Abstract
The Akko 1 shipwreck was discovered inside the harbour of the old walled city of Akko (Acre, St. Jean d'Acre, Akka), Israel. The ship's hull was built mainly of oak, with closely-set framing timbers that created a solid side. The shipwreck was apparently a result of the naval bombardment of the town in 1840.Reduced scale experiments of simulating the firing of cannonballs at a ship's side were conducted by Rafael (Advanced Defense Systems Ltd., Israel). The experimental set-up included a laboratory gun firing at wooden targets representing the side of a ship, and a monitoring high-speed camera system, measuring the entrance and exit velocities of projectiles. Scaling up the results of the tests showed that a 12-pdr cannonball could easily have penetrated the hull. The lower the impact velocity of the cannonball, the greater the damage caused to the ship's side, with a larger amount of splinters being generated. The minimum penetration velocity was about 150 m/s.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1993-2002 |
| Number of pages | 10 |
| Journal | Journal of Archaeological Science |
| Volume | 39 |
| Issue number | 7 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jul 2012 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:The underwater excavations and research of the Akko 1 shipwreck were supported by Ron Marlar , the Yaacov Salomon Foundation, the late Reuven Sadnai—Coral Maritime Services Ltd. , the Halpern Foundation , a Sir Maurice Hatter Fellowship , the Hecht Trust , a Jewish National Fund Fellowship , the President, Rector, Dean and Faculty of Humanities , University of Haifa , and anonymous donors, to whom the authors are grateful.
Keywords
- 19th Century naval gunnery
- Akko 1 shipwreck
- Penetration velocity
- Scaling down
- Splinters
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Archaeology
- Archaeology