Napoli A, late 1st century AD
Country: Italy
Place: Piazza Municipio, Naples (Campania); found on land during construction of the municipal metro station, in the Roman harbour
Coordinates (approximate): 40.84, 14.25
Type: Roman harbour or coastal vessel
Identified: No
Dated: End of the 1st century AD.
Beam: 3.32 m preserved.
Keel Length: 8 m.
Length Overall: 11.77 m preserved.
Number of Masts: One mast step is preserved.
History of the wreck
The Napoli A wreck was found on land, together with others, during the construction of the municipal station of Naples (Boetto 2005), in the harbour context of the Roman city. It is dated to the end of the 1st century AD.
Description of the site
The wreck is very well preserved, 11.77 m long, 3.32 m wide and 88 cm deep (Figure 1).
Figure 1. Plan and longitudinal section of the hull of the Napoli A, with cross-sections of the main lines of the hull (after Boetto 2005: 64).
Cargo
Not reported.
Ballast
Not reported.
Anchors
Not reported.
Guns
Not applicable.
Iron concretions
Not reported. Iron nails were used to fasten the frames, stringers and repairs.
Hull Remains
The Napoli A preserves its complete backbone with keel, stem and sternpost, 11 planking strakes on the port side and 9 on the starboard side, 50 frames with 30 futtocks, a keelson serving as mast step, 4 stringers on each side of the ship and 27 removable ceiling strakes. Two lower wales and, on one side only, the upper wale were also preserved. In section, the Napoli A has a rounded rather than flat hull at the maximum beam,1 while in longitudinal view (Figure 1) the bow has a much greater rake than the stern.
Between frames M12 and M14 was the well of the bilge pump, which had disappeared; there is evidence inside the hull, in two stringers, of the mortises supporting the vertical tubes of the pump.
Keel, keelson and mast step
The keel, 8 m long and 9.6 cm wide, is only 6.8 cm high, so it is wider than it is high, of rectangular section. It is not clearly visible in the section drawing (Boetto 2005: 65), but it has a bevelled rabbet to receive the garboard strakes. The stem and sternpost, by contrast, have notched rabbets to receive the hull planks, which close the lines of the ship at a sharp angle. These joints are made with mortises, tenons and pegs and metal nails. Both the stem and the sternpost are joined to the keel by trait de Jupiter (rayo de Júpiter) scarfs secured by a horizontal peg or key, the joint being reinforced by a bolt2 passing vertically through the whole assembly, including frame M10.
The keelson serving as mast step was 5.36 m long, of variable width from 20 to 24 cm and between 9 and 12.5 cm high, and was notched over the floor timbers. It has the mortises for supporting the mast. The largest, of curved profile, 24.1 cm long, 10 cm wide and 6 cm high, is surrounded by three mortises that received the boards of the mast box. A short distance forward, however, there is another set of cruciform mortises, 21.7 cm long, 12.7 cm wide and 4–5.8 cm deep (Figure 1).
Frames
The framing, with frames 9.1 cm sided and 9.5 cm moulded and a room-and-space (malla) of 12 cm, shows an alternation of floor timbers and half-frames mainly at bow and stern, floor timbers predominating in the section occupied by the mast step. They have central limber holes over the keel (Figure 2) for the circulation of water in the bilge; at bow and stern, however, they are triangular and placed in pairs on either side of the keel.
This wreck provided the first evidence3 known to the author of offset or asymmetrical half-frames, according to Boetto (2005: 68), with four cases, in which the opposing half-frames do not have the keel as their dividing axis, but mainly the garboard strake. Their interpretation as a reinforcement of the framing in relation to the keel is justified by the presence of iron nails fastening these half-frames to the keel. The framing is fastened to the hull by wooden treenails and metal nails (generally blind) driven from the outside.
Figure 2. Cross-section at frame M30, with the ancient repairs recorded shown in grey (after Boetto 2005: 65).
Planking
The planking strakes are 3.2 cm thick. For the joints, the Napoli A has mortises 6 cm wide, 6.3 cm deep and 0.6 cm thick, the pegs being 14 cm apart. Bevelled scarfs were recorded joining two lengths of the same strake. The strakes can also be seen ending near the bow and stern, gradually losing width.
Ceiling, thick stuff, and wales
The lower wales are 11 and 12 cm thick respectively. The upper wale on the port side is 5.5 cm thick. The stringer planks are 3.46 cm thick and are fastened to the frames by iron nails. They consist of more than one length, joined by vertical or bevelled joints fastened by two iron nails, as in the Cap del Vol. The removable ceiling strakes, by contrast, are rectangular and thinner, 2.4 cm thick, 61.7 cm long and 14.3 cm wide.
Caulking
The whole hull is profusely coated with resin both inside and outside, especially at the many points where repairs have been recorded. Some of these are simple planks nailed to the frames without traces of internal joints. There are many cases of repair tenons (see Kyrenia or Barthélémy B), both internal and external, and only in one case can a repaired planking strake be distinguished. The wales were repaired by inserting treenails that acted as plugs for iron nails of various shapes and sizes, superimposing long pieces in place of the damaged ones.
Size and scantlings
The preserved hull measures 11.77 × 3.32 m, with a depth of 88 cm. The keel is wider than it is high (9.6 × 6.8 cm), the frames 9.1 × 9.5 cm at a room-and-space of 12 cm, and the planking 3.2 cm thick.
Table 1. Scantling of the timber remains of the Napoli A Shipwreck
| Timber | Sided [cm] | Molded [cm] |
| Keel | 9.6 | 6.8 |
| Keelson | – | – |
| Maststep (keelson) Main mortise | 20–24 10 × 24.1 | 9–12.5 6 |
| Buttresses | – | – |
| Frames | 9.1 | 9.5 |
| Futtocks | – | – |
| Room-and-space At central frames | 12 | |
| Planking | – | 3.2 |
| Wales (lower) Upper wale | – – | 11–12 5.5 |
| Ceiling Stringers Removable strakes | – 14.3 | 3.46 2.4 |
| Main mast Ø Chock | – – | – – |
The mast step is 5.36 m long. Planking, wales and ceiling: sided = width, moulded = thickness.
Wood
Not reported.
Bibliography
Boetto, G. 2005. Le navi romane di Napoli. In D. Giampaola et al., La scoperta del porto di Neapolis: dalla ricostruzione topografica allo scavo e al recupero dei relitti. Archaeologia Maritima Mediterranea 2: 63–76.
Santamaria, C. 1995. L’épave Dramont « E » à Saint-Raphaël (Ve siècle ap. J.-C.). Archaeonautica 13. Paris: CNRS.
Notes
1 Which in skeleton construction would correspond to the master frame.
2 A system of reinforcing and joining timbers found in many wrecks, although the bolt does not always coincide exactly with the trait de Jupiter scarf, as in the Dramont E, where it is somewhat displaced towards the keel itself (Santamaria 1995: 135).
3 At the current stage of research, those documented in the Cap del Vol and Baie de l’Amitié should be considered earlier.