#BronzeAgeBoat - After nearly a year of hard work by a team of volunteers in Cornwall, a pioneering heritage project to recreate an ocean-going boat from the Bronze Age finally saw its results take to the water recently.
The 50ft long, five-tonne vessel was crafted out of two giant oak logs using the tools and methods that the first boat builders would have had to hand some 4,000 years ago.
“It has been incredible to see this whole project take shape in the Museum building over the past 11 months," said Andy Wyke of the National Maritime Museum Cornwall.
Volunteers led by shipwright Brian Cumby worked in collaboration with leading Bronze Age boat expert Prof Robert Van de Noort and his colleagues at the University of Exeter to produce the finished article, which was successfully paddled in Falmouth Harbour much to everyone's delight and relief.
“There have been doubters, professionally, who questioned the feasibility of this vessel crossing the seas," said Prof Van de Noort. "This project has proven that it was possible.”
The boat is now on display at the museum's pontoon in Falmouth.
