The International Journal of Nautical Archaeology and Underwater Exploration (1989) 18.1: 3341

The Shinan and Wando sites, Korea: further information

Jeremy Green Department of Maritime Archaeology, Western Australian Maritime Museum, Fremantle, Western Australia

Zae Geun Kim Department of Naval Architecture, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea

The Shinan site In a previous article in this Journal (Green, 19836), a description of the structure of the Shinan ship was given, based on a small number of ship’s timbers that had been raised at the time

(1 982) and a single mid-ships cross-section which had been recorded underwater. Since that time, the whole of the ship has been dismantled and raised, and is now undergoing conservation treatment at the Mokpo Conservation and

Gorboord stroke y-r Figure 1. Cross-section of the port side of the ship.

0305-7445/89/010033 +09 %03.00/0 0 1989 The Nautical Archaeology Society

NAUTICAL ARCHAEOLOGY, 18.1

Bulkheod planks

Gorboard strak

0 0.5 m

1.i

Figure 2. Construction of stiffeners.

Butt plate /-I Figure 3. Detail of butt and mortise and tenon joints on strakes.

Figure 4. Butt plate set under a frame.

Restoration Centre of the Cultural Property Research Institute. A number of reports have been published relating to the hull structure (Cultural Property Maintenance Office, 1984; Cultural Property Research Institute, 1986) and a 1 5 scale model of the vessel has been con- structed. The authors wish to review the present evidence and discuss some of the problems of interpretation of the structure.

The site is now dated by a wooden cargo tag with the date 1323 and the last date for the coins of 1310 [there were 26.8 tonnes totalling over

seven million brass-bronze coins; the earliest date for the coins was AD 14 (Conservation Science Research Department, 1986)].

The remains of the ship include the keel, about 14 strakes of the starboard side and six strakes of the port side of the ship (Fig. l), part of the tran- som bow and a small section of the stern tran- som. The vessel has seven internal bulkheads creating eight compartments. There is a fore and main mast step and structure that is possibly part of the decking of the ship. The bulkheads for- ward of the mast step are supported on the aft

