I am writing a novel featuring a treasure chest which has lain on the seabed for 7 or 8 hundred years. Question 1. What metal - if any - would survive that long? Question 2. What would be the resulting corrosion - including appearance - on silver? Question 3. Are there any woods that would survive this? Any help would be greatly appreciated. bobk1@lycos.co.uk

Thanks for that, Chakra. While acknowledging the need for accuracy when writing a novel - something I always strive for - we can't expect every novelist to become an expert on every subject included in their books. Very few novels would be written otherwise. I had envisaged a silver hoard contained within an iron-bound wooden chest that had sunk to the sea bed off the East coast of Scotland in the mid 14th century. My narrative has it that the wreck was very much silted over and I supposed this would have excluded oxygen and helped to conserve the chests and their contents. I know - at least I think I know - that the silver would have acquired a patina of silver bromide due to some brine contamination. Just what this would look like is not entirely clear to me but various websites suggest it would be 'creamy' or 'off-white' in colour. As for the wood, I need to know what would happen to it if it was brought ashore, buried in soil for 6 months then dug up again. I assume a certain amount of waterlogging would take place. Would burial in soil retard or advance deterioration? I don't know. But I suspect that, after being dug up, the wood would dry and split. Regards Bob