The Wreck of the S.S. Castor (1870-1894) and the Recovery of Part of the Ship's Cargo

THE WRECK OF THE S.S. CASTOR (1870-1894) AND THE RECOVERY OF PART OF THE SHIP'S CARGO R.CROSS It is often forgotten that two-thirds of the administrative boundary of Kent is littoral, a fact emphasizing the importance of the maritime history and archaeology of the county. Virtually all previous work on this broad theme, however, has comprised studies of dry land sites, such as ports, harbour works and industrial foreshore and inter-tidal sites such as saltmounds. Even where essentially maritime artifacts have been excavated and preserved, as in the case of the Bronze Age boat at Dover or the late tenth century Anglo-Saxon boat at Graveney, these, too, have been recorded on dry land sites. And yet there remains in the shallow waters off the North Kent coast, the Dover Strait and the English Channel an immense archaeological resource consisting principally of the sites of shipwrecks. Recognition of the importance of this resource and the development of policies for its heritage management have recently been dramatically improved with the addition in 1995 of a nationwide Maritime Monuments Index to the record-keeping functions of the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England and the introduction of the Code of Practice For Seabed Developers. The relevant section of the index covering Kent has now been transferred to the County Sites and Monuments Record held by the Kent County Council Planning Department and managed by the county archaeologist, Dr. John Williams. To this data base may be added the definitive listing of historic shipwreck sites published by Lloyd's Register in 1995. This details the locations of 7350 shipwrecks off the coasts of Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Sussex and Kent known from documentary sources, that is primarily the sites of post-medieval vessels. This number may be expected to be far greater when the wreck sites of earlier dated ships and boats are taken into account. Whilst the basics for the management of this resource are now in place, considerable work needs to be done to establish the means and funding for the exploration of these shipwreck sites, with the first priority being the assessment of the state of preservation of wrecks and the enhancement of the record by the addition of unknown sites of the prehistoric, Roman and 183 R. CROSS medieval periods. To date the discovery of shipwrecks has occurred largely as a result of accident rather than design, from such legitimate sea-faring activities as trawler fishing - in this instance the finding of the secondcentury Roman cargo vessel off the Pudding Pan Rock, about 3 miles north-west of Whitstable in the lower reaches of the Thames Estuary, a wreck known from the many finds of barnacle encrusted samian pottery vessels bought up in fishing nets since the late eighteenth century and subsequently adorning the mantelpieces of numerous houses in the Whitstable area; or from the more casual and more recent exploits of the growing fraternity of amateur sports divers, whose singular most important archaeological discovery has been the finding of nearly four hundred items of Late Bronze Age metalwork strewn across the sea-bed in Langdon Bay, and considered to be the former cargo of a sea-going vessel. It is due also to the activities of local sports divers that the present discovery of archaeological material on the seabed reported upon here, a modem hoard of second-century Greco-Roman marble sculpture and inscribed grave markers, has been made by members of the Folkestone 301 Branch of the British Sub-Aqua Club during late 1994 and 1995. In this case the discovery was also quite accidental as the material was recovered from the cargo hold of a late nineteenth-century steamship, the S. S. Castor, one of many such ships being explored by the divers and whose visits are routinely marked by the recovery of one, and more often, numerous souvenirs from each vessel. Such late shipwrecks are also reasonably well documented, enabling the full story of the ships history and final wrecking to be recounted in some detail. This is not only the case here with the Castor. Fortunately, documentation from museum archives has been preserved concerning the trade in antiquities of which the consignment shipped