The timbers of an ancient clinker-built boat were found in September 1970 during the excavation of a large drainage channel for the Kent River Authority. The vessel, of well-preserved oak, survived for c. 10 metres of its length, but it can be estimated that its full size was over 14 metres long and less than 3 metres broad, with a 7.5 metre keel. There is no sign of a mast. The floor timbers are massive and would have given the boat great strength for carrying heavy cargo. They are fastened to the shell with wooden tree-nails. The shell is built of narrow strakes fastened together by iron rivets - now rusted away. There were indications that the vessel was berthed for repair. The hull had been repaired and the boat, secured by a series of stakes round the hull, lay on a platform of brushwood. A rope attached to the sternpost was probably used to drag the boat onto the platform. The platform, perhaps part of a timber hard, lay approximately level with a horizon visible downstream (see Illustration Card for map) which consisted of a distinct layer of oyster and mussel shells, marking a soil transition, probably an old ground surface. Several sherds from the base of a large medieval pot were recovered from it. Finds from the excavations included:- pebbles, shells, Roman tile fragments, sheep bones, pieces of Kentish rag and lava, and twelve Continental pottery sherds of 10th or 11th century date. The ship was taken to the National Maritime Museum for conservation. A late 9th century date was given by the radio-carbon method and c. 895 A.D. by dendrochronology. Preliminary research suggests that the Graveney boat is of a hitherto unrepresented class, a sea-going trading ship probably constructed in south or east England