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Stunningly Preserved Time Capsule Ship Found
Live Science
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6/30/2025
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
00:05
cargo ship that quote, sank almost standing.
00:12
In this region, wood quickly rots away under water, and few shipwrecks of this age have
00:17
ever been found, but maritime archaeologists think the wreck survived beneath the waves
00:23
because it was quickly engulfed and protected by a layer of fine mud carried air by the
00:27
river Trave. This layer of river mud over the wreck may have also prevented it from being
00:32
colonized by Teredo Nivalis, a type of saltwater clam called shipworm, that rapidly eats submerged
00:39
wood. The mollusk quickly destroys wooden wrecks in the western Baltic region, but it doesn't
00:45
live in the colder waters of the eastern Baltic. As a result, centuries-old wooden wrecks like
00:50
the one in the Trave are almost never found in the west. The ship, a rare discovery, is
00:56
from the Hanseatic period, when northern European trade guilds dominated the Baltic and North
01:01
Seas from the 13th to 17th centuries. Historical research may have pinpointed the date of the
01:07
shipwreck to December 1680. About 150 wooden barrels found almost intact on or near the wreck
01:14
indicate that the ship was carrying a cargo of quicklime when it sank in the late 17th century.
01:21
Arctic lime is made by burning limestone and is a crucial ingredient for the mortar used
01:26
in stonework. Manfred Schneider told Live Science there are still about 70 barrels in their original
01:32
location on the ship, and another 80 barrels in the immediate vicinity, the ship therefore
01:37
sank almost standing and did not capsize. Raising the ship from the riverbed will give archaeologists
01:43
a chance to fully investigate the hull, and its construction, and perhaps identify its origin. Schneider
01:50
said, the savage will probably also uncover previously unknown parts of the wreck that are still
01:55
hidden in the sediment, such as rooms for the ship's crew and the stern that may still hold
02:00
heavy standards every day objects from the 17th century.
02:03
Let's go.
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