aboard the Castor formed part. The following account describes in tum the history of the Castor from launch in 1870 to final voyage, the loss of the vessel off Dungeness in 1894, and the eventual, though to date incomplete story, of the recovery of part of the ship's cargo in 1995. The History of the S.S. Castor (1870-94) The Castor, launched on 18 June, 1870, was one of two steamships constructed by the Glasgow ship builders, A. and J. Inglis1 for the Konin- 1 A. and J. Inglis, Glasgow were later taken over by Harland and Wolff, but continued to operate under the original company name until closure of the yard in 1962. Surviving documentation relating to the building of the Castor includes (i) account of costs (ii) specification for construction (preserved in: Strathclyde Regional Archives: Company Archives of A. and J. Inglis: SRA/TD36/1, p. 48 and TD36/2, ff. 369-374). 184 THE WRECK OF THE S.S. CASTOR (1870-1894) .4 c,j c,j JYff 185 R. CROSS klijke Nederlandsche Stoomboot Maatschappij (Royal Netherlands Steamship Company), or K.N.S.M., the sister ship being the Pollux. A third vessel, the Stella, of similar design, but built and launched by Van Vlissingen of Amsterdam, was added to the K.N.S.M. fleet in 1871. The Company flag displayed a large white diamond with golden crown on a blue background, with the funnel markings being black with a narrow white band near the top and another near the bottom.2 The port of registration for the Castor was Amsterdam, and the ship's survey undertaken, and the vessel inspected and classed by the Bureau Veritas. An iron steamship, the vessel was screw-driven by a twocylinder compound engine with two boilers. The ship's overall length was 253 ft., the breadth 32 ft. 6 in., displacing 1500 tons gross, 1073 tons nett.3 During its first decade of service with the K.N.S.M. fleet, the Castor operated mainly within the Baltic and the Mediterranean, the regular activities of the Company not extending further afield. Occasional voyages were made, however, across the North Atlantic, the Castor being chartered by the Holland America Line in 1873, and making her first voyage on that route on 21 April carrying passengers to a new life in America. In all, three round voyages were made between Rotterdam and New York by the Castor whilst on charter to the Holland America Line, but in 1875 the service ceased due to both the effects of economic depression in America and a boom in Europe, a combination of circumstances which resulted in a sharp decrease in the flow of emigrants. Improved trading conditions at the end of the 1870s, however, prompted the K.N.S.M. to start an Amsterdam-New York service. In February 1879, the service was opened by the Pollux, which left Sicilian ports for New York, and returned direct to Amsterdam. Other voyages 2 The K.N.S.M. was granted a Royal Charter of Incorporation in Amsterdam on 17 May, 1856, and commenced operations on 1 October of the same year. The above account deals only with those aspects of the company history which relate to the Castor. The K.N.S.M. was taken over and incorporated into the Koninklijke Nedlloyd Group, Rotterdam in February 1981. For company histories see: A. M. Benders, 'The Koninklijke Nederlandsche Stoomboot Maatschappij and Koninklijke West-Indische Maildienst', in Posthistoriches Studies iv (1983); P. Cockrill, K.N.S.M. The Royal Netherlands Steamship Company (1856-1981) Newbury, Philip Cockrill Series Booklet no. 26, 1982. 3 Swindon, Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England, National Monument Record, Maritime Monuments Index (Record Number for Castor not allocated). Further detail is in: Lloyd's Register of Shipping 1894-95 No. 313 (C); Veldeenheid, Nederlands Scheepvaart Museum (Rijksmuseum), Archaeologie Onderwater: Ships Index; Strathclyde Regional Archives: Company Archives of A. and J. Inglis: SRA/fD36/2, ff. 369-374. 