Sensational shipwreck discovery off Norway: Intact Chinese porcelain and chandeliers at a depth of 600 metres

It was in September last year that Espen Saastad contacted the archaeologists at the Norwegian Maritime Museum.

Saastad is actually a watchmaker.

But he is also a professional diver and conducts seabed surveys through a small company.

And that was exactly what he was doing that day.

Then his camera captured something he immediately realised was very special.

At a depth of 600 meters lay a shipwreck. And a huge amount of Chinese porcelain.

“We thought it was an incredible wreck,” says Sven Ahrens.

He is the director of research at the Norwegian Maritime Museum.

“We often find cargo and freight, but it's usually broken or covered by marine growth. Here, whole plates were lying in stacks on the seabed,” he says.

A technological miracle

The archaeologists could immediately see that this was Chinese porcelain from the 18th century, Ahrens explains. In Saastad’s video, they could also see fragments of luxurious chandeliers and beautiful stemware.

“These objects have material value in themselves. We were concerned that someone might discover he site and try to recover them,” he says.

Ahrens and his colleagues brought the video to the offices of the Norwegian Directorate for Cultural Heritage. Among those present was marine archaeologist Ivar Aarrestad.

"When we sat in that meeting and saw what appeared on the screen, it was unlike anything I had ever seen before. It's almost a career highlight, both in terms of the discovery itself and the archaeological significance it will have," says the marine archaeology expert.

"These are not only beautiful, aesthetically impressive, and valuable finds. They will also play an important role in improving our understanding of our economic history," he adds.

Since then, nearly 40 objects have been recovered from a depth of 600 metres.

"It's almost a technological miracle," says Arrestad. "The fact that it was found at all, that preservation conditions are so exceptional down there, and that despite the extreme depth we are still able to do something with it."

A drone with a robotic arm

The wreck, which archaeologists have named the Porcelain Wreck, lies in open waters off the Norwegian coast in the Skagerrak.

"No archaeological investigations in Northern Europe have ever been conducted at this depth and in open ocean conditions," says Frode Kvalø.

He is a maritime archaeologist at the Norwegian Maritime Museum and leads the Porcelain Wreck project.

"Even globally, there are only a handful of projects that can be compared to this one," he says.

So far, the wreck has been explored using a remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV). The drone is lowered into the water from a ship by crane while the archaeologists onboard control the whole operation. The work is completely dependent on weather conditions; even small waves can be enough to disrupt it.

Around Easter this year, the ROV was sent down to film the wreck. The footage allowed researchers to create a detailed 3D model and map the position of the ship and its cargo.

In May, archaeologists used a robotic arm fitted with specially designed suction cups, specially produced in France last winter, to recover around 40 objects. Most were Chinese porcelain. They look as though they could have been purchased yesterday.

A ship loaded with luxury goods

"From a cultural-historical perspective, this is very special for us here in the north," says Kvalø.

The 18th century marked the emergence of the modern market economy and consumer culture. Major changes in trade and the range of available goods took place during this century, according to Kvalø.

A number of 18th-century wrecks have been found off the Norwegian coast, but most carried only a single type of cargo, such as timber, iron, or fish.

"The Porcelain Wreck is the first wreck we have found that demonstrates the breadth of interregional commercial activity in Northern Europe during the 18th century," says Kvalø. "We will gain an intimate insight into what trade systems were like in 18th-century Northern Europe."

When Kvalø first saw the footage from the seabed, it was the glass components of the chandeliers that stood out.

"They are extraordinary, truly high-status European craftsmanship," he says.

Using the underwater drone's robotic arm, the archaeologists also opened a damaged crate to confirm that it contained porcelain.

But it did not.

"Inside was a box with several compartments containing various substances. It could be tea, coffee, cocoa, perhaps medicines. We don't know yet," he says.

There are still many unopened crates aboard the ship, and the archaeologists have no idea what they contain.

Exceptional preservation conditions

The ship and its cargo are also remarkably well preserved.

Part of the reason is that preservation conditions at such a great depth are exceptionally favourable. Additionally, the wreck has largely avoided something that creates precarious preservation conditions on the seabed – trawl nets.

"Trawling is often very destructive for shipwrecks. The Porcelain Wreck has been hit a couple of times, but the damage appears limited," Kvalø says.

The ship must have sunk very quickly and almost straight down, because it stands on the seabed in much the same position as when it floated on the surface. Most of the cargo therefore remains on the ship where it was originally loaded.

"We expect to learn more about how vessels were loaded during this period. That's something we know quite little about because finds of this type tend to be very fragmented," he says.

It only sailed in Northern Europe

So where did the ship come from? Where was it headed?

Archaeologists believe the Chinese porcelain was packed in its original packaging from China or Indonesia, since rice straw has been found inside the crates.

But the ship itself had not been to China to collect these goods.

Researchers believe the vessel was a galiot – a small cargo ship that mainly operated within Northern Europe. The porcelain must have come from a place where such goods were auctioned, such as Gothenburg, Copenhagen, or Amsterdam.

One of the recovered objects is a brick from the galley, the ship’s kitchen. The brick carried a maker's mark, allowing archaeologists to trace it to Lübeck in Germany.

“A ship may replace parts of its galley during its lifetime, and repairs may also be necessary. So the only thing we can say with certainty is that the ship was in Lübeck at some point,” says Kvalø.

At that time, all merchant ships were required to pay a fee to Denmark – the Sound Dues – when passing between Helsingør and Helsingborg. Records of all these toll payments have been digitised, and a maritime historian is now searching the archives in the hope of identifying the Porcelain Wreck.

Want to carry out a full excavation at a depth of 600 metres

"It's something of a dream wreck," says Ahrens, the department director from the Maritime Museum. "There are just so many different things in the cargo, and at that depth the preservation is absolutely fantastic, even organic materials have survived remarkably well."

Only about 40 objects have been recovered so far, but thousands still remain on the wreck site. Among them are decorated stove panels that may reveal something about where the ship came from, as well as finely crafted porcelain figures resembling plants.

"Recovering the objects we have already brought up required an enormous effort. No one has done this before in the Nordic region," says Ahrens. "We were not sure it would work. It was quite nerve-wracking. But we managed to recover roughly what we had hoped for."

Ahrens and Kvalø hope they will be given the opportunity to recover even more items from the ship.

"As a leading offshore nation, Norway should absolutely be pioneering this type of work," Ahrens believes.

What the marine archaeologists are aiming for is not simply the recovery of the Porcelain Wreck. It's a full archaeological excavation at a depth of 600 metres.

"We now have enough data to design a full excavation project," says Kvalø. "So far, we have a fairly good understanding of what we are dealing with. But there are still unopened crates, and they may contain surprises."

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Translated by Alette Bjordal Gjellesvik

Read the Norwegian version of this article on forskning.no

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