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A late 16th- to early 17th-century European shipwreck carrying Venetian ordnance discovered off the Carmel coast, Israel

2016; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 45; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1111/1095-9270.12173

1095-9270

Renato Gianni Ridella, Ehud Galili, Deborah Cvikel, Baruch Rosen,

Archaeology and Historical Studies

In 1972, a commercial fisherman, R. Schomos, discovered a bronze gun attached to a wooden gun carriage (Piece A) while diving off Megadim on the Carmel coast (Fig. 1). He informed A. Raban and J. Galili, members of the Underwater Exploration Society of Israel, who documented the gun and its carriage under water (Raban, 1980). However, the assemblage was simultaneously discovered by others, and salvaged unscientifically, thus losing much of the carriage and associated artefacts. In 1973, another fisherman, Mr. Y. Ben Moshe, reported a large metal object at the same site. Eventually a massive bronze artillery piece (Piece B) was retrieved by E. Galili. As public institutions failed to buy the gun, the court awarded it to the fisherman. During the 1970s several muskets, tied together, were retrieved from the site by another fisherman, and sold before documentation. Rescue surveys on the site were conducted from 1985 to 2004, and revealed removable powder chambers, elements of ship rigging and lead musket shot. During 2013, while checking the site, O and E. Galili discovered a third bronze gun (piece C). Pieces A and B have been briefly published in this journal, without mention of the location and context of the shipwreck (Roth, 1989). The site, the three artillery pieces, and additional associated artefacts are described and discussed below. The site (32º56′43″ E: 32º43′41″ N) is located about 6 km south of Haifa, and extends from the coastline opposite the village of Megadim about 110 m seaward. The coast is straight and sandy with no shelter or anchorages (Fig. 1). The underwater site is usually overlain by a 1–2 m-thick deposit of loose quartz sand. The sand is occasionally removed by storms, exposing the substratum of clay and the artefacts which lie on it. No wooden parts of a ship's hull have been found. All the surviving artefacts were scattered at a depth of 1–4 m, over an area of 100 × 135 m. Piece A was found at a depth of 3.8 m, about 110 m offshore. It lay upside-down on the seabed, attached to its wooden gun carriage. Piece B was discovered at a depth of 1.5 m, about 30 m from the coast; and Piece C was found at a depth of 3 m, about 80 m offshore. On the seabed near the guns were iron objects covered by marine encrustation, including chains and wooden deadeyes, apparently belonging to a ship's rigging. Three removable breech-loading chambers, two of iron and one of bronze, were also found (Fig. 1). This bronze gun (Roth, 1989, No. 236) is about 3.4 m long, with a bore diameter of 91 mm (Fig. 2), and is now displayed outside the National Maritime Museum, Haifa. It is currently mounted on a replica of a four-wheeled wooden carriage, unlike the two wheeled-carriage with which it was found. A weight mark of 2660 Venetian libre grosse is engraved on its base-ring, the equivalent of 1269 kg (Table 1). Decoration is limited to a vegetal motif near the touch-hole. A coat of arms is displayed in the middle of the single reinforce, formed by an oval shield containing two seashells, divided by an oblique bend, or ‘bend sinister’, descending from right to left, and bearing three six-pointed stars. This badge is unidentified, but is almost certainly not Venetian. A pair of dolphin-shaped lifting handles is fitted at the front end of the reinforce. Their small size suggests that the founder was not accustomed to putting these elements on his pieces: perhaps they were added at the customer's order. Although this artefact carries no founder's mark, Roth suggested that it could have originated in Venice (Roth, 1989: 64) because it possesses a four-legged iron crown system used to lock the muzzle core-mould. Such iron crowns were used by Venetian gunfounders. Four rectangular holes represent the imprint of the legs of the iron crown, which remained embedded inside the bronze until dissolved through the electrolytic action of the seawater (Fig. 2a). Ridella has noted that Genoese gunfounders employed a different type of crown (Ridella, 2011: 50). The only difference between Piece A and coeval Venetian ordnance is the presence of the dolphins, which are unlike all other known bronze guns cast in Venice. This piece (Roth, 1989, No. 235) (Fig. 3) is in the possession of the finder (Table 1). It has received no conservation treatment nor been restored. It is about 3.5 m long, with a bore diameter of 91 mm. A bud-shaped button protrudes from the breech mouldings, with four rectangular