LONDON: A storm of protest is rising over the probable fate of a medieval ship found preserved in the muddy bank of the river Usk in Newport, south Wales. The next month could be more dangerous for the ship than the last 500 years. The local museum has neither the resources nor the space to excavate, preserve and display the ship and no other museum has expressed an interest in it.

Dai Morgan Evans, secretary of the Society of Antiquaries, said: “This is the Welsh Mary Rose — it is shameful that a ship of such importance is not going to be preserved, and incomprehensible that the Welsh authorities are showing so little interest in their history.”

The 100ft ocean going ship was found as a new art centre was being built by the council’s arts and museum service. Concrete pilings had already been punched through the hull before the timbers were spotted and work stopped.

The timber was so well preserved that it was first assumed to be part of an old wharf or a comparatively modern ship. But as archaeologist Kate Howell began to trace the timbers, she said the scale of the discovery became apparent.

The timbers have been dated to between September 1465 and April 1466. The contents suggest it came to Newport, possibly for repair, in the early 16th century and never left. Nigel Nayling of the University of Wales, Lampeter, an expert on ancient boats, said the find was unique in Britain and one of a handful of such ships in Europe.

The contents include Portuguese pottery, a stone cannonball, textiles including the hem of a mediaeval robe, oak barrels and rarely found original rigging, sail and upper deck which are usually washed away in seabed wrecks.

Stopping work has already cost the council $382,500. The Welsh assembly and Cadw, the Welsh heritage quango, waded in on Thursday with grants for the recording and partial excavation. The council plans to preserve samples of the timber.—Dawn/The Guardian News Service.