Tour Fondue, 250–225 BC
Country: France
Place: Off the Giens peninsula, near the ruined tower of the Tour Fondue (Var), at a depth of 20 m
Coordinates (approximate): 43.03, 6.16
Type: Small Greek (Massaliote) coastal trading and redistribution vessel
Identified: No
Dated: 250–225 BC, based on the amphorae and associated finds (Cibecchini 2008: 485).
Beam: Unknown.
Keel Length: Unknown.
Length Overall: About 10 m (Wicha 2010: 41).
Number of Masts: Unknown.
History of the wreck
The Tour Fondue wreck lies at a depth of 20 m off the Giens peninsula (France), near the ruined building that gives it its name. Discovered in 1975, its hull remains were the subject of archaeological work between 1993 and 1997 by Dangréaux (1994; 1995; 1996; 1997; 2001), with the support of the Centre Camille Jullian. It is a small coastal vessel, used for redistribution in a coastal nautical space, culturally Greek (Massaliote). It was about 10 m long with a burden of 10 t (Wicha 2010: 41). The study of the amphorae and of the material associated with the cargo, and their relationship with the Meloria, Bon Capó and Montecristo wrecks, allowed Cibecchini (2008: 485) to date the wreck to 250–225 BC.
The Tour Fondue wreck is a paradigm for repairs to the hull, so the ship must have been in use for a long time (see Planking).
Description of the site
The wreck, which had been heavily looted (Joncheray 1976; 1989), preserves a hull fragment of 4.45 × 1.50 m corresponding to the central part of the ship (Figure 1).
Figure 1. Axonometric view of the hull (the surviving part in grey). Note the alternation of floor timbers and half-frames and their spacing, as well as the longitudinal reinforcing piece. The keel is smaller than the garboard strakes (Dangréaux 1994, excavation report 1994, DRASSM archive, unpublished).
Cargo
A cargo estimated at 100–120 amphorae (early Graeco-Italic, Massaliote type 4 and Magna Graecian).
Ballast
Not reported.
Anchors
Not reported.
Guns
Not applicable.
Iron concretions
Not reported.
Hull Remains
A hull fragment of 4.45 × 1.50 m survives, from the central part of the ship, with the keel, planking and framing (Figure 1). The stem and sternpost have not survived.
Keel, keelson and mast step
The keel is of rectangular section, wider than it is high, 7.2 cm wide and 5.8 cm high (Figure 5), with a very gentle bevelled rabbet. The tenons joining it to the garboard strake pass right through the keel, as Joncheray had already observed (1989) (Figures 2 and 3). An uncomplicated trait de Jupiter (rayo de Júpiter) scarf, practically in the centre, joins two lengths of keel, one of Quercus ilex and the other of Pinus halepensis, since the keel is not a single piece, a shipyard practice with no other known parallel (Figure 4). This interpretation is based on the analysis by Guibal (CNRS) of two samples, one from each end of the keel, which gave different results (Dangréaux 2001: 57). The keel has a simple bevelled rabbet in its central section, becoming notched towards the ends.
The mast step and/or keelson have not survived, but there is a small timber (110 × 10 × 7 cm) located right at the trait de Jupiter scarf joining the two lengths of the keel, perhaps intended to reinforce this unconventional keel made in two lengths (Figure 1).
Figure 2. Drawing of a portion of the keel and the garboard strake of the Tour Fondue wreck (after Joncheray 1989).
Figure 3. Two sections of the keel of the Tour Fondue. Section AA shows fairly flat or rounded lines for this boat (after Dangréaux 1996: 52).
Figure 4. Detail of the scarf between two lengths of the keel of the Tour Fondue (after Dangréaux 1996: 52).
Figure 5. Axonometric view and section of the keel, somewhat rounded and wider than it is high, changing from a simple bevelled rabbet to a notched one (Dangréaux 1997, excavation report 1997, DRASSM archive, unpublished).
Frames
The framing consists of floor timbers and half-frames of square section, 7 cm a side, in regular alternation, very straight and not at all curved. The wide spacing of the room-and-space (malla), 40 cm on average, is notable. Both types of piece have “archaic” limber holes of rectangular section and never come into direct contact with the keel.
Wicha (2010: 44) interprets the detailed drawings of floor timbers V1 and V3 as showing that the treenails fastening these pieces to the hull are of truncated-cone shape and arranged in pairs, 3–4 cm apart and 14 cm between each pair (Figure 6). Both seem to have been driven from the inside of the hull, after these pieces had been lashed to the strakes. Dangréaux (1996: 51) did not observe any recess or groove on the outer face of the hull to protect the passage of the lashing cord in a sample of strake. The technique of internal lashings, with a lashing through two holes a few centimetres apart along the longitudinal axis of the frames1 (Marlier 2005: 171), appears again, after the case of the Jules Verne 9, in a ship of Greek cultural context.
