A 300-year-old ship whose loss was controversially blamed on its drunken Irish crew has been found off the coast of Norway.
Divers off Mandal, in the far south of the country, thought the wreck might be the Providentz when they first discovered it in 2020.
The ship, from Cork, Ireland, was known to have sunk in the area in 1721 while sailing back to sea, with a local pilot blaming the drunken crew.
Now a new analysis has dated the wreckage to the time of the sinking – and revealed how the ship’s owners likely flouted the laws of the British Empire.
Archaeologist Sarah Fawsitt of the Norwegian Maritime Museum revealed that the Providentz was just two years old when it was lost to the sea.
A 300-year-old ship whose loss was controversially blamed on its drunken crew has been found off the coast of Norway
Divers off Mandal, in the far south of the country, thought the wreck might be the Providentz when they first discovered it in 2020
Photo shows a pipe with ‘Cork’ embossed on the side recovered from the wreck
A cross section of a ship like the Providentz
that is was the Providentz.’ The Providentz was bound for Arendal, Norway, with a cargo of butter, corn, grain, and malt
She said: ‘It was known that the Providentz sank in the area, so it was the first conclusion that the divers from Mandal dive club jumped to.
‘Our plan was to take some wood samples to run a dendrochronological analysis on them.
‘The hope was that the year the wood was felled would be reasonably close to the year we knew the ship sank, and not later than that date of course.
‘When the dates came back on the wood, they showed the ship was only two years old when it sank in 1721.’
It wasn’t the only clue they found.
Sarah said: ‘Before we had even taken the wood samples, two clay pipes were found on the wreck with ‘Cork’ embossed on their sides.
‘So we felt very confident at that point that is was the Providentz.’
The Providentz was bound for Arendal, Norway, with a cargo of butter, corn, grain, and malt when it stopped near Mandal on October 16, 1721, to wait for better weather.
The wreck site was at Mandal, Norway
The vessel sank to the bottom of the bay in 1721
Photo shows a hemp rope recovered from the wreck
While no one died in the initial wreck, the ship was seemingly lost forever
It embarked on the final leg of its journey on November 9, leaving Mandal under the guide of a local pilot.
But the pilot mixed up port and starboard as he called out instructions, causing the the ship to run aground, and tearing a hole in her port side.
Nobody died, yet the ship was lost.
In the aftermath, the crew blamed the pilot, and the pilot blamed the crew, saying they were falling down drunk and incapable of steering.
Fawsitt said the crew may well have been drinkers, but blamed the pilot for the confusion.
She said: ‘The crew were waiting for more favourable weather for 13 days – it is not unreasonable to expect that they were drinking during that time.
‘Crossing the North Sea must have been terrifying and it is understandable that the crew would have wanted to let off some steam when they arrived in safer waters.
‘My colleague, Jørgen Johannessen, has been studying this very phenomenon and has found evidence of sailors partying in other similar harbours around the Norwegian coast.
A pipe with ‘Cork’ embossed on the side recovered from the wreck
Researchers from the Norwegian Maritime Museum (picture) dived down to investigate the wreck
Archaeologist Sarah Fawsitt (pictured) of the Norwegian Maritime Museum revealed that the Providentz was just two years old when it was lost to the sea
‘But the most likely cause of the sinking was the confusion between the Norwegian pilot and the crew.
‘The pilot told the crew to steer to starboard when he should have said steer to port. The crew followed his directions and crashed into the coast.’
Dendrochronological analysis of the wreck revealed another controversy.
British merchants favoured Dutch-built ships, which were designed for cargo instead of guns, and required significantly fewer crew to sail.
But the British government had made it illegal to purchase foreign ships, Fawsitt said, ‘in an effort to stop this flow of money out of the empire’.
Yet the Providentz was made with German wood, and iron bolts were used in her construction – a feature of Dutch shipbuilding not yet practiced in the British Isles.
It suggests the ship’s owners, the powerful Lavitt family of Cork, flouted the law, at a time when Ireland was under British control.
Sarah, who is herself Irish, said: ‘This is a significant find as we know that it was illegal at the time to buy ships outside of the empire.
The captain’s ruler, recovered from the wreck
Photo shows a pulley wheel, recovered from the wreck
The vessel stopped near Mandal on October 16, 1721, to wait for better weather
‘I believe the Lavitt family obtained the ship outside of the law.
‘There were very strong ties between Cork and the Netherlands during this period the potential for ties between the Netherlands and the Lavitt family is high.
‘Meanwhile, the potential for the British authorities to identify their ship, sailing from Cork to Norway, seems quite unlikely.’
She continued: ‘With the Lavitt family being one of the most important families in Cork, they wouldn’t have faced any scrutiny there.
‘There is also evidence that British shipbuilders had started copying the Dutch style of building.
‘So it is possible that even in a port closer to the British seat of power, it wouldn’t be possible for authorities to differentiate a British from a Dutch ship.’