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J. GREEN AND Z. G . KIM: SHINAN AND WAND0 SITES, KOREA

I

strake

4 ?

~~~l ‘ T L i r n b e r hole

Figure 5. Rabbeted clinker construction.

rA rB rc

Figure 6. Rabbeted clinker changing to rabbeted carvel in fore part of the ship.

side with frames and on the forward side with stiffeners. The stiffeners (Fig. 2) are pointed wooden pegs that penetrate each strake from the outside of the hull planking, thus locking the opposite side of the bulkhead to the frames, and are attached to the face of the bulkhead. Aft of the main mast step, the reverse situation occurs. The strakes are butt-jointed. In most cases the butt joint is a lap joint, but on the garboard strake and on at least one other place the joint is a mortise and tenon joint (Fig. 3). On the internal face of the butt joints, there are butt plates which sit over the top of the joints and clamp them together. In some case, these butt plates are set under a frame (Fig. 4), indicating that the frames were put in place after the completion of the planking. The strakes are of rabbeted clinker construction, with the rabbet cut out of the uppermost plank, on the lower inside edge (Fig. 5). The bulkhead floor and planks have a rebate set in the joint to locate the edge of the bulkhead.

In the fore part of the ship, this arrangement gradually changes to a rabbeted carvel or ship- lap construction (Fig. 6) which allows a flush rabbeted joint onto the transom bow.

The research model has been built by the Mokpo Conservation and Restoration Centre at a scale of 1 5 (Fig. 7) based on measurements made of the hull timbers. It raises a number of complex and interesting problems, though the model has some limitations. Firstly, because of the poor visibility on the wreck site, it was not always possible to establish the exact orientation of the pieces, thus in some cases their relation- ship is uncertain. Additionally, the plans of the timbers were made from individual measure- ments made of the timbers, but not direct 1:l tracings. In spite of these drawbacks, the model is of great interest, and of course is just one step in the development of a complete understanding of the structure.

One of the major problems that has not yet

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NAUTICAL ARCHAEOLOGY, 18.1

Figure 7. Research model at the Mokpo Conservation and Restoration Centre.

been resolved is that the keel has a distinct hog; the centre is 220 mm higher than the fore and aft ends, over the length of the keel (Fig. 8). It is not certain at present if this is a feature that was incorporated in the construction of the ship, or is a result of forces operating on the hull structure after the sinking. It is expected that further work on the research model will resolve this problem. The scarfjoints in the keel (Fig. 9) have a similar arrangement to the Quanzhou ship (Green,

1983a), but with coins and a mirror placed on the sloping horizontal face of the joint rather than the vertical faces, as in the Quanzhou ship.

The mast step (Fig. 10) is very interesting, showing the arrangement of the step and the three-part mast. It is possible that the orien- tation of the mast is wrong. It will be noticed that the main mast does not make contact with the bulkhead. The foremast, however, is arranged to lie against the bulkhead, and the bulkhead, it

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J. GREEN AND Z. G . KIM: SHINAN AND WAND0 SITES, KOREA

E - r-

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NAUTICAL ARCHAEOLOGY, 18.1

I

Wedge I \

Staple

Figure 9. Scarfjoint on the keel.

7 1 L.

Figure 10. The main mast step arrangement.

seems, has been especially angled so that it is aligned with the rake of the mast. The use ofa pin to fix the base of the mast is also interesting.

The way that the transom bow (Fig. 11) is attached to the keel is not absolutely certain. However, it is double-planked. A single cant frame was recovered (Fig. 12). It is unusual because it has a series of semi-circular holes cut

from the upper through to the side face of the frame. The purpose of these holes is unclear.

The arrangement of the upper part of the side of the ship is also uncertain. It is thought that the structure that projects into the body of the ship is a deck of sorts. However, it has also been suggested that this may have been a coaming. Thus, it is not certain if the timbers that are

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J . GREEN AND Z. G. KIM: SHINAN AND WAND0 SITES, KOREA

. . . . . a .

4650 .

.. fi II ii

c1 100

planking 4 Figure I 1 . Transom bow.

associated with it were separated from the main part of the hull or not. The bulwark associated with it has circular holes 150 mm cut in it (Fig. 13). It is not clear what these holes were for; they may have been scuppers or possibly holes for oars. Until the position of the bulwark on the section of the hull is known more precisely, the function of the holes is uncertain.

The Wando ship The Wando ship was discovered in 1984 in Southwestern Korea. The cargo of 30 000 cela- dons originated from a kiln in Hainam Province and are thought to date from around the second half of the I Ith century. The construction and timber species of the vessel indicates that it was built in Korea.

The construction is distinctive and unusual, and the original length of the vessel would have been about 9m. There is no keel, rather five heavy longitudinal timbers (1 8&200 mm thick and 300-350mm wide) which are pinned together with a complex series of mortise and tenon joints. The centre three planks have six mortise and tenons that run through the three planks. The two outer planks also have six mor- tise and tenons, but in this case they penetrate through the outer plank, but only partially into the outer edge of the second strakes (Fig. 14). The side planking is attached to the bottom with chine planks. These are L-shaped planks which are rebated into the upper edge of the outer bot- tom plank and fastened with mortise and tenon.

Figure 12. Cant frame.

0 0.5 m ppR;RI

100

0 0-5 m AAPA

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NAUTICAL ARCHAEOLOGY, 18.1

0 Metre I BEBICY

m I

t 0 Metre I - Figure 14. (a) Wando ship side planking (port). (b) Bottom planking. (c) Midship section.

There are five strakes of the sides of the ship associated with Korean ship construction arranged in a rabbeted clinker construction. The upper edge of each strake has a rebate cut in the outer edge. The strakes are attached with mor- tise and tenon, the tenon being driven through the upper strake and partially in the lower. There is evidence that the third strake was penetrated with a thwart beam. All these features are

(Green, 19836; Kim, 1985).

Conclusions The construction of the Shinan ship is, contrary to previous thinking, different to the construc- tion of the Quanzhou ship (Green, 1983~). Detailed investigation of these ships indicated

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J. GREEN AND Z. G. KIM: SHINAN AND WAND0 SITES, KOREA

that the previous, and superficial, examination of the vessels omitted the smaller details of both vessels. With the further evidence now available, it is clear that the vessels, although belonging to the same general class, are radically different in certain constructional details. It should be noted that the Shinan ship is thought to have sailed from Ningbo, although not necessarily built there. One of the authors (Green) is preparing a report describing the major and minor differ- ences of the two ships. However, at this point it should be emphasized that the Shinan ship is far

from well understood, and the investigations at present are far from complete.

The Wando ship is a very important find, par- ticularly as it is now the earliest Asiatic ship in existence. The vessel also illustrates the features of Korean ships. This is interesting, since one of the authors (Kim) has recorded the surviving present day Korean ship-building tradition. It is a remarkable example of the persistence of a tradition, since up to recently ships were constructed and fastened in the same way as the Wando ship 900 years ago.

References Conservation Science Research Department, 1986, Component Analysis of the Shinan Coins. Cultural Properties

Cultural Property Maintenance Office, 1984, Shinan Seabed Relics (Information Data No. 2 ) . Cultural Property

Cultural Property Research Institute, 1986, Annual Report Mokpo Conservation and Restoration Centre. 1985. Cultural

Green, J. N., 1983~. The Song Dynasty shipwreck at Quanzhou, Fujian Province, People’s Republic of China, IJNA.

Green, J. N., 1983b, The Shinan excavation, Korea: an interim report on the hull structure. IJNA, 12(4): 293-301. Kim, Z.-G., 1985, Study ofKorean Ship History (in Korean). Korean Cultural Research Institute Series No. 24, Seoul

Research Institute, Cultural Property Maintenance Office, Ministry of Culture and Publicity, Seoul, Korea.

Maintenance Office, Ministry of Culture and Publicity, Seoul, Korea.

Property Maintenance Office, Ministry of Culture and Publicity, Seoul, Korea.

12(3): 25341.

National University Press, Korea.

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