In another packed session Garry Momber, Director of the Maritime Archaeology Trust (MAT), gave us an insight into shipwrecks and drowned lands of the Solent – some of the unsuspected wonders that lie beneath our keel.
He began his talk with a focus on mapping and recording wrecks. Illustrating the range of challenges, he described the use of photogrammetry to visualise the remains of Santa Lucia (1567) off Yarmouth and attempts to build dive trails for HMS Pomone (1811), and Hazardous (1706). An example even closer to home is the WW1 German destroyer V82 whose wreck in Portsmouth Harbour is visible at low tide. The programme aims to present our submerged cultural heritage through direct involvement of individuals, educational outreach, and developing media such as virtual reality and the Forgotten Wrecks of the First World War web site. Where MAT has licensed a wreck site it monitors the site’s condition to check for changes and investigate the area for further remains.
The talk then moved on to the effects of climate change, starting with the prehistoric rise in sea level which created the Solent coastline as we know it. This left behind a submerged landscape featuring a woodland bench, underwater cliff and salt marsh silts. There were fascinating discoveries off the north-west coast of the Isle of Wight, including 8,000-year-old trees, a preserved leaf and flints. Moving forward in time (5,500 years ago) the archaeologists came across frequent evidence of human activity including cut timber, string, wheat and the remains of a log boat with the interior hollowed out by repeated burning. The story continues through Neolithic, Bronze age to Roman and Medieval times, with even the tide zone continuing to yield valuable evidence. The talk sparked lively discussion.
In a complete change of pace Mark Mordey began by giving us an overview of his life as a merchant radio officer, psychiatric nurse, security operative and music ‘roadie’. His lump sum on retirement from merchant service bought Anaurus, which is now his home, having first had to refloat and refurbish her. The boat was built in 1937 of teak on oak for Commander Beatty (the admiral’s nephew) specifically as a residential project – hence the vertical bow, square stern and broad beam. Abandoned in the Netherlands on the outbreak of war she was ‘requisitioned’ by the Germans and renamed Marken. She was liberated in 1944 and handed back to the Beatty family in 1946.
Mark presented photos, drawings and cuttings of Anaurus in her various guises along with anecdotes of her career, her local celebrity in the Isle of Wight and his life with her, including how he knew on first acquaintance that she was ‘his’ boat.
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