186 THE WRECK OF THE S.S. CASTOR (1870-1894) followed in 1880, by the Pollu:x sailing from Rotterdam and Plymouth to New York in April, and the Stella in October. The first North Atlantic voyage of the Castor under the flag of the K.N.S.M. was made on 19 February, 1880, and, as expected, was direct from the Mediterranean, the port of departure being Catania, calling at Messina and Palermo for New York. From this it can be surmised that most of the steerage passengers were Sicilians. Thereafter, the Castor was to steam direct from Amsterdam, the first voyage being made between Amsterdam and New York on 14 April, 1880. Rotterdam was the port of departure for New York on only one occasion, on 21 May, 1880, when 107 passengers were carried. In all 12 return voyages were made by the Castor to New York, the last being made on 10 January, 1883. The K.N.S.M. service across the North Atlantic proper started on 3 March, 1881, when the Pollux left Amsterdam for New York with merchandise and 204 passengers. She reached her destination 15 days later and was followed at intervals of three weeks by the Stella and Castor. Another K.N.S.M. ship, the Jason, also built for the Company by A. and J. Inglis of Glasgow, joined the service in September 1881. The new North Atlantic service of the K.N.S.M. was in direct competition with that of the Holland America Line, who, as has been seen, were by then firmly established in the Rotterdam-New York trade. In the first year of the new K.N.S.M. service the four ships involved, the Castor, Pollux, Stella and Jason, landed 319 cabin and 9,636 steerage passengers at New York in the course of 18 voyages. The comparative Holland America passenger totals were 552 and 15,573 respectively in the course of 37 voyages, a much lower average per voyage, and this despite the fact that most of the Holland America ships were larger than those of the K.N.S.M. Competition on the route was to continue throughout much of 1882, but at the end of the year a series of discussions were entered into by the two Companies. The result was that the K.N.S.M. agreed to withdraw from the North Atlantic trade for a period of ten years, provided the Holland America Line shared their sailings equally between Rotterdam and Amsterdam. 4 4 Most of the information concerning the North Atlantic sailings of the Castor and the other vessels of the K.N.S.M. fleet has been derived from N. R. P. Bonsor, North Atlantic Seaway an illustrated history of the passenger services linking the old world with the new in five volumes, Cambridge, 1st edn; 1960, 369-70; 2nd edn; vol. 3, 1979, 909 and 1066-69. 187 R. CROSS The Loss of the S.S. Castor From 1883 the Castor returned to operate on the Mediterranean routes of the K.N.S.M. and during the mid 1880s and early 1890s was regularly sailing from the eastern seaboard of mainland Turkey carrying general cargoes for Amsterdam. A regular port of departure for the Castor was Smyrna. During the 1880s the Dutch Vice-Consul there was Alfred Oscar van Lennep, R.O.N. (1851-1913), a well known figure in the European community, as well as in Turkish circles. Van Lennep also traded in antiquities, an occupation which must have provided a considerable income, acquiring and despatching items for many of the major European museums, and maintaining this network by using the services of an agent in Vienna.5 He is also believed to have had family and business connections with the K.N.S.M., and was regularly using that Company's ships to export antiquities.6 From 1885 one of his principal clients was the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden7 in Leiden, Holland, to whom van Lennep shipped significant numbers of antiquities, assisting the museum in building up a representative collection of Greco-Roman sculptures and inscriptions. At the beginning of July 1894 a further consignment of Greco-Roman sculptures and inscriptions, comprising 14 pieces packed in two crates, was shipped by van Lennep from Smyrna aboard the Castor. On the 5 and 6 July, 1894, van Lennep wrote from Smyrna to Dr. W. Pleyte, the Director of the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden, Leiden to inform the museum of the despatch of the antiquities, listing the provenance of each item, and the cost of each.8 In all the 14 pieces were charged at 1045 FFrs. with an additional sum of 69 FFrs. for carriage. 5 Including sales of coins and scarabs to the British Museum in 1898 (Minutes of the Trustees Standing Committee, 2 April 1898). 6 Van Lennep also farmed a considerable acreage in a village to the south of Smyrna called Malcajik, now Bulgurca. His brother was Cyril Charles Ogilvy van Lennep (1869- 1959). Both Alfred Oscar van Lennep and his brother were born in Smyrna as Dutch subjects, but Cyril C. 0. van Lennep later came to Great Britain with his mother, a British subject. I am grateful to David van Lennep, of Saxmundham, Suffolk, the son of Cyril C. 0. van Lennep, for this information as well as portrait photographs of his uncle, Alfred Oscar van Lennep. 