Aim to sail Sutton Hoo ship replica across Channel

The team building the replica of a famous Anglo-Saxon burial ship have told of their aspirations to eventually sail it down the River Thames and across the English Channel.

The Sutton Hoo Ship's Company (SHSC) is reconstructing the famous ship unearthed at Sutton Hoo, Suffolk, in 1939.

It had been working at The Longshed in Woodbridge, but recently announced it would move to a new home nearby with an aim to finish construction next year.

Prior to any voyages, Sean McMillan, trustee and chair of the board of SHSC, said the team would first have to learn how to handle tough currents.

"It will take us, I imagine, the first two years, two seasons, on the [River] Deben because nobody knows how to row a ship like this so we've got to work that one out," he explained.

"It probably means we're going to run into the mud everywhere we can.

"But then after that we'll probably go around to the [River] Orwell, to Aldeburgh, and learn how to control a ship like this in fairly strong currents.

"What a sight that will be.

"After that then up the Thames maybe as far as Tower Bridge. I wouldn't go any further than that because I don't fancy taking this through London bridges completely out of control."

Mr McMillan also suggested travelling to Faversham in Kent which has royal Anglo-Saxon links.

"After that then we'll start looking at all sorts of other possibilities - across the Channel, to Holland, maybe down into the rivers in Germany," he continued.

"Maybe we'll get across to Denmark and have a drag race with the Viking ships."

The ship is between 50 and 60% complete and reaches a length of 90 feet (27.43m).

The team is making use of 7th Century building techniques for the £1.5m reconstruction.

"There are no machines, no power tools, the whole process is exactly as it would have been in the 7th Century," Mr McMillan added.

"The trees are split - it's called cleaving - where they are deliberately split along the grain, so you end up with a sort of pie chart of triangular sections.

"Those are then planed down using hand axes to achieve the one inch thick planks from which the ship is built."

The original ship excavated at Sutton Hoo is believed to be the burial ship and grave of King Rædwald - the 7th Century Anglo-Saxon ruler of East Anglia.

The story of the excavation was told in the Netflix film The Dig starring Carey Mulligan and Ralph Fiennes in 2021.

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