Sonar ‘Accidentally’ Detects 16th-Century Dutch Shipwreck

BY STEPHANIE VALERA 04.21.2019 :: 1:55PM EDT

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Copper plates found on a 16th-century Dutch shipwreck, which was accidentally discovered on the North Sea floor by salvage teams searching for containers that fell off a merchant ship in January. (Photo Credit: Netherlands Cultural Heritage Agency)

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In what is being hailed as a lucky accident, a salvage team looking for containers that had fallen off a transport ship in Dutch waters discovered a 16th-century shipwreck on the North Sea floor.

Copper plates and wooden beams were found on the vessel, which dates back to 1540, making it the oldest find of a seafaring ship in Dutch waters ever, according to the Netherlands Cultural Heritage Agency.

Sonar image of the 16h-century shipwreck. (Photo Credit: Rijkswaterstaat)

The searchers were using ship-borne sonar equipment to find some 345 steel containers that fell from the ship MSC Zoe during a storm in January. As they scanned the Dutch North Sea, the sonar equipment spotted an unknown object on the seafloor north of the Dutch island of Terschelling.

The team sent down a mechanical grab — and brought up timbers from the 16th-century shipwreck, and almost five tons of its precious cargo of copper plates.

“This can rightfully be called a lucky accident,” said Dutch Minister of Education, Culture and Science Ingrid van Engelshoven said. “This spectacular discovery was made while salvaging containers… I find this discovery an enrichment of Dutch heritage.”

Wooden beam recovered from the wreck. (Photo Credit: Netherlands Cultural Heritage Agency)

Researchers that examined the wooden beams found that they were felled in 1536 and that the ship was built around 1540 in the Netherlands. After an investigation, the copper plates were found to be dated around the same period. The plates bear the stamps of the Fugger family – one of the wealthiest families in European history – who at the time had a monopoly on copper production.

The beams and copper plates were unveiled to the public earlier this month.

Copper plates recovered from the wreck were unveiled at a presentation of the findings in Amersfoort, Netherlands on April 3, 2019. (Photo Credit: Koen Van Weel / AFP / Getty Images)

Underwater archaeologist Martijn Manders said the early 16th-century ship marked a period of transition in medieval history, when shipbuilders moved away from the traditional clinker-type model of overlapping timber. Ships built afterward started introducing timber arrangements that saw planks sit flush alongside each other, known as carvel-built hulls.

“It’s the way the ship was built that’s very interesting because you have to think 100 years later the Netherlands was in the middle of its Golden Age — and this ship is from a transition period,” he said.

Copper plates recovered from the wreck bear the Fugger family’s coat of arms. (Photo Credit: Netherlands Cultural Heritage Agency)

Subsequent chemical testing has determined the copper plates lifted from the wreck were also of the same substances used to create the Netherlands’ first copper coins, Australia’s ABC News reported. It remains unclear, however, if the wreck’s copper plates were slated to become coins.

More secrets of the newly discovered shipwreck may soon be revealed as the Netherlands’ Cultural Heritage Agency plans to continue archaeological research on the shipwreck and bring more of its remains to the surface.