The 1980s was a crazy era of treasure hunting at sea, many overseas treasure thieves used various means to steal and salvage cultural relics on the seabed in the South China Sea, and when China at that time was limited by financial resources and other reasons, it was not possible to complete the salvage work independently until after training a group of professional underwater archaeologists.
Born in 1940, Mike Hatcher was a British professional treasure hunter. He was an orphan who grew up in an orphanage and experienced loneliness, poverty and loneliness, and his greatest reward here was to read many fantasy books, especially those of treasure hunting. Holding a treasure map, embarking on a treasure hunt, uncovering a lot of mysteries, and then getting rich overnight, this kind of life is what Hatcher aspires to. At the end of 2005, Hatcher organized a fleet of treasure fishing vessels and hired a variety of talents at high prices, including high-caliber students in archaeology, researchers of marine accidents, insiders of the Eastern Seas, and a large number of divers with excellent water quality. Not only that, but the fleet is also equipped with the world's most advanced high-tech equipment, such as sonic locators and magnetometers. The entire fleet costs up to $10,000 a day to detect.
Divers found one iron ring after another at a depth of more than 30 meters, and then found a hill made entirely of porcelain, with cups, plates, bowls, jars, vases, etc. randomly piled up inside.
The treasure hunters were overjoyed, and after carefully studying the location of the shipwreck, the size of the ship, the cargo on board, and the remains of many of the victims, they affirmed that this was a Chinese Qing Dynasty merchant ship that sank because of the reef. Salvage work began, and about 1 million pieces of well-preserved porcelain were salvaged ashore.
In the eyes of speculators, there was only money, and after the porcelain was all salvaged, the remains of the victims were thrown everywhere. In order to pursue higher economic interests, Hatcher went so far as to order the smashing of 650,000 of these precious pieces of porcelain because he believed that "things are more precious than rare." The remaining 350,000 pieces were shipped to Germany for auction at Neygor Auction House. Only a Chinese Yuan Dynasty blue and white porcelain jar auctioned by Sotheby's auction house was acquired 2. 300 million RMB.
Under the inducement of such huge commercial interests, various shipwreck salvage teams have appeared in the waters of the South China Sea. In particular, since the 1970s and 1980s, salvage fleets have spared no expense to carry out treasure hunting activities in various seas.
In the 1980s, three members of the British Ocean Exploration Company saw a shipwreck in an old newspaper and decided to launch a treasure hunt in the South China Sea. This time, they submitted an application to the China Cultural Relics Administration for the salvage of the shipwreck, and the Chinese side also decided to cooperate with the British Marine Exploration Company and designated the Guangzhou Rescue and Salvage Bureau to participate. According to the information in the old newspaper, the shipwreck belonged to the East India Company that year, and the wreck carried 6 boxes of silver and 385. 5 tons of fine ingots, the sea where the shipwreck occurred at that time was the South China Sea of the Yangjiang River in China. However, the newspaper did not indicate the exact location of the wreck.
Later, after accurate estimates by British research experts, they found the location of the shipwreck, and the Chinese side and the British company had a dispute, resulting in the termination of the contract between the two sides. At that time, in order to save it into a fine cultural relic, it is painful to regret that the porcelain inside has all become fragments. Such a salvage method must have suffered heavy losses, so some people discouraged it. The British ostensibly agreed to salvage only ships containing silver, but artifacts such as porcelain and ancient Chinese coins appeared in the grapplings.
The Chinese participants, aware of the seriousness of the problem, immediately reported to their superiors. At that time, The Chinese leader and deputy director of the South China Sea Rescue and Salvage Bureau, Yin Ganhong, said to the British side in a tough manner: "No, this is China's shipwreck, and It is up to China to solve it." Immediately afterward, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage identified the salvaged cultural relics and found that it was a shipwreck from the Song and Yuan dynasties, and Yu Weichao, director of the China History Museum, named it "Nanhai No. 1".
The discovery of "Nanhai No.1" made everyone excited. In order to salvage, the Chinese side has successively sent several groups of underwater archaeologists abroad for training, and has also organized offshore archaeological training and exercises.
Finally, in 2001, the mature national underwater archaeologists searched for the location of the "South China Sea No. 1", and finally found the "behemoth" in the silt more than 2 meters deep on the last day of the survey schedule.
In order to see this behemoth, archaeologists have conducted 8 dives, from understanding the hull structure to exploring the cultural relics. To everyone's surprise, the ship has been sunk to the bottom of the sea for more than 800 years, but the hull is well preserved without rolling over, and the wood of the hull is as hard as new, which is the first case in the world. At the same time, the number of cultural relics salvaged from the wreck is huge, and the pieces are all fine products. It can be seen from this that China's position in the world's maritime trade at that time can be seen.
Among the salvaged cultural relics, there are large porcelain bowls with "trumpet mouths", similar to the "pilaf rice bowls" commonly used by Arabs, and this style has not yet appeared in China; in addition, there are some ceramic jewelry boxes with exotic patterns, which are obviously made for foreign customers.
So far, tens of thousands of copper coins have been salvaged from the sinking site of the "Nanhai No. 1". Among them, the oldest coins are the five-baht coins of the Han Dynasty, and the latest is the Jianyan Yuanbao in the early years of the Southern Song Dynasty. So many currencies show the prosperity of China's national strength at that time. "Nanhai No. 1" is really a well-deserved "Dunhuang on the Sea"!