The 4.4-m-long vessel designated as Molyneux's boat was built in England in 1836. During its conservation in 2008, metal fastenings were retrieved, and 12 of them were examined by XRF, metallographic and multifocal light microscopy, microindentation hardness measurement and SEM-EDS analysis. The results show the use of manufacturing techniques developed at different times: the copper fastenings were made by traditional methods-intensive hammering to their final shape followed by annealing; the screws and nuts were made of brass containing ~ 36 wt% Zn and were probably a post-1848 product; and the bolt was made of low-carbon steel (produced by the Bessemer process) and shaped by plastic deformation, perhaps through a thread-rolling process. The bolt was galvanized, thus most probably manufactured after 1856. It appears that the boat was originally built using copper fastenings, and some of which were replaced by galvanized bolts and brass screws during minor refitting.

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Char-bending is a term used in marine archaeology literature to describe the process of shaping long hull components (planks, wales, stringers) by bending them over open fire, from Antiquity, up to modern times. Experiments were done on planks of two wood species with different cross-sections. The planks were heated over open fire while monitoring the internal temperature and charred layer thickness on the side of the plank facing the heat source. The results show that in order to reach the temperature inside the wood required for it to become pliable, the formation of a charred layer, an undesirable by-product, is unavoidable. It is explained why char-bending, in almost all cases, occurs on the concave side of the plank.