holes left from the casting process, as seen in Piece A (Fig 3a). On the upper surface of the base ring, the number 2400 is engraved, referring to the weight in Venetian libre grosse. After a convex-concave moulding, there is a narrow touch-hole. It shows that the piece had seldom been fired. The barrel wall is thinner than that of Piece A. The touch-hole has the form of a baccellato (pod-shaped) basin encircled by a vegetal motif. On both sides of the basin are rows of acanthus leaves alternating with rosettes around the circumference of the piece. The rest of the reinforce is smooth, ending with the moulding separating it from the chase. Two cylindrical trunnions abut this moulding. From this point, a row of serpentine flames, decorate the beginning of the chase. An oblique band contains the letters ZVA ALE BG70O in relief on the fore part of the chase, with ligatured letters VA and AL, and the E and 70 signs placed outside the band. Near it is a decorative shield edged with vegetal motifs, containing an emblem representing two hands holding a sort of roll, or scroll. A row of acanthus leaves decorates the last part of the chase (muzzle neck) before the muzzle-moulding, which is in the form of a simple capital with a circular plain band. Roth (1989: 64–5) identified this piece as a Venetian saker (sacro in Italian), cast by Giovanni (Zuane) II Alberghetti, a member of a famous family of Venetian gun founders (Morin, 1992). Roth (1989: 64–5) lists two other bronze guns attributed to this individual gun founder, based on the presence of the initials Z A on their chases. The first is a saker from the Armada ship Trinidad Valencera, the Venetian Balancera (Beltrame, 2011: 12), sunk on September 16 1588 in Kinnagoe Bay, Donegal (Martin, 2011: 93–4). The second is a falcon found at the Church Rocks wreck, off Yarmouth, in 1983 (Tomalin et al., 1988). To these Beltrame (2011: 13) added two sakers from the Gnalić wreck, near Zadar, Croatia (Petricioli, 1970; Morin, 2003; Beltrame, 2014: 392–5). It seems that all these five pieces were cast for private ship-owners as they do not bear the emblems of the Republic of Venice, that is the lion of Saint Mark and the X of the Council of Ten. Giovanni Alberghetti marked the guns he produced for the private market with his name and surname in Italian—Zuane Alberghetto (Z A), while using the Latin Iohannes Albergetus (I A) for pieces cast for the Venetian Republic. As a young man at the beginning of his career in 1573, he was in charge of the VI public foundry in the Arsenale, together with his elder brother Alberghetto III. Later he moved to Florence, where, working in gun- and statue-founding, he was active between 1591 and 1594 (Del Badia, 1868). The casting of Piece B can thus be dated to the 1570s or 1580s. The identification of the customer and owner of Piece B remains unknown. At present it seems that its coat-of-arms did not belong to a Venetian family. Piece C, recovered in 2013 (Figs 4 and 5) (Galili, 2013), is cast in bronze, and, like the other two, belongs to the category of long-barrelled ordnance. It is about 2.8 m long, with a bore diameter of 78 mm. However, it is smaller than Pieces A and B, and is classified as a falcon. English authors call these ‘minions’, but in the Venetian and Italian classification, owing to their calibre, they are more properly termed ‘falcons’. The class of minions existed only in the English ordnance, set between the sakers and the falcons, and derived probably from the French coulverin-moyenne (Ridella, 2014: 24) (Table 1). Similarly to Piece B, it has decorations in relief and a bud-shaped button. The weight mark, 1205 (575 kg), appears on its base-ring, and just beyond the touch-hole is a vegetal motif with scrolled ribbons. The rest of the single reinforce is unornamented. Most of the Italian bronze ordnance, like the Venetian, maintained the single reinforce shape until the late 17th century, while in France, Spain and England the double reinforce, typical of the German-Flemish pieces, became prevalent from the last decades of the 16th century. It is followed by the usual mouldings, fillet and ogee, from which the chase starts. At the beginning of the chase is a decoration similar to the one near the touch-hole, but simpler. Approximately at the middle of the chase are the gunfounder's initials: S A, separated and flanked by elaborate rosettes. A little distance along is a blank coat-of-arms formed by a plain pointed shield with two lion heads at its sides. These are typical marks of the gunfounder. A complex frieze formed by fluted ribbons and vegetal pendant palmettes completes the decorations. The muzzle mouldings, with a simple capital shape, begin after a thick cordon. This piece can be attributed to the Venetian gunfounder Sigismondo II Alberghetti, son of Emilio I, and first cousin of Giovanni