For centuries, the remains of a trading ship dating from the 14th century
lay undisturbed at the bottom of Singapore's territorial waters
until it was chanced upon by a commercial diver in 2015 about 100m northwest of Pedra Branca.
The significance of that sighting became clear in 2016
after the diver informed research centre ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute of his find.
Later in 2019, remnants of a second vessel and its cargo was discovered about 300m
east of the island. The Institute’s research showed the wreck pre-dates Sir
Stamford Raffles’ arrival in Singapore and is likely to be the Indian-built merchant vessel
Shah Munchah, which sank while travelling from China to India in 1796.
On Wednesday (June 16), the National Heritage Board announced the discovery of both ships.
FLECKER: So Shipwreck 1, the significance is that
it's contemporary with the Temasek period. And we've got a lot of ceramics which you can match
almost exactly with some of the finds in Fort Canning and Empress Place.
And I strongly suspect that it was destined to trade in Temasek.
Shipwreck 2, it's late 18th century, it's carrying a cargo from China. It's a large vessel, it's a European hull.
Obviously it's from before Raffles reestablished a port in Singapore. But that's the sort of ship
that would have been coming into trade in the few years after he established the port. It's
the same sort of articles somebody would have been for use domestically, some of it
would have been transshipment. And a lot of that transshipment would have carried on to Europe.
Battling strong currents and low visibility, researchers conducted diving operations
to recover artefacts from Shipwreck 1 between 2016 and 2019.
Excavation works on Shipwreck 2 were carried out from 2019 to 2021.
The challenging conditions coupled with monsoon seasons often meant that diving
down to the wrecks was limited to a week at a time during the best of conditions.
The location of the dive sites also limited dive time per day.
FLECKER: Most of the challenges were environmental.
So we've got the monsoon, we can't go out there because it's just too rough.
Even when we're working, if the typhoon is coming down through the
South China Sea, sort of between the Philippines and Vietnam, then there's this massive swell,
that makes its way all the way down to where we're working. So we can be in one position one second,
and we can be 10 metres behind the next and sometimes doing a somersault in between.
So that's challenging. And similarly the strong currents can reduce the visibility.
Some days, it's like being in a swimming pool — it's beautiful. We can see
many metres and other days, we have to crawl our way back along our baseline to try and recover or
find our mooring line so we can go back up to the vessel — it's just completely pitch black. So we
have challenges like that and of course the long distance so it's a long commute gives me a chance
to read The Straits Times on the way out and most of my fellows asleep on the way there and back.
After all that hard work, the wrecks have yielded their treasures. A wide range of ceramics,
in a variety of colours, was retrieved. A large quantity of zinc ingots, along with parasols
and figurines, were also found at the site of the second wreck. Samples of organic materials,
which may have been used for packing or used as trade items, were also collected.
Pieces of agate, a type of semi-precious stone,
metal betel nut cutters, and musical instruments were among the finds.
In addition, four anchors and nine cannons were also recovered from Shipwreck 2. The
cannons are typical of those mounted on East India Company merchant ships during
the late 18th and early 19th centuries and were used for both defence and signalling.
Out at sea, divers place retrieved artefacts in bags attached to their waists.
Up on deck, they begin the task of sorting and bagging them into mesh bags before labelling them.
FLECKER: The thing that was first sighted was ceramic shards, and now we've got this big range
of intact ceramics that goes from blue and white. A lot of the material seems to be white ware now,
but originally it had enamel decorations so they were on top of the glaze that have been degraded.
So there's greens and blues and reds that were on those pieces. We have blue,
we have brown ware, so a very wide range of ceramics. We've got figurines as well. So
they're very interesting. They were sort of sold as a curio. But another one of the main cargoes
is nowhere near as romantic — it was zinc ingots. So a large part of the cargo was zinc. And that
has corroded because that actually corrodes faster than iron, it's more reactive than iron. So that's
largely fallen into pieces. But some of ingots are still intact. And then we have this big range of
organic material. Some of that would have been for packing. And some would have actually been
trade items in themselves. But those things we have to get positively identified. A lot of it is
amorphous mush. In fact, if you touch it, it's very delicate, underwater.
So we've got samples of all of that material.
Work on the retrieved artefacts continues,
as more research and conservation will be conducted on them following the end of the archaeological excavations.
When this is completed, some of them will be exhibited in museums here.
If all goes as planned, the public can look forward to viewing the first displays at the end 2021.