7 National Museum of Antiquities, Leiden, Holland. In the correspondence preserved in the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden concerning these shipments of antiquities in 1894, van Lennep used the French translation, referring to the museum as the Musee Royal d'An· tiquites. I am grateful to Dr. Ruurd B. Halbertsma, Classical Curator, Rijksmuseum van Oudheden, Leiden for supplying copies of these letters. 8 Leiden, Archives of the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden: Van Lennep Correspondence, Letters 163-164. 188 THE WRECK OF THE S.S. CASTOR (1870-1894) None of the antiquities were to reach the museum. Having left Smyrna in early July the Castor called into Algiers en route for Amsterdam. On the final leg of the voyage, the master, J. R. Visser, took a course past Dungeness. In dense fog in the Channel at a point about 5 miles southsouth- west off Folkestone on 28 July, 1894, in easterly wind conditions force 2, the steamship was in collision with the German barque Ernst. Struck amidships, the Castor foundered, eventually sinking in about 200 feet of water. Fortunately, the crew of 25, together with 3 passengers, were all saved and brought to Folkestone. 9 The news of the loss of the Castor on 28 July, 1894, appears to have reached the Director of the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden in the first instance. On 31 July, Dr. Pleyte wrote to the shipping agents Rudig and Blokhuyzen in Amsterdam asking for information about a newspaper article mentioning the wrecking of the Castor. The agents replied the same day confirming the loss, adding that nothing had been salvaged from the Castor but that the crew had been saved. 10 A few days later, on 4 August, van Lennep wrote from Smyrna to Dr. Pleyte in Leiden a letter of regret concerning the loss of the Castor and its cargo, and in particular drawing attention to the loss of one of the sculptures, the complete one from Nysa, describing it as tres belle.11 The letter crossed with another sent by Dr. Pleyte to van Lennep on 6 August informing the latter of the loss of the Castor. Van Lennep's reply, dated 18 August, 1894, confirmed the receipt from Dr. Pleyte of the original Bills of Lading, and closes with the note that new material was being sent to Leiden. 12 Locally, the sinking of the Castor only occasioned a brief newspaper report, shipwrecks during this period not being uncommon events. 13 No attempts were made at salvage and the Castor remained, along with her cargo, on the seabed for the next 80 years. 9 Lloyd's Casualty Returns 1894, page 6; Board of Trade Wreck Register 1894, Appendix C, Table 1, page 143. Board of Trade Inquiries and Reports are preserved in: Greenwich, Archives of the National Maritime Museum. The inquiry and report on the Joss of the Castor, if one was held, have not been consulted. 10 Leiden, Archives of the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden; Van Lennep Correspondence, Letters 205 and 179. 11 Leiden, Archives of the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden; Van Lennep Correspondence, Letter 189. 12 Leiden, Archives of the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden; Van Lennep Correspondence, Letters 213 and 196. 13 Folkestone Chronicle, 28 July, 1894. 189 R. CROSS The Circumstances of the Discovery of the Wreck of the S.S. Castor The wreck of the Castor was first located in 1977 at a depth of 25-26 m. during a survey by the Admiralty Hydrographic Office. A further survey in 1978 gave the height of the wreck as no greater than 7.80 m., the length as 79 m., with the vessel lying on the sea-bed at an orientation of 060/240° .14 The wreck site was dived on by sports-divers in 1985, when the vessel was reported as an unidentified steamship, upright with bow and stem still recognisable, but in a poor state with none of the superstructure remaining. The engine, sited amidships, together with the boiler, was noted as exposed. A sketch plan of the vessel on the sea-bed was also made. 15 The wreck site was again re-located, and dived on repeatedly by other sports-divers, members of the British Sub-Aqua