Stunningly Preserved Time Capsule Ship Found
The 400-year-old wreck of a cargo ship from the Hanseatic period of trade in the Baltic Sea, complete with the barrels of lime it was carrying for the stone-building industry, has been found in a river on the northern coast of Germany.
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00:00 Maritime archaeologists in northern Germany have discovered the wreckage of a 400-year-old cargo ship that "sank almost standing".
00:08 In this region, wood quickly rots away underwater, and few shipwrecks of this age have ever been found.
00:19 But maritime archaeologists think the wreck survived beneath the waves because it was quickly engulfed and protected by a layer of fine mud carried there by the river Trive.
00:29 This layer of river mud over the wreck may have also prevented it from being colonized by Pteridon ovalis, a type of saltwater clam called shipworm, that rapidly eats submerged wood.
00:40 The mollusk quickly destroys wooden wrecks in the western Baltic region, but it doesn't live in the colder waters of the eastern Baltic.
00:47 As a result, centuries-old wooden wrecks like the one in the Trive are almost never found in the west.
00:53 The ship, a rare discovery, is from the Hanseatic period, when northern European trade guilds dominated the Baltic and North Seas from the 13th to 17th centuries.
01:04 Historical research may have pinpointed the date of the shipwreck to December 1680.
01:10 About 150 wooden barrels found almost intact on or near the wreck indicate that the ship was carrying a cargo of quicklime when it sank in the late 17th century.
01:20 Quicklime is made by burning limestone and is a crucial ingredient for the mortar used in stonework.
01:27 Manfred Schneider told Live Science there are still about 70 barrels in their original location on the ship, and another 80 barrels in the immediate vicinity.
01:36 The ship therefore sank almost standing and did not capsize.
01:40 Raising the ship from the riverbed will give archaeologists a chance to fully investigate the hull and its construction, and perhaps identify its origin.
01:49 Schneider said, "The salvager will probably also uncover previously unknown parts of the wreck that are still hidden in the sediment,
01:56 such as rooms for the ship's crew in the stern that may still hold everyday objects from the 17th century."
02:03 [Music]