Abstract

The Swash Channel Wreck lies in approximately seven meters of water on a flat sand and shingle seabed immediately adjacent to the eastern edge of the dredged section of the Swash Channel in the approaches to Poole Harbour in Dorset, U.K. Environmental monitoring undertaken by Bournemouth University since 2005 produced results indicating that the site is under threat from both physical and biological degradation that is causing a loss of archaeological material, and consequently information, in a very short period of time. The site is exposed to relatively extreme water movements as a combination of natural tidal- and wind-generated currents and vessel movements, with serious influence to the physical state of the hull structures resulting in mechanical damage and superficial erosion. The protection of the site involved the deployment of various different site preservation methods to evaluate those that are the most effective and the most financially viable. The project initiated a trial of differing strategies for in situ stabilisation, each applied simultaneously in different locations of the study area of the wreck and deployed for a twelve month period to establish the efficacy versus financial viability of each method, deployed for the medium/long term protection of the site. The methodology had been designed on the experience of several international projects, with the added aspect of scientifically studying the original timber decay and degradation and efficacy of different protective methods, rather then being focused only on sacrificial samples which could offer localised and limited results. In this venue the results of the project will be presented.