II (Zuane). The carriage was drawn and photographed in situ in 1971 (Fig. 6a). It was lying on the seabed upside-down. Piece A, still attached to it, was slightly embedded in the sand. The wooden carriage was severely degraded: surviving remains included the two carriage cheeks, remains of two iron bolts and parts of the wheels. The cheeks were originally made of massive 190 mm-thick wooden planks: the better preserved one was about 1.75 m long and 0.60 m wide. Of the two wheels, the left one was almost complete, while only 30%–40% of the right one survived. The unprofessional retrieval by treasure hunters destroyed most of the carriage remains, leaving only remnants of the cheeks retaining the gun (Fig. 6b). An additional wooden fragment, its tip protected by an iron band, was recovered near the carriage (Fig. 6a). Its large size and the position of the surviving wheel defines it as a two-wheeled carriage, used for long-barrelled pieces, but broken and lacking its rear portion. The iron bar at the rear joined the two cheeks (Fig. 6c). This type of carriage is associated with Venetian ordnance, and is well known archaeologically (Tomalin et al., 1988: 82; Martin, 2011: 94–5). The detached part with the U-shaped iron band is similar to the one on the carriage found in the shipwreck of the Venetian Armada ship La Trinidad Valencera (Martin, 1979: 26). Three removable chambers have been recovered. Such chambers were loaded with gun powder sealed with a wooden wad and were used for breech loading swivel guns. The first chamber is cast in bronze, while the missing handle was of iron. Its maximum length is 342 mm, maximum diameter is 154 mm, and present weight is 30.3 kg (Fig. 7a). The diameter of the slightly conical protrusion fitting into the breech is 97–100 mm. The bore diameter is 57 mm and was plugged by a wooden wad. The touch-hole is 10 mm in diameter and is 30 mm from the base. When found it was plugged by plant fibres (Fig. 7d). After the wooden wad was removed, the contents of the loader were found to be a black substance, apparently the remains of gunpowder (Fig. 7e). The empty breech loader weighed 30 kg. The second removable chamber is made of iron; its maximum length is 255 mm, and maximum diameter is 139 mm. It presently weighs 22 kg (Fig. 7b). The diameter of the cylindrical protrusion fitting into the breech is 79 mm. The diameter of the bore, plugged by a wooden wad, is 60 mm. The touch-hole is 15 mm in diameter and is 30 mm from the base, and, when found, it was plugged with plant fibres. The third removable chamber is also made of iron. The maximum length of the removable iron chamber is 230 mm, and its maximum diameter is 90 mm. It presently weighs 7.7 kg (Fig. 7c). The diameter of the cylindrical protrusion fitting into the breech is 47 mm. The diameter of the bore, plugged by a wooden wad, is 30 mm. The touch-hole is 15 mm in diameter and is 30 mm from the base. Two lead shot were also recovered. They weigh 15.5 and 28 g, and their maximum diameters are 14.5 and 17 mm respectively. Five iron chains, each about 1.6 m long, were found at the site over the years (Figs 8a, 8b, 8c). Each chain ended with an iron-bound deadeye, while a ring-bolt was attached to the opposite end. The deadeyes are drop-shaped, 230 mm long and 135 mm wide. The average diameter of the holes is 35 mm, suggesting a 30-mm lanyard (Lees, 2007: 169). The iron strap is 340–345 mm long and maximum 160 mm wide. The single complete ring-bolt was about 250 mm long, with an outer ring diameter of 75 mm and an inner diameter of 35 mm, and a shaft 25 mm in diameter. Each chain is composed of 7–8 links, 200–315 mm long and 85 mm wide. The elongated links are made of an iron rod with a rectangular (15 × 20 mm) or circular (20 mm diameter) cross-section. These chain fittings probably formed part of a ship's standing rigging (Figs. 8d, 8e). The ring-bolt at the end of each chain was probably used to attach it to the wale. The Megadim coast is sandy and straight and lacks natural shelters. The nearest temporary anchorages are the bays of Atlit, some 2 NM to the south. However, these bays cannot provide shelter during a moderate winter storm of Beaufort Force 4 and over. Over the millennia, storms along this coast have driven many ships ashore, where they were grounded and disintegrated in the breaker zone (Galili et al., 2009: 366). Analysis of scores of sites along the Israeli coast showed that only heavy objects remained at wreck-sites in the open, unprotected surf zone (Galili et al., 2002, 2013: 17–18, Galili and Rosen 2014: 123). The Megadim site probably represents a ship that was wrecked under similar circumstances, while sailing along the Carmel coast or anchoring off it. The possibility that the site represents jettison rather than a wrecked ship is worth discussing. A similar nearby site containing