Wreckage of 800-ton ship found after its deadly sinking well over a century ago: 'Significant discovery'

Archaeologists are confident they have uncovered the wreckage of an -ton Dutch merchant ship that sunk off the coast of Australia years ago The Koning Willem de Tweede was lost near Robe Australia in June killing of its crew members The essential discovery was disclosed this week by the Australian National Maritime Museum and the SilentWorld Foundation after a four-year search The find connects us to stories of exchange and migration having discharged over Chinese miners just days before its sinking the museum revealed in a post on social media about the discovery ARCHAEOLOGISTS UNCOVER CENTURIES-OLD SHIPWRECK BENEATH ANCIENT CITY UNIQUE SOURCE OF KNOWLEDGE James Hunter acting manager of maritime archeology at the Australian National Maritime Museum reported the Australian Broadcasting Company ABC Wednesday that archaeologists had uncovered several components of the ship including its windlass a device that raises and lowers equipment to the ship sticking out of the seabed We looked at things like the depth of the ship the draught and we've looked at the water depth it's sitting in and that all seems to line up really well he advised ABC of the confidence they had exposed its final resting place He added that researchers also detected a magnetic anomaly that is the same length as the -foot ship The museum reported the find was a collaboration with the Silentworld Foundation a nonprofit that supports underwater archeology and South Australia s Department for Milieu and Water and Flinders University HAUNTING SLAVE SHIPS UNCOVERED OFF COAST OF NATIONAL PARK YEARS LATER VERY CONVINCING This key discovery supported by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands marks the culmination of dedicated research since the museum mentioned on Facebook Tuesday Future monitoring visits are planned to further assess the site and uncover more of this central piece of maritime history When the weather has been kind enough they have carried out survey work searching for the wreck SilentWorld disclosed on Facebook Wednesday The latest visit to Robe in association with the organization listed above led to the probable identification of the shipwreck The visibility was challenging but still enough for the squad to make this incredible call Hunter notified ABC the ship may have run aground on the seabed and was buried by sand The club thought it had determined the wreck three years ago but Hunter commented the sand made visibility demanding CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP It takes nothing to stir the sand up and it kind of sits in suspension almost like you're in a blizzard underwater he explained