The International Journal of Nautical Archaeology (2018) 00.0: 1–23 doi: 10.1111/1095-9270.12330 The Meyer’s Boatyard Vessel, Bermuda: the investigation of an M-class gunboat built 1876 Nathan T. Richards Program in Maritime Studies, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina, 27858, USA, richardsn@ecu.edu Peter B. Campbell The British School at Rome, Via Antonio Gramsci 61, Rome, Italy, 00197, p.campbell@bsrome.it Calvin Mires Visiting Assistant Professor, Bridgewater State University, Bridgewater, Massachusetts, 02325, USA, calvinmires@gmail.com Joseph C. Hoyt NOAA’s Monitor National Marine Sanctuary, Newport News, Virginia, 23606, USA, joseph.hoyt@noaa.gov A cultural heritage assessment of a ferrous-hulled ship lying of Meyer’s Boatyard in St Georges Parish, Bermuda was undertaken by East Carolina University. The archaeological survey recorded a largely intact vessel that was found to correspond with a Medina-class river gunboat built in 1876. Historical research indicated the presence of two Medina-class gunboats in Bermuda, meaning the vessel is either HMS Medina or HMS Medway. This paper considers the historical trajectory of the two vessels and how the remains of the watercraft correspond to the source material. A description and consideration of the archaeological significance of the Meyer’s Boatyard site is also included. © 2018 The Authors Key words: Bermuda, gunboat, repurposing, Royal Navy, Medina-class, underwater archaeology. T his article presents the results of historical research and maritime archaeological fieldwork focused on the remains of a sunken vessel located in St George’s Parish, Bermuda. On 10 August 2007, while guests of the Bermuda Maritime Museum, Nathan Richards and Bradley Rodgers of the Program in Maritime Studies at East Carolina University (ECU) carried out a reconnaissance snorkel inspection of the site. The wreck, located near St George’s Boatyard (also known as Meyer’s Boatyard or sometimes spelled Myers Slip) at 25 Wellington Slip Road (Fig. 1) is ferrous-hulled, very much intact, and is in shallow water, approximately 61m from shore (Richards et al., 2008a, 2008b). In December 2007, while ECU researchers were carrying out a project on an unidentified iron vessel of the Royal Navy Dockyard, Philippe Max Rouja, Custodian of Historic Wrecks, indicated to them that the site of Meyer’s Boatyard was likely to be impacted in the future by development, and that local lore maintained that the remains were those of a vessel named Medway. Upon return to ECU, the authors commenced historical research into iron-hulled vessels of that name, and other potential shipwrecks and deliberately abandoned watercraft potentially in the area. This research indicated that there have been nine ships in the Royal Navy named HMS Medway since 1693. Historical records also indicated that if the vessel lying in this area was indeed named Medway, it would fit with a Royal Navy gunboat built in 1876. The discovery of a notation in the Benjamin Barritt Diary (1891– 1949) that a vessel named Medway was in Bermuda on 27 September 1897 added credence to this hypothesis (Barritt, 1949: 47). A 1904 entry in the same source also reports, ‘Augt 22nd H.M. Gun Boats Medway & Medina being condemned and sold out of the service was towed to St Georges’ (Barritt, 1949: 60). As it would turn out the Medway and Medina mentioned in these © 2018 The Authors. International Journal of Nautical Archaeology © 2018 The Nautical Archaeology Society. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA.