Newport Ship brings huge crowds to medieval open day

The remains of the Newport Medieval Ship were discovered in the Usk during the construction of the Riverfront Theatre in 2002.

After two decades of cleaning, inspection and preservation, the timbers were ready to be the centrepiece of its medieval open day last summer, and attracted a much larger crowd at a similar event this weekend.

The ship’s curator, Dr Toby Jones, says the next step is a new museum in Newport where the vessel can be re-assembled.

“Ship projects typically take decades and this is no different. We had to be patient with how we treated the wood and dried it out, but now it’s dry. It’s beautiful,” said Dr Jones.

“It’s like a 2,500-piece jigsaw puzzle. You have a real treasure here and it just needs to be put on display.”

Visitors were able to take in a variety of medieval re-enactments at Queensway Meadows Industrial Estate including blacksmiths, axe-wielding woodworkers and an all-male choir who serenaded the queue with sea shanties.

Blacksmiths at Newport Ship Medieval Open Day. (Image: Sam Portillo)

Another stall housed a selection of crossbows, ranging from the medieval model that would have been used at the time of the Newport Ship, to the latest in Dark Age technology.

And despite all the illuminating findings of the last 21 years, Dr Jones and the Friends of Newport Ship volunteers are excited about what is still to come – including the potential of discovering the vessel's original identity.

“We’ve turned all the archaeological information over to the historians and they are delving into the archives in places like Lisbon, Seville and France,” said Dr Jones.

“I’m sure the Newport Ship is mentioned in these. It’s just about finding it. It’s like a needle in a haystack.”

Volunteer for Friends of Newport Ship, Lionel Davies, says that questions over the ship’s origins only strengthen their excitement about what they have.

Lionel Davies, Friends of Newport Ship. (Image: Sam Portillo)

“We have an argument about these things, but it’s a polite argument,” said Mr Davies. “We’re the Friends of the ship – we try to be as friendly as possible!”

The open day brought visitors from as far as Swansea and Bristol - both cities, like Newport, with a rich maritime history.

Friends of Newport Ship are looking for more volunteers as they adapt to the “momentum” of interest.

What do we know about the Newport Ship?

The Newport Ship was a large merchant vessel that sailed between southern Britain and the Iberian Peninsula more than 500 years ago.

It is the best-preserved example of a late Medieval ship found in Europe, with excavators able to retrieve 25 tons, about a third of the original vessel.

Queue to see the timbers. (Image: Sam Portillo)

The Newport Ship is older than the famous Mary Rose, a warship serving Henry VIII, and would have been bigger than the vessels that Christopher Columbus took to the Americas.

The great ship, as it would have been categorised at the time, could have transported tons of cargo, including salted meat, iron, and Iberian wine, and dozens of men.

Analysis of the remains revealed that the timber came from the Basque country and was felled some time after 1449.

How did the ship wind up in Newport?

At this point, you may be wondering how the Newport Ship got its name.

In 1468 or 1469, the ship rolled onto its starboard while receiving repairs and began to collect water. The locals salvaged what they could whilst the rest was lost to the riverbed.

How the Newport Ship may have looked. Picture: Dextra Visual (Image: Dextra Visual)

And this is what Newport workers discovered in 2002.

The remnants of the ship were lifted, piece by piece, over the course of several months.

Archaeologists found a French silver coin, minted between May and July 1447, that would have been snuck into the ship during construction as a good luck charm.

They also found stone cannon balls and a leather wrist guard that would have been used by an archer. It was common for a ship carrying so much value to have some defensive weapons on board - especially during a time of rampant piracy.