Club, Folkestone Branch 501, between late 1994 and early 1995. No record was made during this period of the condition of the vessel, although a sketch plan of the position of the Castor on the sea-bed, with the bow upright, but with the stem keeled over to starboard and the steel plating of the amidships section twisted and tom, provides some indication of its state of preservation and a reminder of the circumstances of the sinking. During the course of the successive dives made on the wreck site between late 1994 and early 1995 part of the vessel's cargo, consisting of eight marble antiquities packed in a wooden crate with wood shavings, was discovered located amidships and partly buried within silts, and brought piecemeal to the surface. The wooden crate itself was left, and remains, in situ. Following attempts by the divers to ascertain the nature of the cargo, seven of the marbles were eventually brought to the offices of the Canterbury Archaeological Trust for identification, record photography and declaration to the Receiver of Wreck. The one remaining marble reco- 14 Admiralty Hyclrographic Office: Wreck Number: 013805149. Full survey details are given in: H4453/72 (9.11.77) and H4199/78 (24.10.78). The survey in 1978 suggested that the wreck was possibly a submarine. The official position of the sinking is recorded as: latitude 50° 59' 08" N, longitude 001 ° 07' 71" E. An alternative position at: latitude 50° 59' 30" N, longitude 001 ° 10' Eis given in: Swindon, Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England, National Monument Record, Maritime Monuments Index. 15 Admiralty Hydrographic Office: Wreck Number: 013805149. Full survey details are given in: H1310/86/15 (24.6.86). A copy of the sketch is in: Swindon, Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England, National Monument Record, Maritime Monument Index. 190 THE WRECK OF THE S.S. CASTOR (1870-1894) vered from the wreck of the Castor was unfortunately discarded by the salvers. An initial assessment of the marbles, comprising two sculptured heads and five funerary monuments, all inscribed, indicated that the antiquities were Greco-Roman, probably originally from mainland eastern Turkey, and of 2nd century A.D. date. Documentary research later confirmed that this group of marbles were those contained within one of the crates shipped aboard the Castor by Alfred 0. van Lennep in July 1894 from Smyrna to Leiden. In addition to the marbles, a number of other objects have also been recovered from the wreck of the Castor by the divers, the most significant of which is the maker's brass plate found attached to the ship's boilers. A number of china plates and/or bowls were also recovered. Some of these bear a maker's name and a trade-mark in the form of a Sphinx, a pottery type produced by Petrus Regont and Co., of Maastricht in the later 19th century .16 One plate of this ware with an additional, but unidentified, Turkish/ Arabic script, has also been recovered from the wreck. Another china plate bears the inscription Byronia, enclosed within an octagon of green laurel-wreaths, the whole placed on the underside of the rim. Some of this china, together with other material, including an incomplete brass sextant, has been recovered from the crew's quarters. Lastly, in June 1995, one of the ship's chronometers was also recovered, as well as examples of cutlery bearing the K.N.S.M. monogram of the shipping company. Survey of the Wreck Site Both the wreck of the Castor and the remaining in situ cargo were surveyed and assessed in June 1995 for the Department of National Heritage by the Archaeological Diving Unit, Scottish Institute of Maritime Studies, University of St. Andrews.17 The main objectives of the survey were twofold: (i) to ascertain the 16 Pottery called 'De Sphinx'. Manufactured by Petrus Regont, who established his works in 1836, producing transfer printed china. In 1899, 1,800 workers were employed in the factory in Maastricht. The maker's mark is: Petrus Regont & C0/Maastricht in two lines, and the Sphinx trade-mark. In the early 20th century the works moved to Limmel, Brand. I am grateful to John Cotter, Post-Medieval Ceramicist, Canterbury Archaeological Trust, for this information. 