Salvage vessel arrives in Nan'ao for sunken ancient ship

On April 6, the salvage vessels dispatched by the Guangzhou Salvage Bureau arrived at Nan'ao Island, stopping at the Qianjiangwan dock. Staff members who will take charge of the salvage work have started to move the equipments onto these salvage vessels. According to sources, after the maritime departments go through related formalities, the salvage work will formally begin.

"Nan'ao No. One" is a Ming Dynasty merchant vessel, which sank off the coast near Nan'ao County, Shantou City, while transporting porcelain. According to archaeologists' preliminary estimations, the ship could have been carrying some 10,000 pieces of porcelain, and most were produced in local workshops in the Ming Dynasty cities of Yuedong or Min’nan or in Jiangxi province. The vessel is a rare undersea treasure, which serves as another example of the marine Silk Road that existed during ancient times. Cui Yong, the leader of the undersea archaeology team, told the reporter that the first batch of undersea archaeologists has settled in the Yunao Police Station in Nan'ao, ready for the salvage operation. According to sources, the Nan’ao No. One will be excavated in a different way from the way the Nanhai No. One was excavated: the cultural relics on the ancient vessel will be cleaned and excavated underwater. This means that the archaeologists will have to deal with the complex and variable marine environment, while at the same time clean the cultural relics and make a surveying and mapping record, which will be very difficult.

The reporter learned that this year the Nan’ao No. One has been listed as the number one project by the State Protection Center of Undersea Cultural Relics, and the excavation operation will last for three months. After the cultural relics on the ship are salvaged, related departments will discuss an evacuation plan for the ship during the typhoon season. The salvage of the ship is expected to start in the autumn of 2010, and the ship will be excavated out of the ocean in 2011.