heavy, metal artefacts concentrated on the sea bottom within the surf zone, has been discussed in detail previously (Galili and Rosen, 2013: 17–18). It was concluded that during stormy sea conditions in this region, any act of jettisoning should have occurred in deeper water, further off shore and away from the coastal breakers zone, and the same is true for the Megadim site. Thus the distribution patterns and the location of the artefacts in the Megadim site suggest a shipwreck rather than a group of jettisoned artefacts. It is possible that a significant part of the ship's cargo was composed of materials that did not remain on site. Furthermore, part of the cargo could have been salvaged soon after the wreckage event or later. The Megadim Pieces A and B were classified as sakers, while Megadim Piece C can be classified as a falcon. To compare the dimensions of these with other pieces produced by members of the Alberghetti family, they are presented in Table 1. The listed Venetian sakers have a bore calibre ranging from 91 to 95 mm (93 mm on average), while the calibre of falcons is 74 to 78 mm (76 mm on average). Thus they fit neatly in the known range of the Alberghetti gun dimensions. As previously proposed (Ridella, 2004), it seems certain that the shot diameter was taken as a base unit of measurement in the planning of a piece of ordnance, at least in the 16th century. The external diameters of the Megadim sakers are roughly 300 mm at the vent and 170 mm at the muzzle neck, meaning that the thickness of the barrel walls is 9½ eighths and 3½ eighths of the shot diameter at these two points respectively. The reaming of the bore after casting to obtain the windage reduced the thickness of the barrel walls by a half of the windage. This ratio was followed both for private merchant ship pieces and for state pieces; however, the latter appear to be shorter than the others by about 300 mm, which explains their lighter weight. The length of these pieces is usually measured by the number of diameters. It can be assumed that the planned length of state weapons was 34 shot diameters, while that of the merchantman Sakers was 37–38 diameters. This difference, underlined by Morin (pers. comm. 2009), could have been derived from the policy of the Venetian Republic, which had standardized its sakers as relatively compact pieces. This is because in their naval employment they were placed mostly aboard galleys, where space was critical. Private owners, not having these limitations of space in their large merchantmen, were able to order longer pieces, extending the range of their guns. Looking at the falcons, one finds diameters of about 260 mm at the vent and 150 mm at the muzzle neck, corresponding to thicknesses of 11 and 4½ eighths, respectively. The difference in length between the private and state pieces, apart from one case, is 200 mm, the private guns being 37–38 diameters long, and the state guns being 34 diameters long. These are the same ratios observed in the Megadim sakers. Considering these data, it can be deduced that the three bronze pieces represented medium-calibre ordnance designed for long-range fire. Their long barrels and thick walls allowed them to withstand sizeable charges of powder. In the defensive action of a rather slow merchant vessel, often menaced by fast, oared ships, such as foists or galliots, the capability to open fire at long range could be decisive, even as a simple deterrent. As seen above, Pieces B and C originated in Venice. Piece A was possibly cast by a Venetian founder, as its shape and decoration indicate. They were not state pieces, as they do not bear the symbols of the Venetian Republic. These findings represent the extensive production of artillery pieces for arming private merchantmen, carried out by the skilful Venetian gun-founders. This trade is particularly evident during the second half of the 16th century, proving that Venice functioned as an important centre for the production of this type of ordnance for the whole of the Mediterranean, in parallel with its old rival, Genoa (Ridella, 2011: 55). Artillery pieces recovered from shipwrecks such as those from the Gnalić and Valencera wrecks, have demonstrated that the heavy, long sakers were the most important type of ordnance aboard Venetian merchant ships. At the same time, in Genoese ships this role was played by the demi-culverin (Morin, 2011: 6–8; Ridella, 2011: 12–16; 2014: 13–28). As they were a private ship-owner's property, as shown by their characteristics and the coats of arms, the three bronze pieces found off Megadim were most probably part of the main ordnance of a sailing merchantman. The finding of the three removable powder chambers means that the ship was also fitted with breech-loading swivel pieces, already salvaged or still buried in the sand. Their dimensions could mean