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The remains of some of the great warships of the British Empire are being rescued from the Thames by a team of volunteers.
The group today started the project to preserve a crucial part of the capital's maritime history. They began work at low tide by retrieving broken timbers next to the Thames Barrier in Charlton - the site of a shipyard that was abandoned nearly a century ago.
Archaeologists at University College London trained the volunteers to help identify the remains of the 19th century battleships.
The remains of the ships are thought to include the 131-gun Duke of Wellington, which at 73 metres and 5,892 tonnes was the largest and most powerful ship in the world when she was launched in 1852, the same week the Iron Duke died.
While on the building stocks, she was cut apart and lengthened to allow space for a steam engine. She played an important role with the outbreak of the Crimean War in 1854 but soon became obsolete. She was broken up in 1904.
Unearthing 19th century warships
Gustav Milne, the project director from UCL, said: "This is one of the last opportunities we have to record this piece of imperial history. Eventually the timbers will be washed away or moved."
UCL trained the volunteers in its three-year Thames Discovery Programme, which aims to mobilise Londoners to help archaeologists at 20 sites along the river. Dr Milne said that without the volunteers his team would not have been able to catalogue the remains which could belong to six ships.
The Castles shipyard was on the site from 1850 and closed in about 1911. Some of the last vessels broken up there included the Anson, Edgar and Hannibal, for which the team is also searching.
Dr Milne said: "The timbers are so large there is nowhere to store the remains. So the only way we have of preserving them is by recording the information. It is also a lesson in technology. By the time some of these ships were complete they were obsolete."
Reader views (1)
I was brought up in charlton, and would take a stroll along the river path, quiet, only hearing the humming sound from the factories across the water. A narrow path in parts so you would observe the thames mud, and wooden beams laying on top, always wondering what part they had played in local thames history. Maybe a defense wall, or remains of a ship yard. A great part they played in our maritime history.
- M Smith, kidbrook , london
