The wreckage was sunk in the tumult of a naval battle.
A great mystery since its discovery, scientists have finally been able to trace the history of a ship that has been stranded for 350 years off Sussex, in the south of England, the government agency for heritage protection Historic England announced on Friday.
Dubbed
the 'Unknown Eastbourne Wreck'
since its discovery in 2019, the ship stranded off this southeast England town has been identified as the
Klein Hollandia
, a Dutch warship sunk in 1672 during a surprise attack by the English fleet.
A name which could be found thanks to an immersion in the archives, as well as by a dendrochronological analysis of some wooden remains collected on the site of the wreck.
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The wreck, stranded 32 meters under the sea, could be identified by a research team from Historic England and their Dutch colleagues, in cooperation with specialists in underwater archaeology.
"The condition of the wreck is remarkable and could give us rich insights into how 17th century Dutch ships were built and the activities on board
," Historic England said in a statement.
A decorated jug, discovered at the site of the shipwreck.
james clark
According to the agency, scientists found
"a large part of the wooden hull, cannons, Italian marble tiles and pieces of Italian pottery"
underwater .
Scientists analyzed them to identify the ship.
Marble Cargo
The
Klein Hollandia,
which took part in all the major battles of the Second Anglo-Dutch War of 1665-1677, sank with a cargo of marble tiles extracted from the Apuan Alps and intended for the construction of houses.
The ship was en route from the Mediterranean to the Netherlands when its convoy, commanded by Admiral De Haese, was attacked and badly damaged by an English squadron, under the command of Admiral Robert.
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After her commanding officer, Jan Van Nes, was killed in action, the English boarded the
Klein Hollandia
, but it sank with English and Dutch sailors on board, according to Historic England.
The surprise attack is believed to have helped start the Third Anglo-Dutch War, part of a series of mainly naval conflicts between 1652 and 1784 over trade and settlements.