More information : DESIGNATED WRECK SITE - GRACE DIEU
Summary:
Site and remains of the GRACE DIEU, one of Henry V's battleships.
Designation History:
Designation Order: February 5th, 1974; 1974 No.2; 1974/56
Protected Area: An area within 75m of National Grid reference Co-ordinate 501105 on Ordnance Survey Map 196 or position 50 51' 31"N., 01 17'14"W excluding any part of the area which lies above the high-water mark of ordinary spring tides.
Documentary History:
There have been varied schools of thought over the years concerning the dating and origin of this vessel. In the 19th century she was thought to be of Viking origin. In 1932 Mr G S Laird from the Science Museum made an examination of the wreck and concluded it to be a merchantman 1840-1850 but this was obviously wrong, as it would not have fitted under Bursledon Bridge, which was built at the end of the 18th century. However, in 1934 Mr R C Anderson suggested that it was a 14th or 15th century wreck, based on an earlier survey he had carried out, and identified it as the GRACE DIEU.
This is now generally accepted to be the case. Evidence from dendrochronology, the vessel's great size (very few medieval ship owners could afford to build such a vessel), and its clinker construction (clinker construction had died out by the 16th century) all combine to give a date which ties in with what is known of the history of this ship.
The records of Robert Berd, Clerk of Works for her construction, give a clear picture of the building process; she was the fourth and last of the great ships built for Henry V - the others being TRINITE ROYALE, HOLIGOST, and JESUS. Multiple thickness clinker planking, caulked with moss and tar, and fastened by iron nails was used; the framing timbers were fastened to the planking by oak nails. She must have been completed by 1418 as this is when she was blessed by the Bishop of Bangor. The construction of three masts is of significance as it comes at a time of transition; with a vessel as large as the GRACE DIEU we can speculate that the addition of a third mast/foremast might have been due the necessity of sailing and controlling such a vessel rather than copy. The great mast was 190-200ft in height and 6-7ft in circumference at deck level. Red and white worsted is noted as having been used either to decorate the sails or to make flags; interestingly this is the only indication in the account that the GRACE DIEU was decorated. Being such a prestigious warship she would have had several decks and cabins on board as well as castles. Evidence for two of the other great ships suggests that a crew of at least 200 is likely.
In 1420 she formed part of a force gathered at Southampton under the command of the Earl of Devonshire for sea-keeping patrol and set sail on her only voyage when a number of Devon men on board mutinied and forced the master and crew to put in at St. Helen's, Isle of Wight. She was then moored at Hamble but not neglected; she had a permanent crew of 8 mariners until she was towed up the River Hamble to Bursledon and laid up in a dock on the mud inside an enclosure. On the 7th of January 1439 she was struck by lightning and caught fire. Almost immediately afterwards the process of salvage began; a gang of ten labourers set about recovering bolts, chains, spikes etc. from the vessel and the burned half of the mast was sold with a "certain amount of old wood" (1447-1452 account of Richard Clivedon, Keeper of the King's Ships). (2)
On her sole documented voyage her crew mutinied, so that she had to put into the Isle of Wight. Following that incident she was towed to Southampton Water, where she remained moored for 12 years, then in 1439 she was moved upstream on the River Hamble to a mud-berth.
Contemporary descriptions of the GRACE DIEU survive, including one by a Florentine sea captain who dined on board with the builder, William Soper, in 1430. (23)
Described as a carrack, of composite clinker construction. (23)
Displacement estimated at 2750 tons at 21ft 4in draught, comparable in size to the VICTORY of 1759. Triple-skinned clinker construction. Conjectural profile illustrated. (24)
Built 1416-20; laid up in a mud dock; burned to the waterline, 1439. (25)
Archaeological History:
1859: Mr F Crawshaw removed some timbers from the inside of the wreck as part of his investigations before his operations were stopped by the Board of Trade as he seems to have fallen foul of the 1854 Merchant Shipping Act. His findings included details of a wreck 130ft long, 40ft wide and 12ft deep with planking in three thicknesses, joints caulked with moss and fern leaves, visible saw marks on many timbers, timbers fastened together with 1.5 inch thick treenails and edges of boards fastened with iron nails.
