This Week in Shipwrecks #9

Rich (00:00)
Hello and welcome to another edition of This Week in Shipwrecks, the weekly maritime news series of shipwrecks and sea dogs. I'm your host, Rich Napolitano.

Coming up today, archaeologists announce what could be the oldest known shipwreck in the world, a vessel that went down nearly 5,000 years ago off the coast of modern day Turkey. We'll also look at an extraordinary Roman era cargo discovery and the continuing efforts to preserve historic vessels and manage dangerous wreck sites.

So let's get started.

We begin this week with some really big news from the Maritime History World. On october fourteenth, Turkish authorities announced the discovery of what archaeologists believe may be the world's

Oldest known shipwreck. The site lies off Kekova Island near Antalya on Turkey's Mediterranean coast, and dates to the early Bronze Age, approximately 4400 to 4700 years ago. To put that age into perspective, This vessel was sailing the Mediterranean around the time the Great Pyramid of Giza was being constructed.

The wooden hull has long since disappeared, but the cargo has survived. Underwater archaeologists recovered more than thirty amphorae ceramic storage vessels, along with three stone anchors. The pottery provides the key evidence for dating the wreck and understanding where the vessel may have originated.

The containers appear to have been produced in workshops in the Jordan Valley, suggesting that the ship was part of an established trading network, connecting the eastern Mediterranean with other communities across the region. Researchers have found some of the amphorae contain a viscous residue, indicating that they may have carried olive oil or wine. An unusual container marked with nine distinct symbols and pierced by two holes may have been used to churn butter or cheese.

according to Turkey's culture minister. that raises the possibility about whether ancient sailors might not simply have carried provisions for a voyage, but they may have also processed food while at sea. Archaeologists believe the vessel was approximately thirty feet long, and its cargo and the distribution of similar pottery across the Mediterranean may eventually help establish where it was built and where it was headed.

Troy and Crete have been suggested as possible destinations, although its actual route remains uncertain. The discovery also challenges the previous record holder, the Dokos shipwreck in Greece, which dates to approximately forty two hundred years ago.

There's one important distinction. Archaeologists have discovered older submerged archaeological sites and ancient maritime remains, but this newly announced find may represent the oldest known shipwreck of its kind.

Now to one of the most famous landmarks of the ancient world. Archaeologists working underwater in Alexandria, Egypt, have recovered a bronze signet ring engraved with an image of the lighthouse of Alexandria.

The ring was discovered at the submerged island of Antichodos, within Alexandria's eastern harbor. The recovery was carried out by a team from Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities and the European Institute for Underwater Archaeology. The engraving depicts the legendary lighthouse, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Built on the island of Pharos during the third century BC, guided ships toward the harbor for centuries.

Ancient accounts suggest that it may have stood nearly 400 feet tall, making it one of the most impressive engineering achievements of its age. The lighthouse was eventually damaged by a series of earthquakes. By the early fourteenth century, much of the structure had collapsed, and its remaining stonework was eventually incorporated into other buildings and fortifications. The newly recovered ring may have served a practical purpose.

Signet rings were used to impress designs into wax or soft clay, helping people authenticate documents, mark containers or identify the sender of a message. If this ring was used in that way, it may have belonged to someone who wanted to associate themselves with one of the most recognizable landmarks in the Mediterranean.

Researchers have noted that the engraved image resembles representations of the lighthouse found on coins dating to the second century AD. That comparison could help establish the ring's age and provide clues about how the monument was represented during its later years.

From the ancient to the relatively recent, researchers working off the coast of California have captured the first underwater images of the Ituna a steam yacht that sank in 1920. The wreck lies within the Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary, an area of the Pacific Ocean west of San Francisco that contains hundreds of known or suspected shipwreck and aircraft

sites.

The Ituna was built in Glasgow, Scotland, in eighteen eighty six. At the time of its loss, the vessel had already spent decades at sea. On March thirteenth, nineteen twenty, the yacht encountered heavy seas north of San Francisco lightship station. Water entered the forward hold after the vessel's seams began to fail, and the yacht reportedly sank bow first in approximately ten minutes.

The recent survey used an autonomous underwater vehicle and a remotely operated vehicle to collect sonar measurements and high definition video of the wreck. These tools allow researchers to document a ship without sending divers into potentially hazardous conditions. The resulting images can also be used to create detailed maps of the wreck structure and surrounding seabed.

