Unidentified Sunken Object found by MVS Severn

When Tewkesbury based Severn Unit and their boats went hunting for a lost propeller from a visiting narrowboat outside Avon Lock on the Severn, they didn’t expect to make an unusual discovery.

HOU Nic Price said, “We had been unsuccessfully trawling up and down for some time with our grappling irons, as well as searching with our sonar and an underwater camera when we hooked onto something very heavy.

With great difficulty we began to pull it to the surface and to our horror we thought that it was a UXB.

On further inspection we could see that it was made of wood with metal bands and was very large.

As more of it emerged, we realised that the item was around 12 feet long and was obviously very old.

Sadly it broke in two whilst being hauled ashore and most of it disappeared back into the river just leaving us with the one end“.

Unit Treasurer and RVO Gordon McDonald who is an amateur marine archaeologist believes it could have come from one of the Severn Trows, which plied the Severn in the 18th Century and could possibly be the bowsprit.

The Unit has asked local people for any ideas on what they think it could be.