Chapter 0938 – Song Dynasty Shipwreck (II)

China’s long history of navigation, from the period of Qin Shi Huang has been recorded, when Xu Fu fooled the Qin Shi Huang out to sea in search of immortality, the so-called ride on the ship can accommodate three thousand years of children, which is a bit of a rip-off, that time if you can build such a huge ship, Qin Shi Huang has long swept the world.

But it is undeniable that in the Qin Dynasty, China has an ocean-going shipbuilding process, and to the Three Kingdoms period of the Eastern Wu, but also recorded: the large ship length of more than 20 feet, 3 feet above the water, the largest building ship can carry 3,000 people, the smallest can be loaded with horses 80 horses.

Although the description of some exaggeration, but from this can also be seen at that time the advanced shipbuilding technology, even if the shrinkage of a tenfold, can accommodate 300 people 8 horses of the building ship, is not small.

To the Tang Dynasty opened up the Silk Road, maritime trade also more, there was a text describing the Tang Dynasty large sea ships due to large hull, deep draught can not be driven into the Basra Harbor, can only be replaced by India into a small boat to go, the credibility of this record is very high.

Of course, perhaps the construction of the Basra Harbor was too simple is also possible, but the Tang Dynasty’s navigation technology, at that time the world can definitely be included in the top three.

The reason why Zhuang Rui said that this was a Song Dynasty shipwreck was mainly based on two points.

The first point is because the Song Dynasty business, compared to the Tang Dynasty is more than ever, sailing technology has also been further improved, and at that time the land-based Silk Road was cut off, lucrative trade rewards continue to stimulate the Song Dynasty merchants to develop trade.

Since ancient times, Chinese people have no lack of the spirit of adventure, in the Song Dynasty, in the relatively relaxed state policy, there are constantly trying to open up new shipping routes. The opening of new shipping routes is extremely difficult and dangerous, to obtain profits at the same time may be buried at sea at any time.

The opening of new shipping routes is bound to pay a terrible price, that is, shipwrecks, in the opening of new shipping routes, there will be a lot of adventurous merchants and cargo ships sunk in the sea, the more developed the commercial trade, the more shipwrecks, the Song Dynasty is in line with this feature.

When it came to the Ming Dynasty, because Ming Taizu was the only emperor in Chinese history who was born in abject poverty, he wanted to restore a kind of simple agrarian society in which “chickens and dogs heard each other’s voices and old people did not communicate with each other”.

In the early years of the Ming Dynasty, in order to consolidate the newly established Zhu Dynasty, to prevent overseas intrusion, the implementation of a severe policy of sea ban, the provisions of the “piece of plate is not allowed to go to sea,” so far, archaeological discovery of shipwrecks in the Song Dynasty is relatively large, the Ming Dynasty is very rare.

Coupled with some relevant literature, on the Song Dynasty ship modeling features made a very detailed description, so Zhuang Rui judgment, the seabed wreck should be the Song Dynasty merchant ships.

As the deep-sea robot continued to approach, the entire ship became clearer and clearer, the bow and stern were in the shape of a sharp angle, about thirty meters long, the width should be ten meters above and below, but the height of the ship’s hull could not be measured, because half of the entire ship, was buried under the sand of the seabed.

“Thirty meters long? This …… isn’t even bigger than the Nanhai No. 1 shipwreck announced by the state some time ago?”

The nature of Zhang Gong’s work was to operate at sea, and he was not unfamiliar with the news of some marine shipwrecks, and what he was talking about was the Nanhai No. 1, a Song Dynasty shipwreck that the state had discovered in the Yangjiang waters back in 1987.

In 2002, from the South China Sea on the first had salvaged gold, silver, copper, iron and porcelain cultural relics more than 4,000 pieces, all rare treasures, then stirred the world of archaeology.

Although that ship is still sunk on the bottom of the sea, but according to the data of the expedition, the length of that ship, is only about thirty meters, perhaps not as big as this one in the screen in front of him.

“It’s entirely possible that that ship was sunk in the inner sea, while this one is clearly an ocean-going vessel, and it’s possible that it’s bigger.”

Zhuang Rui knows about the South China Sea No. 1, but that was salvaged by the government funding, it is said that the cost of one hundred and sixty million have not been able to salvage it, Zhuang Rui does not want to go to the hustle and bustle, salvage it is also not what he is good for.

With the approach of the submersible, the hull becomes clearer and clearer, the huge hull, under the light presents a slightly reddish color, and even the broken mast can be seen clearly.

The broken mast must have been caused by a storm that had once been suffered and did not have time to lower the sails, and from the intactness of the ship, it was highly probable that the whole ship had been overturned, for the hull did not seem to have suffered much damage, except for the broken mast.

“There’s something, there’s something on top of the ship, and in the mud next to it.”

A staff member pointed at the screen and shouted out loud, without him having to say it, the bystanders also saw that at the cabin where there should have been a roof, there were countless pieces of porcelain with a ghostly luster placed densely.

And in the flat seabed around the hull, vaguely can also see some of the vessels inserted in the sea sand, not only porcelain, from the luster of some of the objects under the light, it is very likely to be gold and silver.

