Re: [Archport] Shipwreck treasure off Goa coast

["Tiago Lino" <tiago_lino_260@hotmail.com>]

Fantastico. Obrigado Alexandre por mais uma fantastica partilha/divulgaçäo. Cumprimentos cordiais
Tiago Lino
Enviado do meu BlackBerry® da tmn

-----Original Message-----
From: Alexandre Monteiro <no.arame@gmail.com>
Sender: archport-bounces@ci.uc.pt
Date: Mon, 7 Jun 2010 00:03:07 
To: archport<archport@ci.uc.pt>
Subject: [Archport] Shipwreck treasure off Goa coast

Shipwreck treasure off Goa coast

Mayabhushan | Panaji

Next time you are headed for Goa, it makes sense to pack in your scuba
gear along with swimming trunks.

With more than three shipwrecks discovered and explored off the
State’s coast in the last seven years, marine scientists at the
National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) here believe that Goa might
be the next big thing as far as underwater shipwreck exploration is
concerned.

“We have begun explorations since 1988 but regular, organised
explorations began in 1997. We had found two ships earlier, but this
is the first time we found a steel-hulled steamship,” NIO marine
researcher Dr Sila Tripathi told The Pioneer, adding that the recent
find was a century-old merchant ship.

Over time, however, some of the underwater relics have been stripped
bare of their merchandise by local divers.

“Boilers, furnace bricks, flanges, broken copper pipes and tubes were
found scattered over a wide area. The engine, which appears to be a
triple-expansion type, is reasonably well preserved, though local
divers have despoiled the wreck in the recent past. They have removed
copper alloys, and other attractive or saleable items,” Dr Tripathi
said.

In the last few years, three wrecks — including a 17th century
merchant ship (oldest wreck found in Indian waters to date) — were
found at the Sunchi Reef (between Mormugao harbour and the
promontories of Cabo headland), a Basel Mission Company shipwreck at
St George reef (eastern side of Grande Island to the south of Mormugao
port) and the recently-explored merchant ship at Amee shoals (a sand
bank that divides the Mormugao bay from the Arabian Sea).

The Sunchi shipwreck, found in 2006, fetched a unique brass barrel of
a handgun, iron guns, an anchor, Chinese ceramics, Martaban pottery
(stoneware), assorted bases of glass bottles, elephant tusks,
hippopotamus teeth, lead pipe fragments, a copper vessel and strip,
stone bricks and dressed granite blocks — all sitting pretty at one
location.

According to the NIO, the wrecks have offered rare glimpses and vital
clues to the Portuguese and British maritime trade.

“The stamps on the flanges and the name on the firebricks of the wreck
suggest a British origin, and the three scotch boilers indicate that
it was a large merchant ship (naval vessels used water-tube boilers),”
Tripathi said.

The scientist further said that in the 1880s, steel from Sheffield
(England) was imported by Portugal for the laying of a railway line
from Mormugao to Castle Rock, a railway station in Karnataka near the
border with Goa. “The vessel could be from that period. However, lack
of datable finds means that it is difficult to identify the date and
origin of this wreck,” Tripathi rued.

With Goa being a major trading post for the Portuguese, it is
suspected that a large number of ships sunk off its shores. “The
Portuguese records housed in the Goa State Archives, Panaji, and India
House, Lisbon, hint at the wrecking of numerous Portuguese shipwrecks
in shallow waters off Goa, with its treacherous reefs and sand-bars,
in prevailing storms or due to enemy fire,” Dr KH Vora, a marine
archaeology project leader at the NIO said.

The Portuguese had established several shipyards in Bassein
(Maharashtra), Cochin (Kerala), Goa and Daman on the western coast of
India.

Goa alone had three shipyards situated on the banks of the Mandovi.
Well-known ships that were built in Goa shipyard at the time include
the Santo António de Tanna, Cinco Chagas, São João Baptista, Bom Jesus
and Madre de Deus.



The Pioneer

FRONT PAGE | Monday, May 31, 2010
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