A local shipping dominance recently found a 375 - year - old shipwreck nearly 36 feet beneath the surface of the Trave River in northern Germany . A squad of researchers spend eight month canvas the wreck , find that 150 barrel of cargo drop dead down with the Hanseatic ship .
“ Independent dating of the ship ’s timbers in three different laboratories revealed that the ship must have been constructed in the mid-17th century , ” articulate Fritz Jürgens , an archeologist at Kiel University in Germany and whose squad examined the shipwreck , in auniversity release . “ You always desire to make a find like this and suddenly you have one decently before your center . ”
Jürgens lend that the ship ’s cargo was calx , which was usedfor making mortar and plaster for construction . Initial analysis of the shipwreck indicate that the ship ran aground on one of the river ’s bends , and the damage from the consequence sank the watercraft , where it was forgotten until now .
A diver approaches one of the wreck’s centuries-old timbers.Photo:Scientific diver Christian Howe
The ship was encounter during unremarkable measuring of the river by the local waterway and merchant marine confidence . Workers with the confidence detected an anomaly at the river bottom using a multibeam echosounder , a type of sonar used to map out out the bottoms of waterways .
All that ’s depart of the vessel are some of its wooden light beam — insure in mussels — and the lime cargo . The archeologist calculated that the ship was between 65 and 82 feet long . That would ’ve made it a intermediate - sized cargo ship in its mean solar day , the form of ship that drove swap on the Baltic Sea .
Though the wreck is mostly wood — and therefore not of particular interest to salvor , whoplunder crash for scrap — it confront other threats . According to the release , the 13 nosedive to the crash let on that the timbers and exposed lading were at risk of corrosion . Some sections of the wreck were infested with shipworm , agroup of mollusksknown for their consumption of wooden vessel and wharves .
A graphic of the ship’s probable construction and the layout of the wreck.Graphic:Dr. Fritz Jürgens, Kiel University
That ’s not entirely surprising , as the wreck sits at the bottom of a meddlesome shipping channel . It ’s a far cry from the pristine waters of the Weddell Sea , where the immaculately preserved British ship Endurance wasfound this yearafter being lost for over a 100 . The erosion and rampant shipworm infestation may excuse why all that ’s left of the German cargo ship are a few timberland and its lime cargo .
Generally , the less oxygen there is in the urine , the more intact shipwrecks are , as organic fabric does n’t degrade as quick . That’swhythe earth ’s oldest - sleep together intact shipwreck , a 2,400 - yr - old , 75 - foot - prospicient Greek merchandiser ship , sits mostly intact at the bottom of the Black Sea .
The archeologic squad is working with the City of Lübeck and other institutions to protect the record ; among the group ’s considerations is salvage the wreck and preserving its remains above pee , where their term can be better managed .
More : Dive Team to look into Wreck of Sunken Nazi Steamer
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