PHASE III RECORDING AND RECOVERY

Wessex Archaeology (WA) has been commissioned by the Port of London Authority (PLA) to mitigate the impacts of dredging operations on a late 16 th century shipwreck located within the Princes Channel, Thames Estuary. The mitigation of impacts for the Princes Channel Wreck site is being approached in a series of phases. Phase I relates to remedial recording of timbers, sections of recovered hull (pieces 1 and 2) structure and artefacts recovered in 2003. Phase II relates to a programme of scientific dating, geophysical survey and diving inspection undertaken in 2004. Phase III began with the development of a Project Design which was submitted to the English Heritage Maritime Team by the PLA in July 2004. EH approval for the Project Design was received in early August 2004. This document is a summary report of the fieldwork to excavate and recover the wreck in August-October 2004 to fulfil Phase III of the overall mitigation strategy. Over a period of 9 weeks, 27 dives were undertaken on the wreck site to locate timbe