Figure 6. Detail of floor timber 2, showing the pairs of treenails with a central groove for securing the lashing (Dangréaux 1994, excavation report 1994, DRASSM archive, unpublished).
Planking
The garboard strake was 14 cm wide, compared with 10 cm for the second strake (both symmetrically on each side of the keel), whereas the other hull planks are on average 15 cm wide. The planking strakes have an average thickness of 2.9 cm, with mortises measuring2 14 × 5 × 0.7–0.8 cm, spaced 6 to 7 cm apart. The pegs are 0.8 cm in diameter on the inner face of the hull, and only exceptionally is irregular spacing observed.
In total, five planking strakes were replaced, all the pieces being identified by the simple bevelled scarfs joining lengths of strake and by 25 repair tenons inserted from the inside of the hull (the outer face is not known), using the existing mortises (Figure 7), with the technique and shape already noted in the Kyrenia wreck. They are scattered throughout the wreck in repairs to strakes where mechanically it was no longer possible to use conventional tenons. Notably, in the western part of the surviving remains two repair strakes were fitted breaking the classic straight line of these pieces, perhaps because one of them had to be repaired (e.g. a knot or crack), which required modifying the width of the adjacent strake.
Figure 7. Plan of the surviving remains. The tenons marked as such are repair tenons, as are the shaded strakes (Dangréaux 1997, excavation report 1997, DRASSM archive, unpublished).
Ceiling, thick stuff, and wales
Not preserved, apart from the small longitudinal reinforcing timber over the keel scarf.
Caulking
Not reported.
Size and scantlings
A small coastal vessel about 10 m long with a burden of 10 t. The keel is light and wider than it is high (7.2 × 5.8 cm), the frames 7 × 7 cm at a wide room-and-space of 40 cm, and the planking 2.9 cm thick.
Table 1. Scantling of the timber remains of the Tour Fondue Shipwreck
| Timber | Sided [cm] | Molded [cm] |
| Keel | 7.2 | 5.8 |
| Keelson (reinforcing piece) | 10 | 7 |
| Maststep Mortise | – – | – – |
| Buttresses | – | – |
| Frames | 7 | 7 |
| Futtocks | – | – |
| Room-and-space At central frames | 40 (avg.) | |
| Planking Garboard Second strake | 15 (avg.) 14 10 | 2.9 (avg.) – – |
| Ceiling | – | – |
| Main mast Ø Chock | – – | – – |
The reinforcing piece over the keel scarf is 110 cm long. Planking: sided = width, moulded = thickness.
Wood
Keel: holm oak (Quercus ilex) and Aleppo pine (Pinus halepensis), one length of each.
Bibliography
Cibecchini, F. 2008. Tonnellaggi e rotte in età repubblicana: il contributo dei relitti del Mediterraneo occidentale. In J. Pérez and G. Berlanga (eds), Actas de las V Jornadas de Arqueología Subacuática, 483–499. Valencia.
Dangréaux, B. 1994. Presqu’île de Giens, Tour Fondue. Bilan scientifique du DRASSM 1993, 44–45. Paris.
Dangréaux, B. 1995. Presqu’île de Giens, Tour Fondue. Bilan scientifique du DRASSM 1994, 47. Paris.
Dangréaux, B. 1996. Presqu’île de Giens, Tour Fondue. Bilan scientifique du DRASSM 1995, 51–52. Paris.
Dangréaux, B. 1997. Presqu’île de Giens, épave de la Tour Fondue. Bilan scientifique du DRASSM 1996, 89–90. Paris.
Dangréaux, B. 2001. La Tour Fondue: épave Tour Fondue. Bilan scientifique du DRASSM 1997, 57–59. Paris.
Joncheray 1976. [Full reference to be completed.]
Joncheray, J.-P. 1989. L’épave grecque de la Tour-Fondue. Cahiers d’Archéologie Subaquatique 8: 135–148.
Marlier, S. 2005. [Full reference to be completed.]
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 They are joined by a small groove in the upper face of the frame to house the lashing cord. Once the frame has been fastened to the hull, locking treenails are inserted which improve the joint, make it watertight and prevent the stitching from fraying.
2 The 14 cm length must refer to the total length of two opposing mortises, or to a tenon.