Rare 16th-Century Shipwreck Discovered at Record Depth in French Waters
The 98-foot-long vessel was transporting ceramic jugs, ceramic plates and metal bars when it sank off southeastern France nearly 500 years ago
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In early March, the French Navy was conducting an exploratory deep-sea operation off southeastern France when sonar detected a large shape on the seafloor. Curious, the mariners decided to investigate using an underwater camera. They were shocked to see the outline of a 16th-century ship.
They then alerted the French Ministry of Culture’s Department of Underwater and Submarine Archaeological Research. Officials confirmed the sailors had stumbled upon a shipwreck—not only that, but the deepest known shipwreck in French waters.
The wreck is 1.6 miles below the surface of the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Ramatuelle, near Saint-Tropez. Previously, the deepest known shipwreck in French waters was La Minerve, a French submarine that sank in 1968 and now rests more than 1.4 miles below the surface near the city of Toulon, per Agence France-Presse.
The newly discovered vessel is known as the Camarat 4, a nod to the nearby Cap Camarat headland. It’s a 98-foot-long, 23-foot-wide merchant ship that was transporting hundreds of decorated ceramic jugs with pinched spouts, yellow ceramic plates and metal bars when it sank.
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The jugs and plates appear to have been made during the 16th century in Liguria, a seaside region in northwest Italy near the French border. Some of the jugs are covered in geometric or plant-shaped designs, while others bear the letters “IHS,” which represent the first three letters of Jesus Christ’s name in Greek, reports Divernet’s Steve Weinman.
Archaeologists have also found two cooking pots, six cannons and anchors among the wreckage.
Because it’s been preserved from degradation and protected from looters, the wreck site is “a genuine time capsule,” said Marine Sadania, an underwater archaeologist with the French culture ministry, at a June 11 press conference, as reported by Le Monde’s Sofia Fischer.
“It feels as if time stopped on this ship,” she added.
However, interspersed among the 500-year-old artifacts, the researchers also found lots of modern trash—everything from beer cans and yogurt containers to plastic bottles and fishing nets.
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“After the awe of the discovery comes the sadness of finding such things,” said Arnaud Schaumasse, the director of the Department of Underwater and Submarine Archaeological Research, as reported by Le Monde. “The ocean isn’t a garbage dump, but it is apparently being treated as one.”
Moving forward, archaeologists hope to find out more about the ship, including what caused it to sink. Based on the way the debris is strewn about, they suspect the vessel may have capsized, but they don’t know why.
Another mystery? The empty stern, which is unusual for a merchant ship jam-packed with cargo. Perhaps something was stashed in the stern, but the items were perishable and they decomposed over the centuries.
The team hopes to bring together more experts, including ceramologists, historians and geologists, to solve these and other mysteries. They also plan to work with the French Navy to create a digital 3D replica of the wreck site and recover a handful of artifacts for further study.
