Grain, greed and green wood: the late sixteenth-century Scheurrak SO1 shipwreck and the use of double hull planking in the early modern Netherlands

Abstract

This PhD dissertation (re)assesses the construction of the late sixteenth-century merchant ship known as Scheurrak SO1 and its peculiar feature of double hull planking. For the first time, it brings together all available archaeological information about the construction of the hull. It demonstrates that the ship was built to innovative proportions, but also that its construction was modified soon after the initial construction was completed. By combining archaeological and historical data, a new narrative emerges about how market opportunity and adaptive ship design led to changes in the shipbuilding industry of the late sixteenth-century Netherlands.