Three composite swivel guns have come from the Cattewater Wreck site. An almost complete gun was recovered by UK Government divers in 1973 after two fragmentary guns were brought up by the dredger which discovered the wreck. They are very important in the history of ordnance and can be dated by the wreck to the early Tudor period (at present the wreck is dated to the late 15th-early 16th century until further work is carried out on some of the finds). I suspect they were thrown clear of the wreck when it sank otherwise they would have been salvaged, as almost everything else recoverable seems to have been. The guns were conserved in the Ancient Monuments Laboratory of what became later English Heritage. A decision was made that the two severely damaged guns should be dried out, as the wooden beds were more important, whilst the better preserved gun was kept wet, as the ironwork was more important. Looking back after over 30 years I think they made the right decision. The iron of the fragmentary guns is very corroded and broken up, but the wood is in good condition. The complete gun was returned to Plymouth and placed in an outside tank at the back of the City Museum in a solution of sodium hydroxide or, as I prefer to call it, rainwater. The metal is in very good condition as is perhaps surprisingly the wood, probably due to heavy impregnation of iron corrosion. York Archaeological Trust yorkarchaeology.co.uk/ carried out some remedial conservation (mostly by Ian Panter, who was involved in the original cleaning of the gun) prior to its display in a tank with thick clear plastic viewing windows in a solution of alkaline sulphite (an oxygen scavenger creating anaerobic conditions). An image of this gun on display features in the BBC series ‘A History of the World’ (and is also available on the museum website as well) bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld/objects/uEulMTNzTg25bmBgMW-yIw
Posted on: Sat, 20 Jul 2013 08:42:35 +0000
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