Ceiling planking

Four strakes of ceiling planks were preserved on the port side of the Arade 1 shipwreck.

All ceiling planks were recorded at a 1/1 scale under water, on sheets of transparent plastic.  The fixed ceiling planking, preserved for a length of 4.52 m, encompassed four strakes.

In the center there was a number of floating ceiling planks, leveled by means of wedges, also not fastened, which stood over the frames and were used to level the floating ceiling planks.

Fig. 42 - Arade 1 ceiling planking.

All ceiling planks were 6 cm thick and 28 to 29 cm wide at their maximum width points.  Their average lengths cannot be estimated, because none was preserved in its entirety.  The longest - TN4 - was preserved for 3.60 m.

Fig. 43 - Ceiling plank TN2A (photo: Filipe Castro).

Strakes 1, 2 and 3 were composed of two planks each, scarved together with flat horizontal scarves originally around 40 cm long.

Fig. 44 - Matting in a picture taken in 1970 (photo: Fernando Pina).

There was no apparent fastening pattern.  Some planks were fastened to the frames with small nails whose heads had long eroded away.  This may suggest either some kind of provisory fastening, or the nailing of some kind of matting over the ceiling planking.  This matting was photographed in 1970 and was still preserved in an iron concretion of one of these nails Figs. 42 and 43).

Fig. 45 - Remains of matting preserved in an iron concretion (photo: Augusto Salgado).

Under the mat there were two layers of dunnage, clearly apparent in the 1970 pictures but completely gone by 2002.

Fig. 46 - Dunnage photographed in 1970 (photo: Fernando Pina).