During the Qing Dynasty, countless exported porcelains were transported to Southeast Asia by merchants. In addition to some being sold locally, a considerable part of the products were shipped to Europe by the East India Company.
In the 1690s, according to Dutch merchants in Batavia, 2 million pieces of porcelain were shipped here every year.
Among them, 1.2 million pieces were supplied to the local market, and the other 800,000 pieces were shipped to Europe through the East India Company and private individuals.
It is conceivable that if the "Wanjiao No. 1" sails smoothly, nearly half of the porcelain will be transported to the Netherlands by the Dutch East India Company.
"The Point Guard Is Here"
If it arrives smoothly, maybe we will see these Jingzhen porcelain in the Netherlands now.
The vast sea is so cruel and merciless when it swallows up passing ships. We lament the insignificance of human beings;
The vast sea protects the treasure in its arms, yet is so gentle and affectionate.
The water-exposed porcelain is brand new and bright, like a sleeping beauty who has just awakened, making us marvel at its beauty and wonder.
The salvage of underwater shipwrecks is not about the wealth on the shipwreck, but about the ability of the shipwreck to restore history and the historical and cultural value of the artifacts on the shipwreck.
The sunken ship and the artifacts on the shipwreck can mutually confirm the information of the era in which they were located.
Based on the shape and decoration of the ceramics on the sunken ship, especially the markings on the ceramics, it is easy to determine the age of the sunken ship.
Therefore, every porcelain unearthed from a sunken ship can provide first-hand physical evidence for the study of the "Maritime Silk Road".
It also quietly informs the study of the history of ceramics and the history of foreign trade.
Through these discoveries, experts and scholars of the "Maritime Silk Road" can know that there are countless treasures and mysteries on the seabed, waiting for people who are interested in exploration and research.
This time, Chen Wenzhe felt that he had been sublimated during the excavation of the sunken ship on the seabed, especially the discovery of so many exquisite porcelains.
Unfortunately, the wreck was too badly damaged this time. Otherwise, it would be a great achievement to salvage the entire ship and put it in a museum.
Looking at the wreckage inside the cabin, he saw that the hull was buried in gray and black mud and was severely damaged. When he salvaged some important parts, it was inevitable that the hull would be damaged again.
The ship was roughly oriented east-west, and no part of the ship above the deck, including masts, rudders, sails, and spindles, was left.
There are fifteen bulkheads inside the ship, dividing the ship into fifteen cabins.
Among them, the bulkheads of the east eighth cabin and the west fifth cabin were all destroyed, leaving only traces.
The hull plate has only one layer of ship plating, and the hull materials are mainly fir, camphor, etc.
Therefore, what Chen Wenzhe obtained the most were part of the ship's planks. As for the water-exposed porcelain, they were all dug out from the mud and sand scattered on and around the surface of the ship's hull.
Most of them were left relatively intact around the sunken ship, and some were still neatly arranged and maintained in the same state as before the sinking.
This time the porcelain was sealed and stored in a large wooden box, with rice husks used as bedding inside.
In addition, a small piece of brown rope was also found, presumably used to tie the porcelain.
It is only through various methods of protection that so many complete porcelains can be preserved.
Holding in his hand a Kangxi emerald-haired, blue-sword and horse-dan figure jar, Chen Wenzhe felt a little emotional.
Judging from the production process, this piece of porcelain was made in the mid-Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty.
However, some other porcelains on hand were clearly from the early Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty.
These fine porcelains must be selected and processed first.
Bowls are put together, bottles are put together, and plates are of another type.
Some special varieties need to be selected separately and desalted first.
For example, the gourd vase with blue and white glaze, the plate with red landscape and figure pattern under blue and white glaze, the jar with four-glazed blue and white opera figure cover, the blue-and-white bowl with sauce glaze on the outside and the tall cup with blue and white figure pattern on the inside. Each of these is a fine product.
After picking and choosing, Chen Wenzhe soon selected more than 200 bottles, plates, bowls, cups, cans, etc., for daily use and ornamental purposes.
There are so many porcelains, each with unique and diverse shapes, lifelike images of flowers, characters, and animals, and rich and colorful patterns and glazes.
Other than that, the porcelain is much more ordinary.
It can be said that one side is genuine porcelain, but on the other hand, 50% of the water-exposed porcelain is of mediocre quality.
It includes a statue of Guanyin that Europeans would never appreciate, which is really interesting.
In view of this, Chen Wenzhe could guess that the porcelain on the ship might not be sold to a single region.
The exquisite Clark porcelain should be sold to Europe, while some of the porcelain of average quality may be sold in Southeast Asia, and some may be sent to Africa or the Americas.
For underwater treasure hunting, this is a trivial matter. After all, solving the mystery should be the job of the national archaeological team.
At this point, the excavation work of this sunken ship has been completed in stages.
That is to say, in addition to the salvage of the sunken ship itself, investigation work such as photography, videography, and surveying, as well as salvage work of cultural relics such as salvage, protection, and cleaning, have all been completed.
The reason for doing this is definitely because Chen Wenzhe now has a huge museum, and these materials can also be displayed in the museum.
If the salvaged porcelain is also displayed at the same time, the effect will definitely be better.
Now what Chen Wenzhe can confirm is that this sunken ship is not a sharp-bottomed "Fu Chuan", which is a ship built in Fujian during the Ming and Qing dynasties.
Then this ship should be a sailing ship made in Europe.
Also, in addition to salvaging and producing porcelain, there were also some other discoveries made during the excavation of porcelain.
These discoveries don't seem to be of much value for the time being, but Chen Wenzhe still preserved them well.
For example, among the four small daily utensils found in the cabin, each was a small stone inkstone less than the size of a palm, with some ink stains remaining.
The discovery of these things was very accidental. If the entire hull had not been dismantled, they would certainly not have been discovered.
In addition to this small stone inkstone, some other items are also very special, such as a small Arhat statue, a pottery faucet and a copper coin.
These things may be very important if it is archeology.
Because archeology is like broken eucalyptus and cultural relics are like physical evidence. Although its value is difficult to judge at the moment, as long as there is a discovery, it is a harvest.
Maybe these things seem useless now, but maybe one day their importance will be revealed.
The most undoubted point is that salvaging the sunken ship itself is already a very difficult thing to do.
According to the operating procedures, Gao Qijing's team members were supposed to number each of its parts so that they could be reassembled and restored to their original appearance after salvage.
However, due to the damage caused by theft, the hull was severely damaged and it was impossible to number it accurately.
Mainly on the sunken ship, some parts are in pieces.
Of course, these are not the most important. The most important thing is that through these scattered hull fragments, Chen Wenzhe can find other porcelain.
After all, what was salvaged from these waters at that time was not only porcelain from the Qing Dynasty, but also porcelain from the Ming Dynasty.
This is the reason why Chen Wenzhe has been studying those shipwreck fragments, and he has really gained something from these studies.