17 Details of the survey were supplied by: Martin Dean, B.A., M.I.F.A., Director, Archaeological Diving Unit. 191 R. CROSS likelihood of further antiquities remaining on board; (ii) to determine whether the wreck site should be recommended for designation under the Protection of Wrecks Act 1973. In 3 hours 55 minutes of diving, 2 hours 16 minutes were spent on the wreck, in generally gloomy conditions. Much of the diving involved visual assessment of the vessel's structure and propulsion, which was undertaken mainly to aid identification. Although no measured surveying of the vessel was made, the inspection of the wreck was fully documented on video. The remains of the purpose-built crate which contained the recovered antiquities was re-identified. There was also evidence of further packingcases in the same area of the hull of the wreck, but these were noted as being constructed of flimsier materials; and also of a coarse fabric, possibly sacking. This debris may be the remains of a perishable cargo packed in light chests or sacks, perhaps Mocha coffee beans which are known to have been imported from Turkey during the mid 1890s. The results of the survey by the Archaeological Diving Unit indicated that there was insufficient archaeological justification for legal protection to be extended to the wreck of the Castor. This recommendation has been based on three factors: (i) that the remaining antiquities known to have been on board the Castor at that time of its sinking are not sufficiently exceptional to warrant designation on artistic grounds; (ii) that the Castor is itself of limited archaeological and historical significance, although further information was requested to determine the historical importance of the vessel's steam engine which was recognised as an early example of its type; (iii) that the large accumulation of silt across the midships section of the wreck of the Castor was likely to serve to preserve in situ the remainder of the cargo, including any further antiquities that may be on board. 18 The Archaeology of the Marbles The advice of shipment sent by van Lennep to the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden, Leiden on 5 July 1894 gave a listing of the antiquities, packed into two cases and consigned aboard the Castor. These were described as follows. Small Case, containing three boxes, containing six items of marble, comprising an intact sculpture, a sculpture in two pieces, and three fragments. 18 By July 1996, however, there has been further structural failure of the midships section, resulting in the movement of the silt and the exposure of more of the ship's cargo. 192 THE WRECK OF THE S.S. CASTOR (1870--1894) The complete sculpture is alluded to in a later letter written by van Lennep to the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden, Leiden on 4 August, 1894, as very beautiful. The same letter regrets that no drawings were made of the antiquities prior to shipment. The provenance for all of the items is given as Nysa (Nicaea). Otherwise, no further details concerning the antiquities is known to have been preserved. Large Case, containing eight items of marble, comprising two sculptured heads, and five inscriptions, one in two pieces. The list made by van Lennep in July 1894, given below, numbers the funerary marbles 4 and 6 to 9. It has not been possible, however, to reconcile the recovered marbles to this list. No 4 une inscription Grecque, pierre tumulaire de Smyr. No 6 une inscription Grecque en deux pieces {de Smyr.] No 7 une inscription Grecque trouvee a Smyrne No 8 une inscription Grecque [trouvee a Smyrne] No 9 une inscription Grecque [trouvee a Smyrne]19 Catalogue20 1. Funerary monument, tablet style, inscribed in Greek21 : Lucius Julius Maximus prepared the tomb in his lifetime for himself, for Claudia Tyrannion his wife, and for their children and their descendants. Ivy leaf at each end of last line, a common funerary motive. Provenance: Smyrna (Izmir). Roman, second century A.D. (Plate II). 2. Funerary monument, tablet style, inscribed in Greek: Moschos son of Stasios and Moschion daughter of Stasiochos, of Thyateira, farewell. Provenance: Smyrna (Izmir). Roman, second-third centuries A.D. (Plate III). 