Drone discovers 16th-century shipwreck at record depth in French waters

In a groundbreaking deep-sea discovery, archaeologists have located the wreckage of a 16th-century merchant ship more than 2.5 kilometres beneath the surface of the Mediterranean Sea – the deepest shipwreck ever found in the region.

Archaeologists believe the ship was sailing from northern Italy loaded with ceramics and metal bars before it sunk.

Despite modern household waste dotting its sunken cargo at 2,567 metres below sea level, the team says they are excited about the potential of an archaeological site largely preserved intact.

"It's the deepest shipwreck ever found in French territorial waters," Arnaud Schaumasse, head of the culture ministry's underwater archaeology department, said on Wednesday.

Drone discovery

An underwater drone found the sunken ship by chance in early March in waters near Saint Tropez, deputy maritime police chief Thierry de la Burgade said.

"The sonar detected something quite big, so we went back with the device's camera, then again with an underwater robot to snap high-quality images," he said.

The drone was patrolling the seabed as part of a government project to explore and monitor France's deep-sea resources, from minerals to internet cables.

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Archaeologist Marine Sadania said experts discovered 200 jugs with pinched spouts among the wreckage, at the site they have dubbed "Camarat 4".

Some of these jugs were marked with the monogram "IHS" – the first three letters of the Greek spelling of Jesus – or covered with plant-inspired or geometric patterns.

Those details may indicate that the jugs hailed from the Liguria region in what is now northern Italy, Sadania said.

Experts also identified piles of around 100 yellow plates, two cauldrons, an anchor and six cannons.

'As if time froze'

"The site – thanks to its depth, which prevented any recovery or looting – has remained intact, as if time froze, which is exceptional," Sadania added.

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Over the coming two years, she and her colleagues plan to draw up a 3D digital version of the ship, as well as extracting samples from the site to study them before returning them to the public domain.

Until now, the lowest depth at which French authorities had found a sunken vessel was 2.3 kilometres below sea level, off the southern city of Toulon in 2019.

That wreckage belonged to La Minerve, a French submarine that sunk to its demise in 1968 with 52 navy crew on board.

(with AFP)