The site is believed to be a merchant ship from the late 1700's or early 1800's carrying trade goods. The shipwreck and her cargo were discovered more than a quarter mile below the Atlantic. The site is covered with blue and white porcelain, pottery and glass bottles.

DETAILS:
The 'Blue China' Wreck:
Lost Coastal Merchant or Trans-Oceanic Trader?

Stacks of porcelain "chargers," or rectangular serving platters, stand as if on display in a retail shop, a pair of examples leaned precariously against the nested pile presenting an oriental pattern of blue mountains and a village by the sea. Nearby are similar stacks of wide bowls within a scattering of perfectly preserved "ginger jars," while all around are yet other samples of porcelain, pottery, and hundreds of dark green glass bottles. Thousands of pieces are on display. There is no way to estimate how many more may lie below the sediment.

They lie mute in the Gulf Stream's periphery where a sailing ship was lost in an area known to be unusually dangerous to the few hardy fishermen that work these waters. Men that have spent much of their lives trawling this portion of the Atlantic report an unusual phenomenon that produces a vortex more than 40 miles off the northern coast of Florida, over waters nearly a quarter of a mile deep.

During the search for the SS Republic, Odyssey discovered a number of shipwrecks in one small area, ranging from the nearly empty copper-sheathed hull of an ancient shipwreck to a modern sailboat. Even the mangled remains of a modern fighter jet was located and dutifully reported to the Navy. They were all located unusually close together, but represented many different eras. Surprised by this phenomenon, advice was sought from fishermen - the ultimate experts in the ocean's mysteries. Odyssey learned that in this particular area, where the gulf stream follows the continental contour with a jog to the east, the water is known to be rougher, waves more intense and confused, and there appears to be a cyclical current that "traps" incapacitated ships, swirling them around until they slip below the waves. The unusual coincidence of shipwrecks within several square miles was no surprise to those that spend their life fishing the area.

Of all these sites, one in particular stood out because of the beautiful pottery and interesting artifacts lying partially embedded in the sediment. Drag marks through the site itself indicate that it has already been disturbed and partially destroyed by fishermen's trawls - unintended damage that underscores the need to excavate sites like this to protect them.

Odyssey has filed an "arrest" on this site in federal court to protect it from unscrupulous treasure hunters that would destroy the site further to simply get at the porcelain or whatever valuables might lie beneath the sediment.

Despite the specific information gleaned from some pieces of this cargo and any archaeological evidence produced through further study of the site, the ship's identity may never be known for certain. Odyssey has for now named it the "Blue China Wreck" after its principal cargo. Little of the ship shows above the seabed except some planks and ribs, a few items that may have been ship's tackle, and two anchors. Thousands of pieces of what had been a cargo of stoneware, porcelain, pottery and bottles are visible on the site. There is likely more of the ship's hull beneath the visible layer. Only an archaeological excavation of the site will uncover its mysteries.

Experts from museums and auction houses in the U.S. and Europe have offered preliminary opinions about the cargo and the ship. Some of the "ginger jars," so named because they were used to export ginger from China, bear a decorative pattern reportedly used during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, exported exclusively through the port of Canton. This period lasted from about 1736 to 1795. But "ginger jars" were a very popular export to America from China (and from new European porcelain factories from around 1800 on) throughout the 19th century. The jars help define the earliest date the ship might have been wrecked, but are not conclusive.

One Asian export art expert guessed that a blue-and-buff pitcher lifted from the wreck site is English, dating from perhaps 1800-1810. More than one of those pitchers have been identified among the thousands of items on the wreck site, so the items were probably part of the commercial cargo. If the educated guess is correct, then the "Blue China" wreck could date from Thomas Jefferson's Presidential administration.

Some of the shallow bowls and platters may be English-made, rather than Chinese. Closer study of their patterns and the type of porcelain of which they are manufactured will set that mystery to rest.

A brown stoneware jug is thought to be English pottery, possibly used for storing water aboard ship rather than as a piece of cargo, but it is also typical of some American-made pottery used for wine, rum and distilled spirits. The rough quality of the pottery and its glazed finish indicate either this was an item of everyday use on ship, or else it was in a cargo that was intended for an unsophisticated market. Interestingly, the presence of what seems to be fine Chinese export porcelain along with cheaper goods may be the clues that the ultimately solve the mystery of the ship's identity.

From almost the end of the American Revolutionary War in 1783, European imports of fine Chinese porcelain dropped rapidly. By then Europe had developed distinctive porcelain factories of its own in England, France, Germany and elsewhere. By the early 1800's, cheaper imitations of Chinese (and later, Japanese) porcelain were common in Europe and exported to America. The European products, and particularly British "bone china," came to be called "blue flow ware" because the blue pigments used for the decoration melted into a fuzzy-edged shape during firing. (Chinese porcelain also had the "flowed" appearance but it is obviously different from the European products due to different materials in the porcelain and in the pigments used.) "Blue flow ware" was shipped to the United States to serve customers who wanted porcelain but couldn't always afford the price of goods carried around the world from China.

Americans had a taste for fine china developed during the Colonial era. George Washington had a full service of Chinese porcelain. But his dishes, like those of anyone buying imported Chinese goods during the Colonial period, came to the New World in British ships. Only war and independence freed American merchants to enter the China trade.

The United States in 1784 sent its first China trading ship to Canton, and for more than 127 years the United States became a major importer of Chinese porcelain. There were a few interruptions in this trade, most notably between 1839 and 1860 when the "opium wars" hindered trade. The famous "Empress of China" made the first trip that connected New England merchants to the China trade, from which many great fortunes were made. Later famed "clipper ships" from Baltimore or Donald McKay's Boston yards sprinted across the world's oceans to increase the volume of U.S. - China trade and greatly lower the cost of imported teas, spices, silks, and porcelain.

The "Blue China" wreck might have been such a vessel, but the mixed quality and type of her cargo suggests otherwise. The size of the visible shipwreck and components of cargo suggest the remains of a modest coastal trader carrying goods on routes established from the ports of Newfoundland or New England to the Caribbean or Central America. A mixture of fine Chinese porcelain, British pottery and china, and perhaps rougher American goods would have been typical of a shipper filling orders.

For answers to some questions, the pieces must return from the ocean floor, where they have rested for generations. The archaeologist's search for the answers is as satisfying as holding one of these pieces of history for the first time since this ship sank finally to become known as the "Blue China" wreck.