Recovery of the sternpost

Today the divers detached the sternpost from the keel and lifted it on deck with heavy-duty straps. It was mortised here to the keel (on the photo, you can see the tenon on the left).

Then, in the mortise, the surprise: the shipwrights had installed a small silver coin here. Similar to the laying of the foundation stone for a house, the ritual of installing a coin in a ship is still practiced today. It is said to bring good luck to ship and crew.

Since the coin is heavily corroded, the coin has not yet revealed its imprinting.

Foto: P. Stencel