The Roman wreck at Xlendi, 1961-2011

On the 1st June 2011 a public lecture by Prof. John Woods on marine archaeology, entitled 'The Roman wreck at Xlendi, 1961-2011', organised by Palazzo Falson Historic House Museum, was held at Mdina.

In about 213 BC a Roman ship sank on Xlendi Reef, Gozo. The wreck was discovered and surveyed in 1961, with guidance from the Malta National Museum and Capt. O. F. Gollcher (1889-1962). The ship's cargo of amphorae is on display at the Gozo Archaeological Museum. In his illustrated lecture John Woods took us back fifty years to the 1961 diving expedition and his recollections of Capt. O.F. Gollcher, who was passionate about marine archaeology in Malta and was the owner and last resident of Palazzo Falson Historic House Museum where a number of archaeological artefacts are on display.

Professor John Woods, CBE, DSc

The 1961 survey was led by John Woods, a physics undergraduate and President of the Underwater Club at Imperial College London. He spent the next ten summers combining science and diving for the Royal Navy in Malta. In the late 1960s Archbishop Gonzi commissioned him to document the Church Festas in Malta. His career alternated between being a professor of oceanography (Southampton, Kiel & London) and a senior civil servant (UK Director of Marine & Atmospheric Sciences). He was awarded the Founder's gold medal of the Royal Geographical Society. In 2007 he shared in the Nobel Peace Prize for Climate.