Lake Garda (fusta), 1509

Country: Italy

Place: Lake Garda, several hundred meters from Lazise, southeastern coastline

Type: Fusta (a small oared galley-type vessel)

Identified: Not identified by name; historically documented as one of two fustas (alongside a single galley) stationed at the Lazise arsenal, deliberately burned by order of the Venetian Senate

Dated: 31 May 1509, when deliberately burned and scuttled

Length Overall: Unknown; comparison to contemporary documents indicated the vessel was too short to be the galley also stationed at Lazise, confirming it as one of the two fustas

Number of Masts: At least one; a single mast step was identified toward the center of the ship

History of the shipwreck

Over most of its initial existence, Venice operated as a thalassocracy focused almost exclusively on controlling the Adriatic and the eastern maritime trade routes. In the fourteenth century, the Serenissima began involving itself in northern Italian politics and acquired extensive territorial control of that region; Venetian nobles took advantage of these conquests by diverting family funds into land holdings rather than new maritime pursuits (Lane 1973, 226-7). Although Venice never abandoned its maritime trade, the expansion of its territorial holdings changed the character of the nobility to focus more on agricultural production than overseas trade. At the same time, Venice also played into the Italian mindset that no major power on the peninsula should build up enough control to dominate the rest (Fubini 1995, 183, 193-4). As a result, the Venetians sought to break coalitions aiming to undermine its territorial hegemony. By the beginning of the sixteenth century, Venice found itself in a major conflict, as Pope Julius II (1503-13) orchestrated the League of Cambrai, initially composed of France, the Holy Roman Empire, Spain, and the Duchy of Ferrara, to regain control of territory lost by the Papal States (Finlay 2000, 990). This conflict was one of many that took place during the half-century-long Italian Wars (1494-1559).

In 1508, the Venetian Senate ordered Zaccaria Loredan to the Lazise arsenal, along the southeastern coastline of Lake Garda. The arsenal is believed to have existed since the beginning of the fourteenth century, as documents described it as the location for vessels belonging to the Scala of Verona (Capulli 2003, 10).

Loredan reported that only a single galley and two fustas (foists) were present at the Lazise arsenal. His attempts to secure Lake Garda against the League were only nominally successful, as the associated land forces were unable to defend the surrounding cities. The Senate eventually decided the Lake Garda position was untenable and instructed Loredan to destroy the ships and return to Venice. He carried out these instructions on 31 May 1509, filling the galley and one of the two fustas with ballast and setting them alight several hundred meters from Lazise (Capulli and Fozzati 2004, 241).

For the citizens of Lazise, knowledge of where the ships were burned never faded from memory; fishermen noted the location of at least one vessel to avoid entangling their nets. Count Vittorio Cavazzocca Mazzanti wrote an article in 1931, possibly relying on notes first recorded by Francesco Fontana describing shoreline markers for the location of the ships (Capulli 2003, 23). Over the first half of the twentieth century, various groups visited the site of a wreck assumed to be the galley burned by Loredan. Francesco Zorzi, associated with the Civic Museum of Natural History of Verona, presented research on Lake Garda in 1957 (Capulli 2003, 25), working alongside diver Enrico Candurra, who reportedly located a shipwreck in 1962 in order to retrieve artifacts and plan the lifting of the entire hull for display.

Other than clearing sediment covering the surviving hull and retrieving several artifacts, the project was abandoned by 1968 owing to disagreements over who would house the hull remains (Capulli 2003, 28, 32). Beginning in 1990, the shipwreck was revisited by archaeologists, with additional fieldwork in 1996, 1998, and 2003. Artifacts retrieved during the excavations included a small collection of ceramics, a hook chainplate (indicating the use of a lateen sail), and various fasteners strewn about the hull (Capulli 2003, 69-75). When compared to contemporary documents, the overall length of the vessel indicated it was not the galley, but instead the fusta burned at the same time by Loredan.

Description of the site

The wreck lies in Lake Garda, several hundred meters from Lazise, on the lake's southeastern coastline, where the vessel was deliberately burned and scuttled in 1509 (Capulli and Fozzati 2004, 241).

Cargo

The vessel was a naval auxiliary craft, deliberately burned and scuttled rather than lost while carrying goods.

Hull Remains

The archaeological work on the wreck yielded significant information about its construction, but the wreck was not disassembled, which limited access to some elements, including the keel (Capulli 2003, 109-14).

Keel

The keel is rabbeted over its length and rectangular in shape. Its forward end curves upward to meet the missing stem, and a stemson is bolted directly above this section (Capulli 2003, 109-14). There was even less preservation at the stern, which was missing the sternpost.

Frames

A single master frame, composed of a floor timber and dual futtocks on either side, is placed at the center of the keel. Framing is composed of floor timbers that overlap the futtocks without a scarf joint, this overlap secured with three iron fasteners driven horizontally between the framing elements. Dimensions for the floor timbers suggest a lighter build, and they are square in section at amidships (Capulli 2003, 106-9).

Keelson

A rebated keelson runs along the centerline of the ship, bolted to the keel through the floor timbers. Archaeologists noted a difference in the nailing pattern securing the keelson scarfs: from the bow to amidships these scarfs are secured with two fasteners, while the remainder uses only a single nail (Capulli 2003, 101-3). The mast step is positioned toward the center of the ship, formed by two long trapezoidal mast partners rebated over the frames on either side of the keelson; each partner is supported by buttresses affixed to the underlying floor timbers, and two long chocks positioned over the keelson create the central mortise where the heel of the mast was inserted (Capulli 2003, 109).

Ceiling, thick stuff and wales

Bilge stringers, recessed to fit over the frames, are situated at the turn of the bilge, at the overlap of the floor timbers and futtocks. Ceiling is composed of irregular longitudinal strakes between the keelson and the bilge stringer (Capulli 2003, 35).

Planking

Planking is thinner than seen on other ships, which might relate to the overall dimensions of the hull. Isometric reconstructions of a typical late fifteenth-century longship suggest that wales positioned near the waterline were recessed over the futtocks to reinforce them, though it remains unclear whether physical evidence for this was found on the Lake Garda hull; this recessed system was presumably part of an overall strategy to prevent hogging of the long, narrow hull (Capulli 2003, 87).

Ballast

The vessel was deliberately filled with ballast before being set alight and scuttled by order of the Venetian Senate on 31 May 1509 (Capulli and Fozzati 2004, 241).

Size and scantlings

Floor timbers are square in section at amidships, suggesting a lighter build. Planking is thinner than seen on other ships in this catalog.

References

Lane, F., 1973.

Fubini, R., 1995.

Finlay, R., 2000.

Capulli, M., 2003. Le navi della Serenissima

Capulli, M., and Fozzati, L., 2004.