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United Kingdom: Excavation of the Rooswijk continues
The Maritime Programme of the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands has continued its excavation of the Dutch East Indiaman (VOC) ship the Rooswijk, which sank off the southeast coast of England in 1740.
During the summer, the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands and its British colleagues from Historic England and MSDS Marine finished the work on site with great satisfaction. Project leader Martijn Manders said: “We have had a fantastic team. Almost 100 dives have been made in teams of two. The dives were short due to a combination of depth and short tides, which were completely different from last year. But these are the Goodwin Sands.” In this treacherous area, thousands of ships hit the sandbanks and, like the Rooswijk, vanished in the sea.
Historical research is being done in parallel. The combination of the disciplines of history and maritime archaeology has brought a wealth of information and is still continuing to give more. Conservation of the artefacts, historical research and writing up the project will take up another few years. In the end all this will be accessible for a wide audience. You can see what the team discovered and follow the #Rooswijk1740 project online.