that they were associated with the type termed in Venice petriera da mascolo or petriera da braga, depending on their composition: full bronze or bronze and wrought iron, respectively. The heaviest type, the petriera da 12, had the same bore diameter as the Sakers (90–95 mm) and corresponds to chamber ‘a’. The lightest type, the petriera da 6, corresponds to chamber ‘b’, matching the Falcons (about 75 mm). However, unlike the Sakers and Falcons, they fired stone balls or canister shot filled with lead balls (Morin, 2011: 4). The petriera, using these types of munitions on both galleys and merchant ships, were very useful in providing short-range anti-personnel fire, especially against boarding attacks. The third chamber (Fig. 7c), because of its smaller diameter, would have been employed in a moschetto da mascolo or da braga, a lighter swivel gun having a bore diameter of about 45 mm, firing a 1 libra lead shot. With their swivel mount, this type of piece could be pointed easily in any direction, and could be quickly reloaded using spare powder chambers. The lead shot found in the Megadim wreck-site, together with the reported muskets taken from the site, probably refer to the presence aboard of small arms for close-range combat. Based on their dimensions, these shot could have been used as ammunition for the arquebus, a muzzle-loading firearm with a matchlock mechanism, in use during the 15th–17th centuries (Guilmartin, 1974: 146–9). Drop- or pear-shaped deadeyes were used from about the mid 15th to the first half of the 17th century. Those found in the Megadim wreck-site seem to fit the 1490–1620 date (Mondfeld, 1998: 132). They resemble for example those found in the Mary Rose, which sank in 1545, but are of smaller dimensions. In addition to the deadeyes, the iron chains of the Mary Rose had four links, and were 280 mm long and 25 mm thick (Marsden and Endsor, 2009: 256–7, 269, 271 fig. 14.25), while the Megadim chains had 7–8 links, 200–315 mm long and 15–20 mm thick. Thus the Megadim chain links were less robust than those of the Mary Rose, suggesting they may have supported a lighter rig. Further hypothesis concerning the original ship is impossible due to the lack of hull remains. Venetian oared warships were constructed and armed by the Republic (Lane, 1992: 129–31). Since the guns were not purchased by the state, the possibility that the shipwreck represents a Venetian galley may be excluded. Neither of the two coats-of-arms present on Pieces A and B belonged to Venetian families; thus apparently the ship did not have Venice as its home port, and was not officially Venetian. The ship may have originated in a Christian country in the Mediterranean, in contact with Venice, as the Venetians had almost absolute control over trade with the ports of Egypt, the Holy Land, Lebanon and Syria (Ashtor, 1974; Pashut et al., 2013: 138). Naples and Ragusa (Dubrovnik) are the most probable candidates. Notwithstanding the permanent state of war between the Ottoman Empire and the Christian powers, and the risks of the Barbary Corsairs at that period, Christian merchantmen, especially from Ragusa, Venice and Genoa, also called at North African ports such as Algiers, and especially Alexandria. The wrecking event could have happened during one of these voyages. The general dating of the ordnance recovered from the wreck-site seems to be the last quarter of the 16th century, which narrows the time span of the suggested dating of the deadeyes (1490–1620). This does not mean that the ship sank during this period. The functional life of bronze gun could well exceed a century. However, it is recognized that in the Mediterranean and beyond the main bronze ordnance suitable for merchantmen was replaced by less expensive cast-iron guns from the 1570s. It has been noted that from the early 17th century, small swivel guns were often the only bronze pieces remaining aboard ships (Brown, 2011: 99; Ridella, 2011: 55). It can be assumed that the wrecking event occurred in the last quarter of the 16th century or the early 17th century. The authors wish to thank C. Beltrame, R. Rhynas Brown, M. Morin, L. Smith, and L. Watson for their valuable help in their specialist fields; the Israel Antiquities Authority, the Underwater Exploration Society of Israel, and the National Maritime Museum, Haifa, for their support; R. Roth for measuring and drawing ordnance pieces A and B, Y. Ben Moshe and Samir Shair for enabling the study of ordnance piece B, G. Arbel and the late J. Galili for underwater photography, the late A. Raban for drawing the carriage of ordnance piece A, O. Galili and B. Galili for underwater activities, and the late R. Schomos, for discovering and reporting ordnance piece A. Special thanks are due to S. Arenson for useful remarks, R. Pollak for the drawings, and to J. B. Tresman for the English editing.