1874: Excavated (23)
1899: Excavated, some timbers removed, partly by explosives (23)
1933: Re-investigated (23)
1980-5: Further investigations (23)
Aerial photographs of the River Hamble region held by the RCHME reveal the outline of the GRACE DIEU (as well as another ship-shaped outline 60 metres to the SSW of the Designated Wreck). (2,3,4)
(SU 5010/3/132, SU 5010/4/142)
Visit by Government Diving Contractor
University of St Andrews - Archaeological Diving Unit (ADU) April 1986 - April 2003
1987, 1991, 1992, 1994
Wessex Archaeology 1st May 2003 -
2004: Visit of Time Team archaeologists with a team from Southampton University, who excavated the GRACE DIEU underwater. New sonar technology was trialled on the site and excavation went ahead at the stern, uncovering hull timbers and demonstrating that longer planking was used in her construction than at first thought. Broadcast on Channel 4 on 06-FEB-2005. (22)
Investigated September 2011 by Wessex Archaeology. (26)
Environmental and Archaeological Remains:
Only the bottom part of the hull, a metre or so above the keel, now survives. The majority of the timbers, in the inter-tidal zone, are protected by silts; only 0.10 to 0.15m of framing projects above the present river bed and planking is not visible. Structural features of this wreck include: a keel of 130ft length, a keelson, 0.55m sided and 0.16m moulded with a simple mast-step, futtock timbers scarfed to the floor timbers, ceiling planking, stringers and crossbeams with protruding heads. In past years the natural protection has increased as soft mobile silts have extended towards the mainstream channel. The exposed timbers are in a firm and stable condition. Timbers closest to the east edge of the River are exposed for up to 1 hour on very low spring tides. Those at the other end of the vessel, the presumed stern, are permanently below low water mark, while those between are uncovered for between 1 minute and 1 hour. Underwater conditions on the site are not conducive to efficient survey and recording.
Detached timbers are held in the National Maritime Museum, Winchester Museum and the Tudor House Museum in Southampton. (2)
Lies in approximately 6 metres of water, embedded in silt on the foreshore of the River Hamble. Exposed timbers appear no longer to be covered by colonising marine organisms.
The remains survive from the keel "up to the start of the turn of the bilge amidships". The bow of the wreck is covered by mud but her framing is exposed amidships and at the stern; the exposure level varies, either due to erosion of the timbers, or to increased siltation at the site. (23)
Remains visible at low water during equinoctial spring tides. (25)
The site appeared stable at the time of investigation in 2011, experiencing sediment deposition rather than erosion, which is greater in the eastern part of the site, towards the shore, and less so at the western, river, end. This is partly seasonal, and partly a general trend towards accretion since the 1980s. The site is only exposed during spring low tides and with the high sediment cover only the top surfaces of the frames were exposed; the stern area remains submerged at all times. The top surface of the planking was only visible on the port side for no more than 9m amidships; to starboard the planking appears to be completely buried below the surface of the river bed.
No evidence for damage to the site through clam dredging was visible during the survey. There was a scattering of general detritus on the site including scaffold poles within the centre of the wreck, evidence of the underwater investigations in 2009. (26)
Built: from 1416, launched 1418 (Site Designation); 1416-20 (25)
Builder: William Soper (23)
Where Built: Southampton (23)
Construction: 3 masts; clinker-built; iron nails (2)(23)
Date of Loss Qualifier: Actual date of loss
Additional sources:
"The King Alfred Millenary" A Bowker, 1902, p151-2;
"Graphic" 27-NOV-1875, p518;
Sailing Ships of War, Frank Howard, 1979 p18-9;
The Navy of the Lancastrian Kings, The Naval Record Society, 1982;
Medieval Man-o-War, Royal Engineers Journal, 1938 Vol 52 p273-288;
Prynne, "Henry V's Grace Dieu";
Clarke, "Henry V's Warship Grace Dieu", in Bound, "Archaeology of Ships of War", I, pp22-5;
PRO E101/53/5 |