A Cross-Staff from the Wreck of HMS Stirling Castle (1703), Goodwin Sands, UK, and the Link with the Last Voyage of Sir Cloudesley Shovell in 1707

Several pieces of cross-staffs have been found on the wreck of the Stirling Castle on the Goodwin Sands. One has been assembled from parts of staffs found when the wreck was first investigated, and is currently in the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich. Another part of a staff was found in 2001. It is from a cross-staff rather than a back-staff and, except for broken ends, is in good condition. The problems encountered in using such instruments are linked with the loss of Sir Cloudesley Shovell's fleet in 1707.
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A cross-staff from the wreck of the Kronan (1676)

The article deals with a cross-staff discovered inside a wooden chest on the wreck site of the man-of-war Kronan (1676), located off the east coast of the island of Öland in the Baltic Sea. It is dated 166[1], and besides now being the earliest known complete cross-staff, it is in several respects unique. A theory that the cross-staff from Kronan , due to its rough graduation and somewhat antiquated design, was used mainly for symbolic reasons, widens the fields of research and interpretation of the material culture.