The work is part of a wider maritime heritage program effort to document shipwrecks in the sanctuary.

Researchers estimate that approximately four hundred wreck sites may lie within the protected area, although not all have been comprehensively surveyed.

as researchers continue surveying the sanctuary, additional wrecks may be identified, mapped, or examined in greater detail.

And for some somber news, the International Organization for Migration reported on October 11th that at least 139 people had died after a boat carrying migrants capsized off the coast of Djibouti. Another 84 people were still missing at the time of the announcement. was carrying approximately 305 people toward Yemen when it went down during the night of October 8th into October 9th, near Gahir.

North of the port town of Obach.

Around eighty-two people were reported to have survived. the disaster prompted continuing search and recovery operations by Djiboutian authorities. The IOM was also providing survivors with emergency assistance, including medical care, food, shelter, and other support.

The route from the Horn of Africa toward Yemen is known as the eastern route. Migrants use it to cross the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, often aboard overcrowded boats that may be poorly equipped for the conditions.

As the death toll from this disaster rises, it may become one of the deadliest shipwrecks recorded along the eastern route.

And tensions in the Black Sea took another dangerous turn this week

After two chemical tankers caught fire in Romanian territorial waters near the Sulina Canal. The vessels were the San Marino flagged wine trader and the Comoros flagged Yara J. Both were anchored near an important shipping corridor linking the Black Sea With the Danube River. Reports on October 15th said the wine trader had eight crew members missing. The crew of the Yara J were reported safe after extinguishing the fire themselves.

Romanian authorities had not confirmed the cause of the fires at the time of reporting. However, local reports raised the possibility that drones had struck at least one of the vessels. The incidents occurred amid heightened concern about drone activity around the western Black Sea. Romanian authorities reported detecting aerial targets near Snake Island, prompting the deployment of fighter aircraft.

Search efforts and further investigation will be needed to determine what happened to the missing sailors and what caused the fires. And more trouble in the Strait of Armuse.

Reports published on october fourteenth described multiple incidents involving merchant vessels in the strait, including a cargo ship that Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy

said had sunk after striking a naval mine.

Singapore's Maritime and Port Authority separately reported that two Singapore registered cargo ships had been struck by unidentified projectiles. One vessel sank while the other reached safety. All crew members from the first ship were evacuated and no injuries were reported in those two incidents. The available reports did not establish that all of these accounts referred to the same vessel or that the incidents had a single cause. Iran's account of the mine strike also differed in detail.

From the information released by Singaporean authorities.

Until more evidence is available, the precise details remain uncertain.

Our final story takes us to the Adriatic Sea, where archaeologists have been examining a remarkably well preserved shipwreck off the Croatian island of Vis. The vessel dates to approximately 300 BC, during the Hellenistic period, when merchant ships connected ports throughout the Mediterranean. Investigations conducted between 2023 and 2025 uncovered pottery, personal belongings, and surviving sections of the ship's wooden structure.

The Croatian Conservation Institute announced the findings in early October. the surviving wooden remains are particularly important. The surviving wooden remains are particularly significant. Organic materials such as timber usually deteriorate over long periods underwater, although favorable seabed conditions can preserve them.

When portions of a vessel survive alongside its cargo, archaeologists can study not only what the ship carried, but also how it was constructed. The pottery provides evidence of the commercial networks operating across the Adriatic more than 2,000 years ago. Researchers can compare the objects with examples recovered from other archaeological sites to investigate where the goods were manufactured and how they moved between coastal communities.

The personal belongings give a glimpse of life aboard the vessel. A shipwreck is treated as a snapshot of ancient commerce, but it can also preserve evidence of how the people worked and lived aboard these ships, what equipment they used, and the material objects they carried with them.

researchers hope that the wreck discovered off Vis adds another piece to that history.

That's going to do it for this edition of This Week in Shipwrecks. Thank you so much for listening. All sources for these stories are listed in the show notes. Until next week, keep your eyes on the horizon, your sonar running, cold drinks in the cooler, hot drinks on the stove, and your curiosity pointed toward the bottom. Join me again next Friday for another Haul from the Sea.