SUTTON HOO SHIP'S COMPANY, SUFFOLK

 About The Sutton Hoo Ship's Company

The Sutton Hoo Ship's Company (SHSC) was formed in 2016 with the sole purpose of creating a permanent and authentic replica of the famous Anglo-Saxon ship.  Buried in the 7th century within the Sutton Hoo royal burial grounds and discovered in 1939, the ship was a mere shadow of its former awe-inspiring glory.

The Ship’s Company team is made up of professionals, volunteers and enthusiasts who are working together to fully understand the dimensions and construction methods.  The ship is being built in the newly opened 'Longshed', a purpose-built unit gifted to the town and dedicated to maritime history and education.

The Project

The team is building the Saxon ship using authentic ship-building methods with the help of marine archaeologists, ship architects, shipwrights, and experts in green wood working. Together with strong academic support from the Universities of York and Southampton the team will ensure detailed records are kept at every stage of the build.  Along with professional shipwrights overseeing critical parts of the build, the team will engage with apprentices and students from the International Boatbuilding Training College at Lowestoft to benefit from learning on the build.

During the build a comprehensive, informative, and entertaining public engagement programme will aim to increase understanding and appreciation of Anglo-Saxon life and culture.

The rebuild will provide the best possible means of testing and understanding how the ship could have been used under a range of different conditions.  This will be achieved by:

- Using modern technologies and a range of professional skills to interpret data from records of the 1939 and 1967 excavations including information about the impact of the burial process and passage of time to develop a design brief for a ship resembling the ship that was built and subsequently buried in Mound 1

- Using the design brief to build a ship based on current understanding of the materials and building methods that would have been used by Anglo-Saxon shipbuilders

- To carry out sea-trials to test hypotheses regarding how the boat was propelled (by oars and/or sail), what it could have been used for, what it may have carried, under what conditions was it safe and therefore where it might have been sailed

- To provide a comprehensible, informative, and entertaining means of engaging the public and increasing understanding and appreciation of Anglo-Saxon life and culture

- To achieve these objectives in a way that enables local people of Woodbridge to engage in all stages of the project either through active participation in the build process or ancillary activities e.g. recording, interpretation, guiding.

Watch an introduction to the Sutton Hoo Ship's Company project on YouTube

Find out more:

saxonship.org

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