Heavily concreted 17th century grenade

3D ModelNoAI

Several grenades, coated in silt and shingle ‘concreted’ by corrosion, have been found by Robert Felce searching the beach at Jangye-ryn, Gunwalloe. Like the concreted gun found in the same way, they were probably swept here from the nearby site of the Schiedam wreck of 1684.

These artefacts are particularly remarkable as they include wooden bungs, which held the gunpowder in the grenades, plugging the holes made for igniting them. Residues of gunpowder surviving in the grenades may have helped preserve the wood, normally lost unless remaining waterlogged or in other special conditions.

3D scanned by Tom Goskar (@tomgoskar) as part of the Wreck and Rescue at Gunwalloe project commissioned by Cornwall Archaeological Unit (CAU) and funded by Historic England to mark the 50th anniversary of the Protection of Wrecks Act, 1973.