Maritime Archaeology of Alum Bay

"In 1991, sports divers discovered a previously unknown section of wooden shipwreck, subsequently named Alum Bay 1, lying in the sheltered waters of Alum Bay on the north-west coast of the Isle of Wight. The identity of the vessel was initially unknown, but it was strongly linked to the loss of the 38-gun frigate HMS Pomone on the nearby Needles in 1811, an identification formally confirmed by the research detailed in this monograph. Archaeological work on the site since 1993 has comprised a seabed survey of the site, targeted excavation of specific areas, and sampling of structural remains for dendrochronological and metallurgical analysis. In 2001, a second shipwreck was discovered a short distance away, and the focus of archaeological work shifted to this new set of remains, named Alum Bay 2. This vessel proved to be a much smaller vessel that was upturned on the seabed and covered by a thin layer of sediment.^ This vessel was also subject to archaeological survey and investigation, including dendrochronological analysis. On the basis of the ship structure surviving on the seabed, Alum Bay 2 has been classified as a relatively small vessel that was likely to have been involved i