The commercial ship with Vele Koning Willem de Tweede, with a weight of 800 tons, sank during a storm in 1857.
Recently, marine archaeologists have announced the discovery of the wreck off the coasts of South Australia, and there could be numerous valuable artifacts.
This 42 -meter ship left Hong Kong and arrived in South Australia in June 1857, transporting 400 Chinese miners to the gold mines in Victoria. The ship has safely reached the Gulf of Guichen, where he landed on the passengers in the port of Robe.
After downloading the goods near Robe, June 30, Koning Willem de Tweede was surprised by a strong storm. Struck by violent winds, the ship suffered major structural damage. To avoid the sinking, the captain directed the ship to a sandy bench. Unfortunately, the maneuver led to the breaking of the body of the ship in two, and a rescue boat overturned – only nine of the 25 crew members survived.
The main researcher, James Hunter, described the diving conditions as “an underwater storm”, due to the permanent movement of the sand layers on the bottom of the sea.
In 2022, 165 years after the tragedy, researchers from several institutions launched the Koning Willem de Tweede Shipwreck Project project, in order to locate and study the wreck. Using maritime metal detectors and magnetometers to identify the concentrations of iron objects, the team has discovered metal components that seem to be part of the mechanism of anchoring of the ship, leaving the sand on the bottom of the sea, along with an iron frame structure.
Under these equipment was found a wooden plank, which suggests that under the unstable layers of sand could be other remains, while waiting for future research.
The magnetometer also detected other anomalies, indicating the possible presence of large iron artifacts and fragments of naval structure buried in that place. When these abnormalities were mapped, it was found that they correspond to the known length of the *Koning Willem de Tweede.
The major discovery took place this year, when the detectors allowed the exact location to identify, which led to find fragments of the ship. The researchers confirmed that both the positioning of the wreck and its dimensions correspond to the historical records on *Koning Willem de Tweede *. Important evidence includes ceramic fragments – especially the nineteenth -century brute Chinese ceramics – discovered on a close beach in March 2023.
The research team intends to return to the place of the wreck to evaluate its condition and document any artifacts and remains discovered. If necessary, they will use a special tool to extract the sand from the submerged areas.
“The diving was catastrophic and extremely sudden, so we will most likely find many artifacts. No one had time to take anything. Almost everything was lost-and it is probably still there, in the wreck, which could tell us a lot about the crew of the ship and its passengers,” said James Hunter.
