Cool Finds

A Shipwreck ‘Almost Beyond Belief’ Stunned Archaeologists in Norway With Its Cargo of Intact Porcelain Dishes and Luxury Goods

So far, archaeologists have recovered 40 artifacts from the discovery, an 18th-century shipwreck that likely will yield thousands more treasures

Sarah Kuta | Daily Correspondent

June 5, 2026 6:07 p.m.

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Last fall, Espen Saastad was exploring the Skagerrak strait between Norway and Denmark when he realized he had stumbled upon something special. There, hidden nearly 2,000 feet below the surface, was a shipwreck filled with delicate porcelain dishes. And many of them were still intact.

Saastad, a watchmaker who owns a small underwater survey company, got in touch with archaeologists at the Norwegian Maritime Museum, who were floored by his discovery. They’ve dubbed the unknown vessel the “Porcelain Wreck” and have been investigating it ever since.

“I had to rub my eyes when I grasped the scale of this find,” says Hanna Geiran, director general of the Norwegian Directorate for Cultural Heritage, in a statement. “It is almost beyond belief.”

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Using a remotely operated underwater vehicle equipped with a camera, they’ve been documenting the 72-foot-long ship and its cargo. Some of the pieces appear to be Batavia ware, a style of Chinese porcelain featuring blue and white decoration on the inside and brown glaze on the outside. Others seem to be Blanc de Chine, a type of porcelain made in the town of Dehua on China's southeast coast. One of the cups has what looks like a monogram on its base, but so far researchers haven’t deciphered it.

“We often find cargo and freight, but it’s usually broken or covered by marine growth,” Sven Ahrens, director of research at the Norwegian Maritime Museum, tells ScienceNorway’s Ida Irene Bergstrøm. “Here, whole plates were lying in stacks on the seabed.”

In addition to the well-preserved ceramics, researchers found barrels of grain and an array of high-end European-made goods ranging from chandeliers to stemmed glasses. They also discovered a box filled with mysterious substances, possibly coffee, tea, cocoa or medicine.

“It’s something of a dream wreck," Ahrens adds to ScienceNorway. “There are just so many different things in the cargo, and at that depth the preservation is absolutely fantastic, even organic materials have survived remarkably well.”

In May, researchers used a drone with a robotic arm with suction cups to load roughly 40 artifacts into crates and bring them to the surface. The objects are now at the Norwegian Maritime Museum in Oslo, which plans to feature them in a permanent exhibition in the future. Meanwhile, a handful of artifacts are on display now, giving members of the public a peek at what’s to come.

Based on the wreck’s roughly upright positioning, they believe the vessel sank relatively quickly and plunged straight down to the seafloor. Much of the cargo remains exactly where it was loaded centuries ago.

They suspect the ship sank sometime in the 18th century, likely around the year 1750. It was a period of “profound political, economic and social change in Northern Europe,” when modern consumer culture was starting to take shape, according to the museum.

“Trade in raw materials and luxury goods, which had previously taken place in separate markets, was now developing into an interconnected maritime trading system,” according to the statement. “At the same time, the rise of the middle classes and the growth of international trade drove a rapid expansion in commerce and shipping.”

Rice straw discovered in some of the crates suggest the porcelain came from China or Indonesia. But the ship probably didn’t sail there to retrieve it. Instead, researchers think the vessel picked up the cargo from somewhere in Northern Europe where goods were auctioned—possibly Gothenburg in Sweden, or Copenhagen, or Amsterdam.

One possible clue to the ship’s origins turned up in the debris: a brick from the ship’s kitchen that was made by Lübecker Ratsziegelei, a brick manufacturing company in Lübeck, Germany, that operated from the 15th century to 1772. That doesn’t necessarily mean the ship was built or homeported there, however, only that it had some connection to the city, the archaeologists say.

Based on the ship’s size, shape and characteristics, they suspect it might be a type of merchant vessel known as a “galliot.” The vessel has two masts, a feature found on some 18th-century galliots.

Still, many questions remain unanswered.

“What caused the ship to sink? Was it a storm?” according to the statement. “And what happened to the people on board? Ships of this type typically had a crew of five or six. Did they escape before the vessel went down, or did the sea become their final resting place?”

Researchers hope to retrieve additional items, which may number in the thousands.

“There are still unopened crates, and they may contain surprises,” Frode Kvalø, a maritime archaeologist at the Norwegian Maritime Museum who is leading the project, tells ScienceNorway.

Sarah Kuta | Read More

Sarah Kuta is a writer and editor based in Longmont, Colorado. She covers history, science, travel, food and beverage, sustainability, economics and other topics.