On some of the "marked" vessel remains this lack of correlation may be a clear indication that the adjoining faces of the floor timbers were not used for laying out the frame shapes. On others the issue of such a correlation has not been sufficiently explored, and future research may indeed reveal the use of the adjoining faces for design on some of these vessels.

The "marked" vessel found in Ukraine (Kobaliya and Nef'odov 2005) provides an example of the use of the adjoining faces for design along with the Mediterranean moulding method (schematically depicted in Figure 49l). In both 2008 and 2009 I was fortunate to have the opportunity to briefly examine one of several 1738 vessels found along the banks of the Khortytsia Island on the Dnipro River in Ukraine.

On this vessel there are no surmarks on the open faces of the floor timbers oriented toward amidships. However, the hooks of the floor timber to futtock scarfs on the design frames are almost certainly placed at the equivalent of surmark locations. First, these scarfs are present only on the frames between the deadwoods, and their hooks are cut perfectly vertical on each frame. Second and most significantly, the hooks define symmetrical port and starboard longitudinal curves. This second feature of these scarfs is consistent with the geometric principles governing Mediterranean moulding design. Bolstering the conclusion that the hooks themselves are at surmark locations on the design faces is the fact that all other design marks and labels are on the adjoining faces of the floor timbers and first futtocks (Figure 51a). They are visible because this vessel has stepped framing and these marks and labels are located beyond the areas of timber overlap. Unlike in all other archaeological examples, the location labels use Arabic versus Roman numerals and the numbering runs from the two tail frames toward amidships (Kobaliya and Nef'odov 2005:39). All the floor timbers of these numbered design frames also have vertical marks at both the centerline and the edges of the keel, and like the numbers, these marks are located on the faces of the floor timbers oriented away from amidships. Although the hull was mostly articulated when I first examined it, one of the loose first futtocks had the frame number "2" carved on what corresponded to its adjoining face when in position (Figure 51b). Other than on La Belle, this is the only example that I know of a labeled futtock timber.

La Belle retains the same relative placement of first futtocks to floor timbers as is typical of Mediterranean moulding. Yet on La Belle this stepped framing arrangement was transformed to a partial double-framing arrangement, with the second futtocks butting up to the ends of the floor timbers and the third futtocks to the heads of the first futtocks. La Belle has its location labels and surmarks located on the open faces oriented toward amidships on both its floor timbers and second futtocks. NEXT