames.
Hull Remains
In the campaign before 1985, remains of the ceiling strakes and stringers of the hold were recorded, as well as the mast step, all of which have since completely disappeared. During the study of the hull it was not possible to make a systematic observation of the joints between the planking strakes and the frames that would allow the building process of the Ladispoli to be defined. A dozen small wooden pistons from the ship’s bilge pump were found (6.8 cm in diameter and 1 cm thick).
Keel, keelson and mast step
The keel (Pinus pinaster) is preserved over 6.30 m of its length, with no scarfs surviving at its ends. Its underside corresponds to the outside of the trunk from which it was made; there is no information on its shape beyond the western end, where it looks somewhat polygonal (Figure 2). It has an unusual section (Gianfrotta and Pomey 1981: 237), since it is wider than it is high (14.5 × 12 cm), like the keels of the Giraglia 2, Cap del Vol, Perduto 1 or SM 24, with a bevelled rabbet along its whole length according to its excavators.1
The shape of the garboard strakes and their joints with the keel means that the keel lies below the horizontal plane formed by the strakes (Figure 2), which may recall the shape of ships with pinched bottoms (retour de galbord) such as Roche Fouras, and to some extent Titan, the only known parallel being the Giraglia 2 and, with reservations, the Nemi ships.
The mast step is known only from some photographs of 1984 and a sketch, with contradictory data. It was preserved over 1.60 m of its length, but its impression on the frames extends it to 2.50 m. It was fitted to the framing by a series of triangular notches (25 cm long and 5 cm high) in the edges between the upper and side faces, worked so as to face each other (Figure 4), the underside of the mast step being worked “in negative” to fit over the framing with these triangular notches. The dimensions of the only mortise observed, 12 cm a side, suggest that it was for a stanchion and not for the foot of the mast.
Figure 2. Cross-section of the keel and garboard strakes at the western end of the Ladispoli (after Carre 1993: 14).
Frames
The framing (Quercus sp., Ulmus sp., Populus sp.) does not follow an alternation of floor timbers and half-frames; on the contrary, the central area of the hull seems to be reinforced by continuous pieces, which is unusual in ancient shipbuilding2 and may be related to a construction specific to the transport of dolia. At the time of excavation the traces of 26 frames were observed, of which thirteen were surely floor timbers, although up to 21 are counted in the earlier sketches.
The frames have an average sided dimension of 10 cm and a moulded dimension of 20 cm over the keel and 18 cm at the ends, and the room-and-space (malla) is between 12 and 15 cm (reaching 20 cm in an isolated case). Their shape is very flat, and they have a heel cut in their underside to fit perfectly over the garboard strakes and the keel, which lies below the horizontal plane formed by them (Figure 3). Some floor timbers continue with very poorly preserved futtocks, which rest against the floor timbers by a bevelled cut3 with a gap of 2 cm (M19, M10 and M7), as in the Colonia Sant Jordi. The frames are fastened to the hull by cylindrical treenails about 2 cm in diameter, driven from the outside of the hull.4 They are spaced 7 to 12 cm apart, with two treenails per hull strake, the fastening beginning at the garboard strakes. In some cases they are not driven perpendicular to the frame but through the side faces, emerging centred on the underside (Figure 4), as in M11, 12, 16, 18 and 21. Although this is not a systematic observation, it seems that the treenails in the eastern part of the hull are on the north face of the floor timbers and those in the western part on the south face,5 as in the Giraglia 2. There are traces of nails on the upper faces of the frames (with a possible alternation of fixed stringers6 and removable ceiling strakes, all of Pinus pinaster), as well as some nails fastening the frames to the hull, but never fastening the framing to the keel.
To allow water to circulate in the bilge there are semicircular limber holes right in the heel of the floor timbers. There are also triangular lateral limber holes (7 cm wide and 4 cm high), placed systematically about 80/90 cm from the keel, as in the Giraglia 2, justified by the very flat shape of the hull (Figures 5 and 6).
Figure 3. Drawing of floor timber M16, to which a futtock is attached by a bevelled scarf, as in the Sant Jordi 1 wreck. The lateral limber holes are triangular (after Carre 1993: 23).
Figure 4. Drawing of floor timbers M11 and M21, two examples in which the treenails are driven through the side faces: on one side of the keel in one, and on the opposite side in the other, as in the Giraglia 2 (after Carre 1993: 22).
Figure 5. Cross-sections of the floor timbers and the hull (after Carre 1993: 21).
Figure 6. Cross-sections of the floor timbers and the hull (after Carre 1993: 22).
