Der Kaiserswerther Nachen: ein archäologischer Beitrag zur Rheinschifffahrt der Frühen Neuzeit

Abstract

In the summer of 2009, during maintenance work on the Rhine dike north of the old city centre of Kaiserswerth, a wooden ship was discovered by the ruins of a weir - a so-called batardeau - which was once part of the old Kaiserswerth fortress. The vessel measures nearly 18 metres in length. Since it was located at a depth of 9 metres (at the deepest point) and the work had to be carried out under extreme time pressure, it was not possible to document and recover it in the conventional manner. Instead, methods of documentation and recovery that would meet the requirements of the situation had to be developed while the excavation was in progress. The remains of the batardeau, measuring 40 metres in length and 4 metres in height, were found lying on their side. The weir was presumably constructed around the mid seventeenth century. The topsy-turvy position of the masonry finds will have been brought about by the blasting of the Kaiserswerth fortress by allied troops of Holland, Brandenburg and England in the summer of 1702 during the War of Spanish Succession. Upstream from the vessel, more recent wooden bank reinforcements were exposed, indicating - partly with the aid of old maps - that a harbour of refuge existed here in the period from the mid seventeenth to the early nineteenth century. The vessel can be identified as a "Nachen" on the basis of its construction. Seen from above, the hull is lance-shaped; at the bow and stern it terminates with an upward curving ship's bottom. The "folded" bipartite ship’s sides give the "Nachen" its typical hull cross-section. The narrowly tapered bow and steeply upward curving stern are further elements of the highly characteristic hull form. In view of the many signs of use and repairs, it can be assumed that this "Nachen" was built as early as the seventeenth century. On account of its completeness and the abundance of documented details indicating the shipbuilding technique, the find is of great value for the study of the history of shipping on the Rhine in the early modern period. In view of its good condition and the typical hull form, it can be classified with quite some certainty. The hull form appears on various townscapes of Strasbourg executed by W. Hollar in the early seventeenth century. It is highly probable that the "Nachen of Kaiserswerth" is a vessel of the type known as an Upper Rhenish "Schnieke". Its classification as an Upper Rhenish type and its stratigraphic location lead to the speculation that the ship was among those serving the French defence as transport and supply vessels during the fighting in 1702.