TECHNICAL ARTICLE Iron-Bound Deadeyes from the Nineteenth-Century Akko Tower Wreck, Israel: Metallurgical Investigation of the Manufacturing Technology I. Voiculescu 1 • V. Geanta ˘ 1 • A. Stern 2 • D. Ashkenazi 3 • M. Cohen 4 • D. Cvikel 4 Received: 29 December 2016 / Revised: 23 February 2017 / Accepted: 23 February 2017 Ó Springer Science+Business Media New York and ASM International 2017 Abstract The Akko Tower Wreck is the remains of a 25-m-long merchant brig, which sank in Akko harbour during the second quarter of the nineteenth century. During underwater excavations, three iron-strapped deadeyes were retrieved from the shipwreck. Metallurgical investigation revealed information related to the manufacturing tech- nologies of the objects. The presence of equiaxed grains combined with elongated inclusions indicates that the strops were made from indirect-smelted wrought iron manufactured by hot-forging and joined by riveting and forge welding. The welding zone of the loop was identified as a plain lap joint, and that of the chain links as a scarf joint. The high concentration of inclusions found on the - forge-welding fracture surface may indicate the use of sand as the flux material. The composition, microstructure and manufacturing technology suggest that the deadeyes were manufactured during the second quarter of the nineteenth century, which supports the dating of the ship by other evidence. Keywords Akko Tower Wreck Á Archaeometallurgy Á Deadeye Á Forge welding Á Microstructure Á Riveting Á Wrought iron Introduction The Akko Tower Wreck The historic walled port city of Akko (Acre, St. Jean d’Acre, Akka) is located at the northern extremity of Haifa Bay, in northern Israel (Fig. 1). In 1966, during an underwater survey of the ancient harbour of Akko, a shipwreck designated as the Akko Tower Wreck was dis- covered. The shipwreck site is situated about 35 m north of the Tower of Flies, after which it was named (Fig. 1), at a maximum depth of 4.4 m. Since this discovery, it has been surveyed twice, in 1975 and 1981 [1, p. 222; 2, p. 195; 3]. However, the researchers came to conflicting conclusions regarding the original ship. Consequently, four seasons of underwater excavations were conducted in 2012, 2013, 2015 and 2016 by the Leon Recanati Institute for Maritime Studies of the University of Haifa. The shipwreck, lying north-east to south-west, is 17.8 m long and 6.4 m wide. Among the hull remains were sec- tions of the keel, rising wood, keelson, hull planks, framing timbers, ceiling planks, limber boards, and longitudinal reinforcing components [4]. Preliminary study of the shipwreck indicated that it is the remains of a 25-m-long merchant brig, dated to the first half of the nineteenth century, and built under the influence of the French ship- building tradition in an established shipyard [4, 5]. A variety of items was found during the excavations, comprising rigging elements, wooden and metal objects, ceramic floor tiles, and stones. The finds were documented & D. Ashkenazi dana@eng.tau.ac.il 1 University Politehnica of Bucharest, 060042 Bucharest, Romania 2 Department of Materials Engineering, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, 8410501 Beer Sheva, Israel 3 School of Mechanical Engineering, Tel Aviv University, 6997801 Ramat Aviv, Israel 4 Department of Maritime Civilizations, Leon Recanati Institute for Maritime Studies, University of Haifa, 3498838 Haifa, Israel 123 Metallogr. Microstruct. Anal. DOI 10.1007/s13632-017-0342-0