800-year-old ship "Nanhai One" lifted from sea

Source: CCTV.com | 12-23-2007 16:33

After 800 years at the bottom of the sea, a merchant ship loaded with porcelain and other rare antiques has resurfaced.

The "Nanhai One", sank off the south China coast with thousands of items on board.

Archaeologists built a basket around the 30-meter vessel. On Friday, they began to raise the ship. It took about two hours for a crane to lift the vessel and the surrounding silt to the surface.

The steel casing which is as large as a basketball court and as tall as a three-story building is the creation of a team of Chinese technicians.

Yangjiang vice mayor Chen Zhiyue said, "The Nanhai No.1 is 20 metres under the sea level and it is covered with a 2-metre thick layer of silt. The boat is in good position and has not been turned over. The boat is 30.5 metres long and 9.3 metres wide, which is the most aged, largest and best preserved off-shore merchant ship in the world. We estimated that there were 50,000 to 70,000 relics on it."

Green and blue glazed porcelain items are among the rare antiques that have been found during the exploration of the ship.

Archaeologists have also recovered containers made of silver and gold as well as about 6-thousand copper coins.

The ship dates from the early Southern Song Dynasty. It was discovered in 1987, off the coast, near the city of Yangjiang, in Guangdong province.

The Nanhai One will be deposited in a huge glass pool at a museum where the water temperature, pressure and other environmental conditions are the same as where it was found.

Editor:Zhang Ning