The No. 2 ancient ship at the mouth of the Yangtze River was successfully salvaged as a whole, and major achievements have been made in archaeology and cultural relics protection
At 0:00 on November 21, 2022, the Hengsha waters at the mouth of the Yangtze River witnessed a new historic breakthrough in underwater archaeology in China, 22 giant arc-shaped beams composed of caissons 48 meters long, 19 meters wide, 9 meters high and weighing about 8,800 tons loaded with ancient ships, after nearly 3 hours of continuous underwater lifting, slowly exposed to the surface of the middle moon pool of the salvage engineering ship “Endeavor Wheel”, the masts of ancient ships were clearly visible, and the ancient ships were rediscovered after more than 150 years.
A few days later, the ancient ship No. 2 at the mouth of the Yangtze River will be brought to the No. 1 dock at the former site of Yangpu Shanghai Shipyard to open a new stage of cultural relics protection and archaeological excavation.
Cultural relics archaeological discoveries: filling the gap of ancient ships in the late Qing Dynasty
In 2015, under the guidance of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, the Shanghai Municipal Administration of Cultural Heritage organized the Archaeological Research Center of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, the Shanghai Municipal Research Center for Cultural Relics Protection and other units to carry out a key investigation of underwater archaeology in the Chongming Hengsha waters at the mouth of the Yangtze River, and discovered an ancient wooden ship with the archaeological number “Yangtze River Estuary No. 2” through sonar scanning and other technologies. In order to further understand the nature and age of the No. 2 ancient ship at the mouth of the Yangtze River, since 2016, the Archaeological Research Center of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, the Shanghai Municipal Research Center for Cultural Relics Protection and other domestic professional institutions have conducted underwater archaeological surveys and multidisciplinary research on ancient ships every year.
After 7 years of underwater archaeological investigation and exploration, the basic situation of the ancient ship No. 2 at the mouth of the Yangtze River was discovered. The No. 2 ancient ship at the mouth of the Yangtze River is a wooden sailing ship, confirmed to be dated to the Tongzhi period of the Qing Dynasty (1862-1875 AD), the water depth is 8-10 meters, the hull is buried in 5.5 meters deep silt, the residual length is about 38.1 meters, the width is about 9.9 meters, and there are 31 cabins. The upper part of the ancient ship has a complete structure such as bow, cable pile, main mast, and left and right ports, and from the current survey situation, it is speculated that it is the most likely sand ship widely used in Shanghai in the Qing Dynasty. Through the small-scale cleaning of 4 cabins, exquisite cultural relics such as neatly stacked Jingdezhen kiln porcelain were found in the cabins, and there were many types and large quantities of cultural relics that had been completely produced or could be restored. In addition, a large number of cultural relics such as purple clay vessels, Vietnamese hookah cans, wooden bucket remains, masts, large ship materials, iron anchors, brown cables, pulleys and building materials were also produced in and around the hull. In particular, the green glazed cup bottom book that comes out of the water has the “Tongzhi Year System”, which provides an important basis for the breaking of ancient ships. In 2021 and 2022, the Shanghai Municipal Administration of Cultural Heritage twice organized underwater archaeology professional institutions to conduct underwater surveys on and around the ancient ship No. 2 at the mouth of the Yangtze River, and cleaned up large whole vessels such as Yuan Dynasty porcelain and 60 cm high complete bean green glazed blue and white vases, as well as a batch of ceramics from Yixing kiln in Jiangsu Province, which were not found in previous investigations.
The Yangtze River Estuary No. 2 ancient ship is another milestone major discovery in China’s underwater archaeology, and is one of the largest, most complete preserved ancient wooden shipwrecks found in China and even in the world, filling the gap in the research of large wooden sailing ships in the late Qing Dynasty in China, and is a precious cultural heritage. At the same time, Yangtze River Estuary No. 2 is also the first time that underwater archaeologists took the initiative to discover and conduct archaeological investigation during the national underwater cultural relics census, and the integrity of the hull and the rich cultural relics on board are of great significance to the research of shipbuilding history, shipping history, ceramic history, economic history and so on in China and even the world.
