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Two dug-out boats from Wales

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 January 2012

Extract

Of the two boats described, the first, from Llandrindod Wells, was examined by the writer in 1929 for the National Museum of Wales. The second was found before 1866 at Llyn Llydaw, Snowdonia (Arch. Camb. 1874, 147). It has recently been presented to the National Museum of Wales by Mr. Mervyn Griffith, and re-examination having shown that the illustration in the published record gives a wrong impression of its form, this opportunity has been taken of refiguring the vessel.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1931

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References

page 138 note 1 Several cuts near the stern are evidently those of a modern saw. The writer was told that children were in the habit of breaking off fragments and taking them to school as ‘bits of the old Roman boat’!

page 140 note 1 One other hole appears to be contemporary. It is situated on the starboard side of the stern, near the end, and runs obliquely into the solid end for a depth of three inches. Its diameter is one inch. The purpose of this hole is not apparent; it may have been used for some kind of paddle or steering arrangement.

page 140 note 2 It is assumed that the open end is the bow, and not vice versa, since propulsion would obviously be much easier with the bow raised from the water by the weight of the heavy stern.

page 141 note 1 I have to thank Mr. H. A. Hyde, M.A., F.L.S., Keeper of Botany in the National Museum of Wales, for kind advice on this point.

page 141 note 2 The Llangorse canoe. See Antiq. Journ. vi, 2 (1926), pp. 121–51.Google Scholar

page 141 note 3 The boat supplied little evidence of the method and tools used in its manufacture (such as was obtained in the case of the Llangorse canoe, op.cit., pp. 124–5) which might be expected to give some indication of date. Certain grooves in the floor near the stern suggest the use of a gouge or chisel; but little more can be said.

page 142 note 1 For help in various ways I have to thank the owner, Mrs. Wheeler, and her agent Mr. Vaughan Vaughan; Sir Charles Venables Llewellyn, D.L.; Mr. P. B. Abery of Builth Wells (for photographs); and especially Mr. T. P. Davies, through whose intervention the boat was finally recovered; also Dr. Cyril Fox, F.S.A., for help and advice generally, in this and the following account.

page 142 note 2 Op. cit., pp. 140–1.

page 143 note 1 Here as before I have to thank Mr. Hyde for much information. The two canoes described emphasize the importance of the study of such vessels in relation to the original tree as likely to shed light on the technique of their construction, and, particularly in the case of incomplete specimens, on their original form. This was done in the case of the Llangorse boat, but practically no others.

page 143 note 2 Op. cit., fig. 10, p. 140.

page 143 note 3 Op. cit., p. 124, and fig. 2 (also pl. xx b, c).

page 144 note 1 Op. cit., p. 145.