The 160-year-old merchant ship, Yangtze No. 2 Ancient Shipwreck, was salvaged from a riverbed and cargo items were found on board, photos show.
Screenshot from Xi’s Moments Facebook
Salvage efforts in China have freed an ancient shipwreck and its beautiful cargo after more than a century trapped beneath the waves, photos show.
Researchers first detected the Yangtze No. 2 ancient shipwreck off the coast of Shanghai in 2015, but salvage efforts have taken years of planning and preparation, the State Council of the People’s Republic of China said in a Nov. 21 statement. 22 Xinhua press release.
The 160-year-old shipwreck dates from the qing dynastythe experts said. The wreck is “one of the largest and best-preserved wooden shipwrecks discovered underwater in China,” the statement said. With 31 staterooms, the ship is 125 feet long and about 32 feet wide.
The sunken merchant ship rested about 18 feet underwater in the river bed near Hengsha Island, where the Yangtze River meets the East China Sea, authorities said in a news release as rescue operations began. in March.
To bring the spacecraft to the surface, the researchers built a waterproof chamber designed to enclose this particular wreck, the Global Times reported. Once the wreck was inside, the camera was slowly raised to the surface, a process that took almost three hours.
the shipwreck mast it surfaced shortly after midnight on Monday, November 1. 21, according to an earlier press release.
Before bringing the wreck to the surface, salvage operations explored four cabins and discovered more than 600 cargo items, the Global Times reported.
The cargo included “exquisite” blue and white porcelain, purple clay pottery and other building materials, according to the statement. The photos show the impressive finds.
Cups, bowls and plates, decorated with intricate blue designs, were recovered from the wreck, photos show. One set of dishes was a light teal color. The largest pottery pieces were dark brown in color and showed tan wear from their rugged journey.
Part of the cargo comes from a city in China’s Jiangxi province known as the “porcelain capital”, authorities said. Other items come from Vietnam, the Global Times reported.
The discoveries will show researchers more about ancient Chinese ceramics, the economy and shipbuilding. The wreck will soon be moved to a dock on the Huangpu River, the largest river that flows through Shanghai, for further investigation and conservation, according to the statement.
Google Translate was used to translate a press release from the State Council of the People’s Republic of China via Xinhua.
Aspen Pflughoeft covers real-time news for McClatchy. She is a graduate of Minerva University where she studied communications, history, and international politics. Previously, she reported for the Deseret News.
