Nanhai No.1 to be raised tomorrow

THE 800-year-old wreckage of a merchant ship will be raised tomorrow in Guangdong Province if the weather is fine, according to an official from the salvage project, Youth Daily reported today.

The most powerful crane in Asia will be used to lift the wreck and the job is expected to take about two hours.

Archaeologists will encase the ship and the surrounding silt in a huge steel basket to protect it during transfer to the nearby Crystal Palace Museum that has been specially built for the vessel, the report said.

The Nanhai No. 1, as archaeologists have named the vessel, is the biggest Song Dynasty (960-1279) cargo ship ever discovered. Archaeologists estimate there are probably 60,000 to 80,000 relics on the sunken 30-meter ship.

The wreck, 20 nautical miles south of Dongping port of Yangjiang City and more than 20 meters below the surface, was found in 1987 by Guangzhou Salvage Bureau and a British underwater salvage company.