Zhang Gong maneuvered the submersible and circled around this Song Dynasty shipwreck with extreme care, taking many photos from different angles.

From the screen, it could be clearly seen that in the center of the ship’s cabin, there were at least tens of thousands of ceramic gold and silverware, the people in the room were all mesmerized by the sight of it, even though they weren’t playing with collectibles, they could also feel that this was an extremely huge fortune.

“Mr. Zhuang, you’ve gained a lot this time!”

Zhang Gong face is full of envy, he is clear that the International Maritime Organization announced the salvage law within the relevant rules, from this sea salvaged shipwrecks, will all belong to Zhuang Rui all, although this is China’s Song Dynasty shipwrecks, but the country can not be recovered.

That is to say, this boat is difficult to estimate its value of the treasure, as long as it can be salvaged, are Zhuang Rui’s personal private property, if Zhang Gong heart there is no point of envy and jealousy, that is also impossible.

“These belong to China, this is China’s legacy of treasures.”

Zhuang Rui’s emotion is also some excitement, this ship on board the richness of the collection, far beyond his previous expectations, alone from the visual inspection to the number of these gold and silver and sea salvage porcelain, I’m afraid that no less than the South China Sea No. 1 in the salvage of the collection.

To know, according to the assessment of archaeologists, the value of the South China Sea No. 1 is comparable to the terracotta warriors in Shaanxi Province, then Zhuang Rui found the value of this shipwreck of the Song Dynasty, can be imagined.

If we talk purely in terms of shipwreck treasure, this ship may not be the most valuable of the world’s shipwrecks.

Because in the history of Spanish colonization of America, a total of 250 ships loaded with treasure sunk in the American coast, including three large fleet sunk in 1622, 1715, 1733.

Almost all of these ships, which sank on their way back to Spain, were loaded with gold, silver, and diamonds, worth tens of billions of pounds, that had been plundered from the Latin American colonies.

For these shipwrecks, are also Zhuang Rui next salvage target, “when the Eight-Power Allied Forces from our Beijing looting of property, today Zhuang grandpa go to your location on the high seas to grab the treasure, so that you dry anxious still have no way.”

Nearly a little was salvaged up the most valuable shipwrecks, is in the last century 90’s, from the coast of South Carolina salvaged the Central America, the ship’s treasure is worth as much as 800 million pounds, if placed in today, I am afraid that at least to be worth more than 20 billion yuan.

However, this Song Dynasty shipwreck, for China as well as the world of archaeology is of great significance, because more than a thousand years ago, the history of navigation, regardless of which country’s records are very few, for the study of the social form of that time, as well as navigation technology, has a precious role.

Of course, Zhuang Rui did not want to dedicate this shipwreck to the country’s intention, because the Song Dynasty shipwreck, will have a huge impact and far-reaching impact on China and the world of underwater archaeology.

Zhuang Rui believes that he just need to salvage the shipwreck and put it in the museum, it will definitely be a new attraction of the stereoscopic museum, with this shipwreck as well as the items on board, Zhuang Rui has the certainty that his museum will become the best private museum in the world.

“Being able to let the general public understand the history of the shipwreck, and being able to fill up their pockets, this is what dude is looking for, that being said, dude is also poor!”

Zhuang Rui, who still had the remaining 100 million euros of banker’s cashier’s checks from this bet in his pocket, thought unscrupulously.

“Damn, can’t let those pirates ruin their salvage plans.”

After Zhuang Rui thought for a while, he explained that Zhang Gong would continue to take some pictures and got up and walked out himself.

“Li Zhen, has the other party made any moves yet?” Zhuang Rui called up Shura through the intercom.

“No, Brother Zhuang, don’t worry, I will notify you immediately if there is any movement.”

Li Zhen was also a bit puzzled, according to the call he had overheard, the gang of pirates should be able to confirm that there were no weapons on their own ship, and wondered why they still stayed put and did not rush towards their own waters.

“Good, continue to monitor, this salvaged shipwreck is very important, can’t afford to make any mistakes.”

After seeing this undersea shipwreck, even after giving Zhuang Rui the word that it was in danger, this dude was afraid that he wouldn’t be willing to leave, in the face of such wealth and such a significant discovery, no one would be unmoved.

But the workers and their own safety is also very important, Zhuang Rui decided that as long as there is any wind, immediately withdraw everyone to the cabin.

After hanging up the phone, Zhuang Rui walked into the platform room and looked at Zhang Gong and said: ”Zhang Gong, line up the height of the hull sunk in and see if the power of the drilling platform can drag it out? Retrieve the submersible first after the inspection, let’s have a meeting to study the specific salvage plan.”

This shipwreck has too many objects, if you use the traditional salvage methods, I’m afraid that in the salvage process, it will make those porcelain damaged, so Zhuang Rui is ready to come to a big deal, will be the whole ship from the bottom of the sea at once to up.

But in this way, the technical difficulty of salvage will also increase, for Zhuang Rui and the existing equipment, are a huge test.