Monsieur Mike Nash, Maritime Heritage Officer, du Parks and Wildlife Service de Tasmanie m’a courtoisement communiqué ces renseignements :
During the excavation of the Sydney Cove shipwreck (1797) three anchors were found and one of these had half of an anchor stock still attached (see image below). The ship was originally built in India and the stock was made from teak (Tectona grandis). Although it was split into two halves along its axis when found, the stock was originally one solid piece of wood, square in cross section and strapped with two iron bands. The total number of reinforcing bands across the whole stock would have been four. At the band closest to the anchor shank the timber stock measures 310mm by 310mm, and at the band furthest away from the anchor shank the timber stock tapered to 180mm by 180mm. The overall surviving length of the timber stock is 1.95m which would make the original length around 4 metres.
The iron anchor associated with the stock was 3.800 metre in total height and 3.000 metre in total width with the anchor flukes. It should also be noted that the remains of wadding were found on the anchor ring to prevent rope cable from chafing. This wadding consisted of a combination of hessian and hemp with a white protective coating (possibly calcium carbonate which was also used for hull timber protection in combination with other materials).
L’adresse du site (très bien fait) de la fouille du Sydney Cove en Tasmanie est :
http://www.parks.tas.gov.au/historic/shipw/sc.html
Nota : localement, nous avons la possibilité de trouver des sections de bois suffisantes en pin des Caraïbes (
pinus caribaea ), en Acajou d’Amérique (
American mahogany ) ou en teck (
tectona grandis) mais cette dernière essence est extrêmement chère à l’achat. – Robert veccella.
