Newshot Island Ship Graveyard survey

Date 3 October 2014 - 5 October 2014

Event ID 1014015

Category Recording

Type Ground Survey

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1014015

NS 47699 70486 As part of the SCAPE Trust’s Scotland’s Coastal Heritage at Risk Project the SCAPE Trust, the Nautical Archaeology Society and local volunteers joined forces, 3–5 October 2014, to make a detailed record of a concentration of wooden boat remains. The remains are visible on aerial photographs and were originally noted by volunteers during

coastal surveys, with one of the wrecks being identified as a diving bell barge by a local volunteer.

The team planned, photographed and recorded a group of seven mud punts located in the intertidal zone E of Park Quay at Erskine. Local information and historical research indicates that the mud punts were used in dredging operations on the River Clyde until the early 20th century.

An aerial photograph taken in 1939 shows the punts in their current position, presumably abandoned. A second group of wrecks located in the creek on the S side of Newshot Island contains schooners, abandoned there after a fire at the Kingston Dock in 1914, and possibly the earliest surviving remains of a diving bell barge.

The detailed surveys were supplemented by low level aerial photography by Edward Martin, and historical research is being undertaken by members of the project team.

Archive: RCAHMS (intended)

Funder: Heritage Lottery Fund, Historic Scotland and Crown Estate

Joanna Hambly – The SCAPE Trust

(Source: DES)