Never overestimate the professionalism of tomb robbers.
Of course, they also do better. For example, at sea now, the tomb robbers are more professional in that they have diving equipment on each of their ships.
Not far out to sea is the location of the sunken ship.
In this shipwreck waters, the day Chen Wenzhe saw the most was actually 25 fishing boats rushing around, circling left and right, busy coming and going.
The scene at that time was very chaotic, as chaotic as a naval battle.
There are diving equipment on the fishing boats, and there are buoys used for positioning floating on the sea.
It can be said that as long as the fishing boats come over, "all the people are fishing".
Some of these people are from professional salvage companies, while others are "fancier" tourist diving instructors.
There are even a few fishermen who make a living by fishing for abalone and sea cucumbers in the fishing grounds.
Due to the high cost, the fishermen each formed a temporary "treasure joint-stock company".
Several fishermen bear the cost of illegal fishing in the form of a joint-stock system and divide the income in proportion.
During the two most popular days, the formerly peaceful island looked like the legendary golden island.
The pirates were in high spirits, and various fishing boats shuttled back and forth day and night.
Cultural relics began to be salvaged from the water on a large scale, and countless pieces were damaged and discarded.
From time to time, cultural relic dealers come to the island to buy porcelain at prices ranging from hundreds to 1,000 yuan.
In the past few years, a similar situation also occurred during the excavation of Yuan Dynasty shipwrecks at "Sandaogang in the Northeast of China".
However, under the control of relevant departments at that time, the fishermen's illegal fishing activities were quickly curbed.
This time is very different. The development of information dissemination and the smooth flow of the folk cultural relics market have made local fishermen know exactly what they will harvest.
There is no way, I can only say that times have changed.
You must know that a few decades ago, some old fishermen salvaged underwater porcelain and returned it directly to the sea.
Now it's all about profit. As long as you can make money, what can't you do?
Mankind dies and wealth dies, and birds die for food. The reason why this ship still has something left behind must be said to the local law enforcement agencies of several countries.
Although they grabbed the lion's share, they also made a small contribution to this sunken ship.
At least with their presence, many casualties have been avoided.
In the process of stealing treasure ships, especially at night, there are many cases of divers drowning in the middle of the night due to malfunctions in the oxygen supply equipment.
Most of these divers use dangerous air pump oxygen supply equipment to extend their stay underwater.
This method is as old as it was when humans first conducted underwater archeology in 1848.
At that time, in order to search for residential ruins in the Swiss lake, the director of the Lausanne Museum was on a small boat and used a manual compressor to deliver air to the divers.
And what good equipment do those fishermen have?
Some people's equipment is not even as good as that of the ancients a hundred or two hundred years ago!
In the underwater shipwreck areas, not only have there been vicious incidents of overt and covert robbery, gangsterism, and illegal armed robbery, but even worse, there has been a phenomenon where a country's fishing boats have raised funds to participate in theft.
This chaos did not stop until law enforcement vessels from various countries controlled the waters of the sunken ship and the divers who had stolen it were driven away.
Things became simple after that. After the salvage by state law enforcement officers, the underwater sunken ship became bare and nothing was visible.
Later, this place was used as a fake treasure ship to deceive people.
Of course, during this period, some porcelain was put in to fake the porcelain found in the sea.
Now it is discovered that the members of the Kangxi Blue and White Market are also lucky. They did not enter the sunken ship or even search near the sunken ship.
After all, this is not their first time salvaging a sunken ship, and they are already very experienced.
After they entered the water, they did not get on the boat immediately, but measured and drew around it.
After that, based on calculations, we specifically searched for places with thick sand and excavated around them. Unexpectedly, we actually found something.
"Boss, these porcelains are all hidden and preserved in large wooden boxes. These large boxes are buried in the sand under an ocean trench."
"I found it under a coral reef. The coral reefs here are very scattered. Some of the coral reefs are filled with sand. When I dug out, I found a big box."
"The situation is similar. The ship was half capsized, the cabin was broken, and a lot of cargo should have been thrown out of the cabin."
"Stop talking nonsense. Since we have discovered something, let's all go into the water. You must know that there are fishing grounds everywhere around this sea area, and it is easy to be discovered."
In fact, even if Gao Qijing didn't say anything, everyone knew that their actions could not be kept secret for two days.
Now that the discovery was made, Gao Qijing made a prompt decision and let people go into the water again.
Underwater salvage, or underwater archeology, is not simple.
First, the buoys were left on the water. The team members followed the buoys and dived directly to the sunken ship.
The GPS position was determined and the first underwater photography was conducted.
Conduct a preliminary underwater survey and begin counting the number of porcelains.
Of course, all you see under the water here are broken pieces of porcelain, so it is not easy to find a complete one.
Besides, the excavation of underwater ruins and the excavation of field ruins are essentially the same.
The first period of time must be spent hunting for treasure.
That is, it is used for surveys, that is, positioning, measurement, photography and videography, etc.
After entering the water, we came to the side of the sunken ship and first used an iron rake to hook it on the side of the sunken ship.
Then use the lead brought down to sink the buoy, and then follow the safety rules and launch into the water in pairs along the water entry rope under the buoy.
If you don't have to compete with other looters for time and space, in terms of work procedures alone, underwater excavation is like an elegant and interesting game of Jenga.
In the first half day, the diving leader led the team members to set up a baseline to mark the position above the sunken ship.
Then use stainless steel pipes or ropes to set up a 20cm x 20cm "exploration square" in the direction of due south and due north.
That is, the cells used to excavate porcelain are marked every 20 centimeters with red tape to facilitate underwater identification.
This is their underwater Rubik's Cube. At this stage, the team members should try to maintain the original appearance of the underwater ruins, but the original appearance is long gone.
"The Sword Comes"
As early as after entering the water for the first time, they discovered that the situation under the water was really terrible.
Under the water, broken porcelain is scattered everywhere, and every fracture is shining with a new white light.
This is only a recent damage. To the west of the stern, there is a spot on the seabed where the sand is particularly soft. It seems that it was bombed in the past few years, and the stern of the ship has completely disappeared as a result.
Fortunately, they encountered good hydrological conditions.
The current water temperature in this sea area is around 28°C, the flow rate is around 30cm/second, and the visibility is between one and two meters.
This kind of visibility is already a good situation. After all, the water is not deep and the water pressure is not high. This kind of visibility can make it easier for them to find the treasure.