Conservation of waterlogged timbers from the Batavia 1629

The problems associated with determination of longitude in the seventeenth century have led to the recovery of a fine collection of artefacts from the wrecks of the Dutch East lndiamen Batavia 1629 and the Vergulde Draeck 1656. From the analysis of materials recovered from the wrecks, an insight into the industrial technology of seventeenth century metal and woodworking industries has been obtained (MacLcod, 1987; Baker and Green, 1977 and Green, 1989). Since records of construction techniques arc essentially non-existent for the period in question, the structure that is being revealed in the rebuilding of the Batavia at the Western Australian Maritime Museum is providing a real insight into the 'stale-of-the-art' technique used in Dutch yards in the 1620s (Hundley, 1983 and Green and Parthesius, 1989).