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Cooking Cauldron & Copper Bucket
These photos were taken during the late summer and
fall of 1997
as the excavation team continued .....
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The ship's cooking cauldron, discovered in 1993, was located in the
galley area of the ship, forward of the mainmast. The large mouth of the cauldron, with
riveted bosses for the attachment of the heavy copper bale, was bright and shiny due to
slow abrasion by the shifting sand bar. In preparation for recovery, the cauldron was
cleared of sediments and the area reinforced with sand bags. |
| The body of the cauldron was found to be in an extremely deteriorated
state, due to differential corrosion over four centuries of being submerged. It was
decided to recover the cauldron with its contents of sand and shell intact. The cauldron
was wrapped with an elastic bandage, carefully lifted into a large metal container and
raised to the surface. It is now being cleaned and examined in the laboratory. |
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Found in pieces, this copper bucket is a very large, heavily-
constructed, but crudely-fashioned container of uncertain use. Built from copper plates
joined by rivets and reinforcing strips, the bucket has two looping handles riveted
opposite each other to the rim. The bottom of the bucket is one concave piece riveted to
the sides and reinforced above with a horizontal strip of copper. Heavy metallic residue
found in the bottom of the bucket is currently undergoing analysis to determine its
composition. A similar bucket was found on the shipwreck Atocha which sank in 1622. It
appears to have contained pitch which, when heated in the copper bucket, was used to tar
seams in the wood hull planking and standing rigging. |
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