Archeologists restore a crate of 20 P53 Enfield rifle-muskets, dragged to the surface in 2011 by the Newfoundland Lynx, fishing 150 nautical miles east off Cape Freels in 800 metres of water.
Twenty rifle-muskets, with walnut stocks and brass fittings, sit in a partially intact wooden crate at the department of archeology at Memorial University in St. John’s, where they are being conserved.
The iron barrels have corroded, but the P53 Enfield rifle-muskets are in remarkable shape after spending close to 150 years at the bottom of the ocean.
They were dragged to the surface in 2011 by the Newfoundland Lynx, fishing 150 nautical miles east off Cape Freels in 800 metres of water.
Since then, the P53 Enfields have spent most of the time submerged in a tub of chemicals, including polyethylene glycol, a bulking agent that prevents the wood from collapsing.
by CBC News