What is the Ship?
The Newport Ship was a large 15th-century merchant vessel. It had three masts, measured originally over 30 metres and could carry around 200 tons of cargo. It was built around 1457 in the Basque Country. It sailed between Lisbon and Bristol and probably further afield. It finished its working life around 1468, in the silted-up dock (or pill) on the banks of the River Usk in Newport, South Wales in the UK, where it had been taken for repair, but it had tipped over, never to be recovered until 2002.
The ship was built using the ‘clinker’ shipbuilding method: overlapping planks were each fastened to their neighbours, building up from the keel, and the shell was reinforced by large framing timbers which also supported the floors.
It was discovered by accident on the banks of the River Usk during the building of the Riverfront Theatre and Arts Centre in 2002. Thanks to enormous local enthusiasm and generous Wales Government and Newport Council funding, the exceptional remains were rescued, plank by plank, to be conserved and – one day – reassembled in Newport.
It is one of the most important ship discoveries in Europe. It’s earlier than the Mary Rose (built c 1510) and Stockholm’s Vasa (built c. 1627), but later than the Viking ship discoveries of the 11th century.
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