Recent visitors to the Medieval Ship Centre will have noticed that at the back of the conserved timber store are 8 planks and a section of false keel.

Four of these planks are currently held together using plastic teaspoons – they fit the holes without slipping through, they are inert and will not damage the timber, and they were available.

These 8 planks are strakes 1, 2, 3 and 4, plus strakes 6, 7, 8 and 9. Strake 5 is still undergoing conservation in the remaining tanks. Along with a fabricated (fake) strake 5, these planks will be reassembled as the first test for the potential fixings that are being trialled.

The initial supply of threaded pink bolts are matched with ‘natural’ coloured nuts and washers and will also use a sponge pad to ensure that the timbers are held securely but gently. These will be used in place of the original clench nails/rivets that have all corroded.

The larger brown threaded bolts and nuts will replace the trenails that would have held the planks in place against the frames when we come to add the frames into the structure.

The assemblage will then be visible in the extended timber store from next spring.

All the Medieval Ship’s timbers will have completed conservation by the end of 2018, after which time we hope to have a suitable location in which we can reassemble the hull for everybody to come and see. This magnificent vessel will attract visitors into Newport and SE Wales from all around the world – will you be there?

Thanks to the Friends of Newport Ship, the Ship Centre opens for the last time in 2016 on Saturday 10 December. The Centre will reopen on Saturday 18 February for Spring half term, and every Saturday thereafter until the middle of December. Friday opening will recommence on Good Friday until the end of October.

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