science

Ancient shipwreck travelling from Baltic Sea marks moment of change in European history


Researchers used sonar radar to discover an anomaly at the bottom of the North Sea which stretched over 30 metres long. Now, after three months of analysing the anomaly, Dutch researchers were able to deduce that a huge ship, which sunk in the 1540s, was the culprit at the bottom of the ocean. On board the ship is believed to be as much as five tonnes of copper – which experts believe would have been the start of Europeans using copper for coins.

Underwater archaeologist Martijn Mander believes it is a “missing link” in sea travel when ships were built using more advanced “carvel” style of flat planks nailed to a wooden frame, as opposed to the previous overlapping planks.

The carvel style was used to make bigger ships which were more adapt at battling bigger waves – the ship was obviously unsuccessful on this occasion however.

Mr Mander told the BBC: “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.”

The ship is believed to have belonged to the Fugger family, which was one of Europe’s richest families at the time.

The ship was thought to have been travelling from the Baltic Sea to Antwerp – now in Belgium but was then in the Netherlands – transporting vast amounts of copper, potentially to mark Europe’s first foray into copper coins.

Mr Mander said: “It was filled with copper plates, which have the stamp of the Fugger family – one of the richest families in the world.

“They were financing emperors and kings so they were enormously rich. They pushed away the Hanseatic traders so they hired Dutch ships to avoid working with them.”

The finding represents three significant moments in European history; the growth of economy, a change in ship building techniques and the introduction of copper coinage, according to Mr Mander.

He told Live Science: “So we have three things that make this such an exceptional ship, without having dived on the ship yet.”

Divers will be sent to the shipwreck in the coming months.





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