In June 2002 in the city of Newport, South East Wales, a mid-fifteenth-century sailing vessel was discovered during the construction of the Riverfront Theatre in the banks of the River Usk.

Now, after two decades of documenting the remains of the former wine-trading vessel and 1,000 medieval artifacts, including drying and preserving the ship’s timbers, archeologists will be attempting the unprecedented. They will now attempt to reassemble the ship from its surviving parts. With almost 2,500 pieces, measuring 30 meters and weighing 25 tonnes, the project has been called the world’s largest 3D puzzle.

“We have a massive, flat-pack ship that we need to reassemble and there are no instructions,” said the project’s curator Toby Jones.

“There is going to be a lot of fitting, checking and disassembling and fitting again and again.

“There are archaeological ships on display around the world but nothing from the period of the 15th Century so this is what makes this so significant and special. We have an actual medieval ship that’s totally unique.”

Now historians say the Newport Ship will be the only 15th Century maritime exhibit on display anywhere in the world.

The ship was originally around 116 feet (35 metres) long and has been estimated to be of 161 tons burden – that being the number of tuns of Bordeaux wine that could have stowed in its hold. Vessels of this size were considered ‘great ships’ by contemporary standards and were typically used for the long-distance trade between Britain, Biscay and southern Iberia.

Dendrochronology has given a likely felling date of 1449 for the majority of the timbers. These came from the Basque region of northern Spain, an area well known for its shipbuilding industry at this time. The ship is thus likely to have been built around 1449, in or close to San Sebastian.

Thanks to Alaric Bond for contributing to this post.