Bevaix Boat

The Bevaix boat is a first century Gallo-Roman wreck from the Bay of Bevaix, Lake Neuchatel, Switzerland. The remains of the ship, and a modern reconstitution, are on display at the Laténium.

The boat

The Bevaix boat was built from large oak planks and measured 19.40 meters in length and around 2.90 meters in beam. It is characterized by flat bottom and a complete absence of keel or any central plank. Its four principle bottom planks were arranged one besides the other in a way that first plank forms stern and the last one bow. The beam of the boat was determined by an addition of the L-shaped bilge-strakes. These strakes allowed a direct transition between the flat bottom and the sides of the boat. The spaces left between the bilge-strakes and the four large bottom planks were filled by two planks with an irregular outline. The purpose of those last planks was to obtain appropriate symmetry of the bottom. The upper strakes, these above the bilge-strake, did not survive. However, the evidence of caulking, found on the upper edges of the bilge-strakes clearly suggests that the sides had to be heightened by at least one or two strakes. This, in turn, lead to the estimates suggesting that the maximum height of the boat was approximately 0.80 to 0.90 meters.

Framing

Twenty-two pairs of internal frames, also made of oak, were arranged head to tail to give almost vertical sides. All the pairs consisted of two timber, each made of a single naturally bent timber which was cut from a tree junction (main trunk as floor support, and branch junction as side support). In all the cases, frames were always installed in pairs covering the whole length of the bottom, but alternatively supporting only one side of the hull. The only exception is a sixth pair, which was a single piece of oak with a mortise cut in the center to function as mast-step. The framing was fasted to the planks with some 300 iron nails driven from inside. They passed first through the frame, and then the strakes. Any projecting end was clenched at the right angle (double-clenched according to some sources).

Caulking

The Bevaix boat presents a very distinctive caulking technique, which clearly differentiated it from similar finds from this period from other parts of Europe. It was observed that caulking was consistently present between all the planks of the boat. First, a string was inserted into the seam. Next, this string was covered by layer of mosses, which in turn was held by a wooden lath that was secured with thousands of little caulking nails, inserted into the seams from the outside.

References

* Arnold, B. 1975. The Gallo-Roman boat from the Bay of Bevaix, Lake Neuchatel, Switzerland, IJNA 4: 123-141
* Arnold, B. 1980. Navigation sur le Lac Neuchatel; une esquisse a travers le temp, Helvetia Archaeologica
* Arnold, B. 1979. Gallo-Roman boat finds in Switzerland, CBA Research Report 24: 31-5
* Gardiner, R. 1996. The Earliest Ships: 66-7