Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1869-06-16
The Oldest Known German Ship.


A Frankfort Letter to the New York Eve
ming Post, contains the following para
graph:
Dr. A e. j. Nicholson published in the
last number of the Anzeiger fder Kunde
der Deutschen Verzeit an interesting ac-
count of a visit he paid to the Flensburo
(Schleswig) Antiquarian, in which is con
tanned one or two remarkable old vessels
found in one of the Schleswig turf f-moors
by the Danes. The ships are rowing YES
sells, and form part of numerous archeo-
logical discoveries found between the Years
1858 and 1863 in the turf-diStricts of the
duchy of Schleswig. ''The one now pre-
served in Flensburg," says DIR. Nicholson,
''was dug out of the Nydam turf-moor
near Satrup, in Sundewitt, and consequent
ly comes from q district which was un-
questionably inhabited, in the period to
which the vessel belongs, by the Germanic
race of the Angli. 1t is the production
of the original ancestors of the
English, who have been first in navigation
for centuries, and therefore this archpo-
logical curiosity is of the greatest interest.
The vessel is maize of oak, very well ash
ioned, and was found on the eighteenth of
August, 1863 It is slender galley for 2S
oars, rs feet long, and the large planks are
fastened together by strong iron nails. It
did not carry sail. The two ends, fore
and aft, are built after the same style, run
ming to point, evidently with regard to
the prevention of collision and to render
the landing easier. The vessel is ten feet
wide IN the centre, and also deep, narrow
ing and Swallowing towards the ends. 1t
is made of eleven planks, five on each
side, the ground plank and the keel.
The latter is not more than an inch
thick, and about eight inches wide in the
centre of the boat. The caulking between
the plank is effected by means of woolen
stuff and a pitchy mass. The technic OF
this ancient Germanic ship-build is much
higher than it has been customary to as
sumo for that period and people. Never
theless the steering apparatus found near
the vessel in the turf-moor has a very prim-
itive character, it being of the Oldest known
form, as seen upon the earliest monuments,
and is appended not to the stern of the
vessel, but to the side. It has a length o1
nine feet and four inches. In regard to
the movable articles belonging to the ship
dug up at the same time, there are many
of them whose appointment and applica.
ton are not at all clear or doubtful. A few
water vessels, among other things, compare
very well with those in use at the present
day. 1t appears to be undoubted that the
vessel was purposely sunken in the prlml
tive period, there being large holes OF grea
age in the planks below the water line
! through which the water must have poured
The Nydan moor was formerly bay of the
sea.
The chronology is defined by number
of antiquities, arms, utensils, ornaments
of iron, bronze and silver, which were dug
ND near the ship and found in 1t. Thirty
four Roman imperial coins of silver found
are from the period 60 to 2l7 years afte
the birth of Christ. The Danish natural
lists, especially Englehardt, who were pre-
sent at the time the vessel was discovered
and who have made elaborate reports upon
| it, place the ship and it's sinking as belong
ing to the third century of our era; yieV
with which DIR. Nicholson comedies. Tn
date has been doubted by some of tn
German papers, though no grounds hay
been given therefor.