Great integration of scientific and technological innovation: the world’s first salvage technology has been successful
From the discovery of the No. 2 ancient ship at the mouth of the Yangtze River to underwater investigation to the overall salvage, scientific and technological empowerment has always been an important way and core driving force to promote the archaeology and cultural relics protection of ancient ships. At the mouth of the Yangtze River, where visibility is almost zero, searching for underwater cultural heritage is like finding a needle in a haystack. The muddy water environment is a bottleneck that is extremely difficult to overcome in the development of underwater archaeology in China and even the world. At the beginning of the launch of underwater archaeology, the Shanghai Municipal Administration of Cultural Heritage organized archaeologists and scientific and technological workers from the Archaeological Research Center of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, the Shanghai Municipal Research Center for Cultural Relics Protection, Shanghai University, the National Ningbo Base for the Protection of Underwater Cultural Heritage and other institutions to carry out cross-border cooperation and joint research, independently developed the national patent “Underwater Imaging Device for Troubled Waters”, developed the “Key Technologies and Applications of Robotic Underwater Archaeological Equipment” that won the second prize of the Shanghai Science and Technology Award, and comprehensively used unmanned boats, multi-beam sonar, Marine geophysical equipment such as side-scan sonar, shallow stratum profiler and magnetometer carried out underwater investigation of the waters of the Yangtze River estuary, and the integration of scientific and technological innovation became the most important factor in the discovery of the No. 2 ancient ship at the mouth of the Yangtze River.
After the State Administration of Cultural Heritage agreed to adopt an overall salvage method to protect the ancient ship No. 2 at the mouth of the Yangtze River, the Shanghai Municipal Administration of Cultural Relics, together with the Shanghai Salvage Bureau of the Ministry of Transport, integrated the world’s most advanced salvage technology, technical route and equipment manufacturing, and finally studied and formed the world’s first “arc beam non-contact cultural relics overall migration technology” to salvage this ancient ship. This technology is a new salvage solution proposed on the basis of bold scientific research and technological innovation, creatively integrating nuclear power arc beam processing technology, tunnel shield boring technology, immersed tunnel docking technology, and the use of hydraulic synchronous lifting technology, integrated monitoring system and other most advanced high-tech in the world. In addition, in order to smoothly and safely lift the caisson formed by the curved beam and escort it to the dock, a special salvage engineering ship “Endeavor Wheel” was creatively designed and constructed. The main scale of the “Struggle Wheel” is 130 meters long, 34 meters wide, 9 meters deep, with a design draft of 6 meters, synchronous lifting devices at both ends, and a moon pool 56 meters long and 20 meters wide at the middle of the ship. The arc-shaped beam caisson after the beam piercing is loaded with the ancient ship directly lifted from the “Endeavor Wheel” from the bottom of the sea to the central moon pool, and transferred and unloaded to the dock, and a ship has completed the three tasks of lifting, transportation and unloading, which has many advantages such as high safety, strong operability and high technological content.
On September 6 this year, the main operation ship of the Yangtze River Estuary No. 2 Ancient Ship Overall Salvage Project “Vigorous” arrived in the waters where the ancient ship was located, and officially carried out the overall salvage and archaeological protection of the ancient ship. On September 12, the special “end plate-longitudinal beam” composite frame for the overall salvage of the ancient ship was settled in the design position. On September 29, offshore construction entered the stage of installing arc beams, officially passing through the first group of 22 arc beams. On November 15, the 22nd group of curved beams was put in place. On November 17, the special engineering ship “Endeavor Ship” arrived in the waters where the ancient ship was located, and the overall salvage water entered a critical stage. After more than 70 days of hard work at sea, the ancient ship was successfully salvaged as a whole. The smooth implementation of the overall salvage of the No. 2 ancient ship at the mouth of the Yangtze River relies on Shanghai’s high-end manufacturing capabilities and efficient organizational capabilities on the one hand, and proves the advancedness, stability and safety of the pioneering curved beam salvage technology on the other hand. These technologies, which are first applied in the field of archaeology and cultural relics protection, fully reflect the integration and development of cultural relics protection and scientific and technological innovation, provide new methods, open up new ideas, and add new cases for the overall salvage mode of underwater archaeology, and provide Chinese concepts and Chinese experience for underwater archaeology in the world.
(Main station reporter Zhang Qian, Wei Ran)