Editing Newport Ship (section)

== Loss of the ship ==
 
The [[River Usk]] has a large tidal range and it appears that the vessel was deballasted and carefully floated into a side channel or [[pil (placename)|Pîl]] on a very high tide and then situated on a pre-erected cradle made of oak and elm logs. This cradle has an earliest date possible of the spring of 1468 (by dendrochronology).  The ship appears to have been undergoing a major refit, as evidenced by the shaping and inserting of British-grown timber (dating to after 1465) into the vessel. However, before this repair work could be completed, the cradle appears to have collapsed, with the ship heeling over onto its starboard side. The subsequent incoming tides appear to have flooded the vessel with silt and water. However, efforts were made to drain, pump out and right the ship, and when these failed attention turned to salvaging the accessible timber and iron (for reuse), along with removing larger items such as anchors, guns and rigging. The salvaging of the vessel involved hacking at the upper works with axes and removing substantial amounts of the lapstrake planking, framing and internal timbers. The salvaged material would have been readily reusable in other ships or building works. During this salvage work, numerous disarticulated timbers accrued in the hold of the vessel.{{sfn|Nayling|Jones|2018|p=47}}