Diver Discovers 900-Year-Old Sword Dating to the Crusades

The New York Times ^ | 18 Oct 2021 | Eduardo Medina

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Tennessee Nana.

[Red Badger]

Okay, so now he’s the real King of England, right?.....................

[Tallguy]

I think they were using Titanium during the 3rd Crusade?

[SunkenCiv]

Strange divers, swimmin' in seas, discoverin' swords, is no basis for a system of government...

[minnesota_bound]

Why is he wearing a mask? The sword has barnacles already!

[SunkenCiv]

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[SunkenCiv]

Nice vid, looks like other wreckage from other vessels of different eras nearby.

[Texas Fossil]

Very interesting find. Would love to see the sword without the crust on it.

That is an amazing part of the world. So much important history.

[SunkenCiv]

I quite agree, and this isn't even from deep water, there must be loads of stuff down below the anoxia layer.

[Texas Fossil]

below the anoxia layer?

Yes and it is often well preserved.

[Ban Draoi Marbh Draoi]

The best warriors could could wield their sword with either hand.

A knight that could do that would be scary as hell.

[SunkenCiv]

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[AnotherUnixGeek]

That only weighs 4 pounds? Maybe most of the metal has corroded away and it’s more barnacle than metal at this point?

[Theoria]

Probably only barnacles. The fact that it looks mostly intact via size is surprising. Another article said it was found about 150m off the coast of the island and around 15ft feet deep. Really cool.

[Oatka]

Still at approx 4 pounds it would take a real man to continue to swing it effectively if a battle lasted more than a few hours.

The Romans got around that by replacing their front rank every 10 minutes or so, on command, by the next rank behind them. Those people had their act together. They always had a fresh guy facing a tired enemy.

A Hollywood version

(IIRC, their short swords weighed about two pounds. To get an idea of the effort, try swinging an electric iron around for 10 minutes - more exciting if you have an opponent trying to kill you.)

[1Old Pro]

it would take a real man to continue to swing it effectively if a battle lasted more than a few hours.

If you want to try an endurance experiment, put on some boxing gloves and shadow punch. Your arms tire quickly.

[rdl6989]

That thing is huge, it must be very heavy and hard to swing at somebody.

[Jane Long]

:-) thought the same.

[SunkenCiv]

The length means, once it’s swung, the receiving party goes down. :^)

[Jacob Kell]

The Fourth Crusade was the one where Constantinople got sacked, not the Third.