Not a sneezing matter

Professor talks about Pepper Shipwreck

By Morgan Mikita
Contributing Writer

Professor Castro, from Texas A&M, graced Monmouth College with his presence for two archaeology lectures on Monday, Nov. 7, which focused on the Pepper Shipwreck.

The Pepper Shipwreck occurred off the coast of India, involving a ship carrying pepper.

Over 2,000 artifacts place the shipwreck in the first years of the 17th century and they include items such as pottery from Japan and China, along with navigation equipment.

The navigation equipment could not, however, measure the latitude.

It also had three to four decks and it mounted three masts.

These kinds of vessels were enormous for the 16th and 17th centuries and were all over by the 1550s.

The lingering question is: was this ship a Portuguese ship that was actually build in Portugal?

Looking closer at the ship, the nautical archaeologists found that it was built of cork oak and stone pine wood.

The measurements were also typical of Portugal and with these findings, and the artifacts, it is almost certain that this was in fact a Portuguese ship.

Professor Castro came to MC from Portugal where he was born and educated.

Castro received his Masters and MBA in engineering.

He went on to Texas A&M, where he received his Masters and Ph.D. in nautical archaeology.

These lectures were brought to MC by the Archaeological Institute of America.