Planking
The garboard strakes have a pentagonal section with sharp edges and were worked with an adze. Their largest face is the one in contact with the keel, 8 cm high, decreasing to 4.5 cm at the side face in contact with the second strake. The mortise-and-tenon joint in the rabbet (staggered) is locked by pegs driven from the inside of the hull, so this bottom section was built before the frames were fitted. The spacing between the mortises is 2.5 to 3 cm, so they are closer together than in the rest of the hull.
The other hull planks (Pinus pinaster) gradually lose thickness from the garboard strake to an average of 4 cm, the mortises being spaced 4.5 to 5 cm apart, also staggered. The width of the strakes varies between 15 and 20 cm, and there are simple bevelled scarfs joining two lengths of plank in the same strake, arranged in the hull with a certain planning and symmetry. Dismantling the second strake revealed a tenon 15 cm long, 5.5 cm wide and 1.5 cm thick. These dimensions, slightly smaller than those of the mortise, give the tenon some lateral play to solve the fit between two strakes. Many errors or omissions can be seen in the placing of the pairs of pegs, which is related to the mechanisation of the work (Figure 7).
Figure 7. View of the Ladispoli (after Felici 2002: 180), in which many errors or omissions in the placing of the pairs of pegs can be seen, related to the mechanisation of the work.
Ceiling, thick stuff, and wales
The ceiling strakes and stringers recorded before 1985 have since disappeared. There appears to have been an alternation of fixed stringers and removable ceiling strakes, all of Pinus pinaster.
Caulking
There are traces of pitch impregnation on the frames, but never large accumulations on the inner face of the hull, and there are no remains of external lead sheathing.
Size and scantlings
No estimate of the ship’s dimensions is given. The hull has very flat lines, with a keel wider than it is high (14.5 × 12 cm), robust frames (10 × 18–20 cm) at a tight room-and-space of 12–15 cm, and planking about 4 cm thick.
Table 1. Scantling of the timber remains of the Ladispoli Shipwreck
| Timber | Sided [cm] | Molded [cm] |
| Keel | 14.5 | 12 |
| Keelson | – | – |
| Maststep Mortise (stanchion) | – 12 × 12 | – – |
| Buttresses | – | – |
| Frames | 10 (avg.) | 20 (over keel) 18 (ends) |
| Futtocks | – | – |
| Room-and-space At central frames | 12–15 | |
| Planking Garboard | 15–20 – | 4 (avg.) 8 to 4.5 |
| Ceiling | – | – |
| Main mast Ø Chock | – – | – – |
The mast step was preserved over 1.60 m, its impression extending to 2.50 m. Planking: sided = width, moulded = thickness.
Wood
Keel, planking and ceiling: maritime pine (Pinus pinaster). Frames: oak (Quercus sp.), elm (Ulmus sp.) and poplar (Populus sp.).
Bibliography
Carre, M.-B. 1993. L’épave à dolia de Ladispoli (Étrurie méridionale). Archaeonautica 11: 9–29.
Felici, E. 2002. Archeologia subacquea. Metodi, tecniche e strumenti. Rome: Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato.
Gianfrotta, P. A. and Pomey, P. 1981. Archeologia subacquea. Storia, tecniche, scoperte e relitti. Milan: Mondadori.
Liou, B. and Domergue, C. 1990. Le commerce de la Bétique au Ier siècle de notre ère. L’épave Sud-Lavezzi 2 (Bonifacio, Corse du Sud). Archaeonautica 10: 11–123.
Santamaria, C. 1975. L’épave « H » de la Chrétienne à Saint-Raphaël (Var). Revue archéologique de Narbonnaise 8: 185–198.
Notes
1 The author considers this contradictory, given the lack of documentation for other parts of the keel. In the author’s own experience on the Giraglia 2, although the keel, very similar in shape to that of the Ladispoli, had a bevelled rabbet at its end, it was so gentle in the central part as to be imperceptible.
2 According to Carre (1993: 15), the Fos 1 wreck is an example of irregular alternation of floor timbers and half-frames. At the bow there are five consecutive floor timbers with a tight room-and-space, coinciding with the position of a keelson or mast step that has not survived but is attested by the notches. In the rest of the hull, two floor timbers alternate with one half-frame. In the Dramont A a succession of eight floor timbers is recorded (Santamaria 1975: 194). In the Sud Lavezzi 2 wreck, too, the rhythm is not alternating, and floor timbers predominate over half-frames (Liou and Domergue 1990: 121), following a 3-2 rhythm in one part of the hull.
3 The pieces of this framing have varied lengths, and their placing in the hull follows no rhythm.
4 The author sees no reason to specify this if the treenails are cylindrical.
5 Their placing in the side face, contrary to what was argued at the time (to avoid splitting), could be related both to the technical ease of drilling a hardwood and to the better hold of cylindrical treenails driven at an angle against the vertical stresses of the frame.
6 With the trace of a copper nail.