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(CNN) – Under the rude waters of the South Australian coast, maritime archaeologists say they discovered the lost Netherlands merchant ship Koning Willem de Tweede, which drowned almost 170 years ago. The wreck captures the tragic moment in marine history during the 19th century. Australian gold fluff.
The 800 tonnes of sailing ship started its journey back to the Netherlands in 1857. In June, when a strong storm tied the ship near the port city Rob, the Australian National Maritime Museum said in a press release. Two -thirds of the crew sank.
Just a few days ago, 400 Chinese migrants appealed to the gold mines in Victoria, deported from the ship. According to the museum officer’s maritime archaeological manager, crew workers transported them for extra money as a “side bustle” for extra money. He said practice was a common but doubtful legitimate journey.
While the captain lived to tell the tale and testify to his loss, his crew’s bodies remained lost in the Long Bych sand dunes.
However, on March 10, three years later, a team of divers supported by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Dutch Cultural Heritage Agency, noticed what they say, a drowned ship.
“It’s always a bit lucky to do what we do,” said Hunter, who was the first diver who saw the ship underwater. “The sand just unveiled only a little debris of that ship to see it and actually put on a hand and say, ‘We finally have it.’
Expedition team members say they are convinced that they have found Koning Willem de Tweede, taking into account its location, which corresponds to the historic debris accounts and the length of the metal pieces detected, which corresponds to the vessel documents confirmed by the 140 -foot (43 meters) length. 19th century Chinese ceramic pieces were also found in 2023. On the beach near the wreckage.
“The ships were important and expensive, so they were often well documented,” said Patrick Morrison, a maritime archaeologist at the University of Western Australia, who had not attended the conclusion. “Thus, when the material is found, it can be matched with drowning and ship structures such as size, materials and fittings.”
Now the museum, cooperating with the SilentWorld Foundation, the South Australian Environment and Water Department, and the Flinders University in Adelaide, will search, restore and preserve artifacts from debris that could reveal more information about the construction of the 19th century ships, crew and its passengers.
Maritime Archaeological Conservative Heather Berry (right) from the SilentWorld Foundation helps Fllinders University doctoral student Justine Buchler (second from the left) prepares a sea magnetometer to explain its deployment to Mark Polzer (the second from the right), the maritime heritage officer left), an associated lec, located in Flinders. – James Hunter
The conclusion of the story is established
Due to the long history, Australia, Australia, is a hot vessel for the wreckage of the world, with an approximate place of 8,000 drowning ships and aircraft near its coast. Some ships date back to the 1700s, when colonization for the first time began, according to the Australian Government climate change, energy, environment and water department.
The discovery of the gold mines in Victoria caused the migration of Chinese workers in the 1850s and encouraged the Victorian government to pay a 10 -pound tax worth over € 1,300 (£ 1,000), each migrant who was in its port, the Holland Australian Cultural Center reports.
In order to avoid this tax, according to the Australian Museum, agents in China would often pay migrants to other Australian ports for European merchant ships. Upon arrival, migrants were agreed with discriminatory treatment, and many of them were unsuccessful in mines, still due to their high earnings for agents.
Koning Willem de Tweede was designed to trade between the Netherlands and the Netherlands East India, a former colony that is now Indonesia. However, just before his return home, the crew from Hong Kong took Chinese migrants and dropped them at Robe, a community of about 365 miles (400 kilometers) west of Victorian ports, of which migrants traveled land to the gold mines. To this day, it is unclear in the police reports, and the crew’s accounts and the court have recorded whether the ship has been sanctioned by the owner of the ship.
However, it is clear that the Robe Storized Dedice community answered questions about debris and lost crew members, he added.
When huge waves beat the ship to pieces, the local Australian man on land tried to expand the rope to the ship to save the captain, but simply could not make it up, Hunter recalled. “So the captain wrapped the line around a small barrel, and he threw it into the water, and the townspeople gathered on the beach grabbed the line and pulled it through the influx and he survived.”
If the bodies of the crew are regained, the Hunter said the cloak community would probably create the right burial ground for them.
“The wreckage of ships reveals the long-term maritime ties of Australia with the rest of the world, reflecting today in our cities and cities,” Morrison said. “I hear the team plans to return. I am sure every visit will reveal a new part of the story.”
The expedition team found part of the wind, the machines used in anchor protruding from the seabed. – Ruud Stelten
What is left of the ship?
It is too early to say, but Hunter said most of the ship’s body structures appear intact under the sand layers.
Using metal detectors and magnetometers, the team was able to find large pieces of steel and iron protruding from the seabed, which turned out to be part of the frame and wind, the machine used in anchor. There are long wood boards nearby, which are believed to be from the upper ship’s deck, Hunter said.
“(Corps) could teach us a lot about how these ships were built and how they were designed, because with such information there are not many details in the historical recording,” Hunter said.
As the Koning Willem de Tweede sank hundreds of yards off the shore, the crew could not return and recover personal belongings, so Hunter says researchers could find coins, bottles, broken ceramics, weapons and tools.
The goods recovered after the ship’s accident must be carefully assembled so that the surface did not immediately divorce, said Heather Berry, Conservative of Archeology at the SilentWorld Foundation, In the letter.
“As always, ship debris rarely happens in calm waters,” Berry said. “The influx of the living room is such that you often have to keep something solid so that you are not washed, so we should make sure we accidentally do not understand something fragile.”
Recovered artefacts are placed in baths full of sea water, which gradually gorgeami to reduce the salt -stinging effect on drying.
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