"Royal Navy Warship" discovered near Riga in Latvia

[Beef Wellington]

I think there are a number of somewhat misleading statements made in the article especially regarding the potential size and nature of the wreck, but intriguing none-the-less.  Will be fascinating to see how much is preserved and whether this is truly a 'warship'. 

 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-10087485/Mysterious-40ft-long-shipwreck-Royal-Navy-warship-discovered.html

[Gregory]

The headline is misleading in that the text of the story says a 39 foot "section" was uncovered, leaving the possibility that

the full extent of the wreck could be much longer.

[uss frolick]

There was a bad storm in the Baltic in 1810, in which many RN vessel were lost with all hands, including Defence, 74, and St. George, 98.

[Martes]

Could be RN, could be Russian - it was, after all, Russian territory at the time, and the construction was very similar. Well, should they dig it out, we'll see.

[Beef Wellington]

The residual copper nails used to attach copper plating to the hull are probably the significant clue to the wreck being a Royal Navy vessel as this was universally adopted in late 18th Century.  I believe there were also a small percentage of British merchant ships copper plated in this period, but given the expense it would probably be more likely on those travelling in warmer waters.  Not familiar with Baltic Navy's coppering practices, but I suspect this would be far more limited due to coppering benefit primarily being protection in warmer waters, and the fact that these Navies would not have the same global cruising grounds.

[thibaultron]

It looks like the bow was salvaged after the wreck, all those bow planks ending at the same non-frame area. May have been removed at the same time as the copper plates.

[Matle]

On 10/14/2021 at 5:23 PM, Beef Wellington said:

The residual copper nails used to attach copper plating to the hull are probably the significant clue to the wreck being a Royal Navy vessel as this was universally adopted in late 18th Century.  I believe there were also a small percentage of British merchant ships copper plated in this period, but given the expense it would probably be more likely on those travelling in warmer waters.  Not familiar with Baltic Navy's coppering practices, but I suspect this would be far more limited due to coppering benefit primarily being protection in warmer waters, and the fact that these Navies would not have the same global cruising grounds.

 

Although it was indeed not common due to less things eating the hulls, it did occur. Mostly though, wooden sheathing was employed, essentially an underwater sacrifical layer of thin planking. Even Swedish East Indiamen were sheathed in that manner. However, the major units of the Swedish navy were copper sheathed in the major overhaul around 1790, but none of those sank outside Riga as far as I know even though they did patrol the Baltic together with the British in 1809.

 

If it’s indeed a large ship and indeed 200 years old (how did they conclude that, I saw no dendro?) the answer should be available in the archives.  Probably in the Russian - they built their larger vessels with oak and copper sheathing too, at least a bit further into the 19th century. Wonder why they disregarded the most obvious answer? Otherwise, if ”oak” and ”copper” is all they’ve got, I can mention that plenty of later and lesser vessels were built of oak with copper sheathing - here’s one example:

 

 

https://ru.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tre_Kronor_af_Stockholm

 

edit: looking at the pictures with people in it, the size if the hull and planking makes me think this is a smaller vessel.

Edited October 21, 2021 by Matle