The Anglo-Saxon ghost ship of Sutton Hoo was uncovered by archaeologists in 1939.

It is the best preserved example of North European boat building that has been discovered to date and featured a burial chamber located above the ship’s central area that has yielded many priceless and beautiful historical treasures, including armour, weapons, gold objects, coins and clothing.

Although no body was uncovered at the Sutton Hoo ship site, chemical remains suggest that somebody was interred there, possibly that of King Raedwald or King Sigebert, who were both 7th century kings in the area.

The Sutton Hoo boat is referred to as a “ghost ship” because none of the solid material that the boat was constructed from is still remaining - the boat was painstakingly uncovered in fossil form after the wood and other organic materials used to construct the boat dissolved into the surrounding sand and a fossilised cast of the boat was created over hundreds of years.

As well as being the best preserved example from the period, the Sutton Hoo ship is also the largest excavated boat, measuring over 27 metres in length and 4.5 metres in width.

Experts examined artefacts recovered from the site and the ship’s design itself to date it as hailing from between 625 and 637AD.

The rivet positions in the boat’s fossilised cast showed that the Sutton Hoo boat was “clinker built”, meaning its hull consisted of a series of overlapping planks – a style of boat construction still in use today.

Examination of the ship shows that it was probably powered by 40 oarsmen – 20 on each side – and steered by a rudder – though experts believe the rudder was removed before the ship was transported for burial at the Sutton Hoo site.

Information on the Sutton Hoo burial and some of the artefacts uncovered therein are on display in the British Museum in London.