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September 13, 2005

Sail away, sail away, sail away.

There isn't no call to go talking of pushing and pulling. Boats are quite tricky enough for those that sit still without looking further for the cause of trouble.

Sam Gamgee, J. R. R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

The forty foot long bronze-age technology boat, pains takingly constructed of reed, date-palm fibres, pitch and tar was manned by an eight man crew, (two Americans, an Australian sailing master, two Omani seamen, two Italian graduate students and an Indian archaeologist). She was dubbed the Magan, and was intended to prove that such a ship could have plied the 600 mile voyage from Oman to Mandvi (India).

Several miles off shore, it was hit by a moderate wave. This tilted the boat "more than expected". 30 minutes later, it was at the bottom of the ocean. Everyone was rescued by a naval vessel that was shadowing them in case of such an event.

“Everyone was very saddened by the sinking of the boat on the first day,” Possehl told The Associated Press by telephone from Oman. “It was a tragedy, especially after it had gotten off to a good start.”

I don't know that 'several miles and sink' in the first day is a terribly good start, but they are undaunted.

Researchers had hoped the voyage would help them learn about Bronze Age boat construction techniques, plus how well such vessels worked, how to sail them, and what life aboard them might have been like.

Not quite like that, not all that well, avoiding waves, brief.

I still find it an interesting project however, there have been a series of curious postulations and recreations about how things might have been done (most notably Egyptian based) and now...

Omani Culture Minister Saeed Haithem told the members of the boat project Saturday that his government will back the rebuilding and testing of another boat, Possehl said.

they're rebuilding. Perhaps the strangest point is that they won't call it a 'replica' of a 4500 year old boat, as there is not enough information about how such a boat was contructed. It's a series of best guesses. Still, best of luck to the bronze age submarine recreationists. And remember the life vests.

Scrawled illegibly by Meathe at September 13, 2005 12:03 PM

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