3. Funerary monument, tablet style, inscribed in Greek: For Cladus the murmillo; his own wife Trypha made the tomb in his memory. Cladus, be of good courage. Provenance: Smyrna (Izmir). Roman, c. first century A.D. (Plate IV). A monument to Cladus, a gladiator of the type called murmillo whose characteristic was a helmet with a fish on it and in consequence of which 19 Leiden, Archives of the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden: Van Lennep Correspondence, Letter 188. 20 The five marbles bearing inscriptions, one with inscriptions on both faces, have been studied in detail by Dr. Joyce Reynolds, Newnham College, University of Cambridge, whose catalogue of the inscriptions, together with discussion will be published separately. 21 The texts of the inscriptions are here supplied transliterated and translated. 193 R. CROSS = 194 .s -0 " .D ·c: "'(.) .S 1: " E = C: 0 E THE WRECK OF THE S.S. CASTOR (1870---1894) 195 R. CROSS 196 THE WRECK OF THE S.S. CASTOR (1870-1894) a murmillo was often put to fight with a retiarius whose characteristic was that he tried to catch his opponent with a net. Some gladiatorial tombstones record the number of victories won - a subject on which this one is silent, although it does not necessarily follow that he had not been good at his job, for the existence of a wife and of a tomb of some substance shows him to have been reasonably prosperous. His status is not clear. Smyrna was a city in which troups of gladiators are recorded in the possession of eminent citizens who maintained them for use at public festivals connected with the cult of the Roman emperors. He may, in fact, have been a slave, although, if so, one allowed considerable freedom. The names of the pair, - note neither is credited with a father, which is an argument in favour of slave status, - are comparatively common in Asia Minor - Cladus meaning a young branch of a tree, Trypha softness, delicacy, daintiness. The concluding exhortation to the deceased is a very common conclusion to simple funerary texts.22 4. Funerary monument, stele, inscribed in Greek: Arimmas son of Jason from Ptolemais in Cyrenaica,· aged 25. Provenance: Smyrna (Izmir). Roman, second century A.D. (Plate V) 5. Funerary monument, tablet style, inscribed on both faces in Greek: (i) Publius Ailius Cleisthenes from Nicomedia .... [incomplete]. Roman, second century A.D. (ii) [Tomb of] Marcus Antonius Achillas [erected by] Antonia OBOYKOAJAE. Roman, second century A.D. Provenance: Smyrna (Izmir). (Plates VI and VII) 6. Fragment. Van Lennep describes one of the funerary marbles as in two pieces. Provenance: Smyrna (Izmir). Lost. 7. Marble head of a boy, resembling the young Marcus Aurelius. Probably not the future emperor (imperator 161-180 A.D.), whose hair falls lower on the brow. Van Lennep describes this sculpture as Une grande tete de Mercure (?) provenance dite de Smyr. Provenance: Smyrna (Izmir). Dated c. 140-150 A.D. (Plate VIII) 8. Marble head. Described by Van Lennep as Une tete moyenne de Venus(?) trouvee a Smyrne. Provenance: Smyrna (Izmir). (Plate IX) Conclusion The foregoing account of the discovery of these Greco-Roman marble sculpture and funerary inscriptions and the documentary evidence of the Van Lennep Correspondence preserved in the archives of the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden, Leiden, demonstrate clearly that the two cases of antiquities were being shipped by Oscar van Lennep from Smyrna to Leiden in 1894, and that only the apparently less important items in one 22 The discussion on this tombstone is by Dr. Joyce Reynolds, Newnham College, University of Cambridge. 197 R. CROSS Funerary monument. inscribed in Greek. THE WRECK OF THE S.S. CASTOR (1870--1894) PLATE VI Funerary monument, inscribed on both faces in Greek (Face A). case have so far been recovered from the wreck of the Castor. The second case, containing the complete statue described by van Lennep as tres belle, awaits discovery, although it is by no means certain that it remains in situ. A number of possibilities are equally likely. Either the case and its contents have been dispersed and destroyed during the sinking, or the antiquities have already been salvaged. However, it is also possible that van Lennep was shipping antiquities for destinations other than the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden. 199 N 0 0 Funerary monument, inscribed on both faces in Greek (Face 8). PLATE VII ;o n ;o 0 (/) (/) THE WRECK OF THE S.S. CASTOR (1870-1894) Marble head of a boy. 201 PLATE VIII R. CROSS Marble head (of ?Venus). 202 PLATE IX