Ancient wrecks inspire hunt for sunken treasure

Ancient wrecks inspire hunt for sunken treasure

By Valerie Lee

KAMPONG BALIK BATU, Malaysia (Reuter): A stockbroker turned
treasure hunter is convinced the Straits of Malacca off Malaysia
is a murky graveyard for dozens of treasure-laden shipwrecks.

"There are a number of wrecks in this area," said Dorian Ball
in this village 50 kilometers (31 miles) from the west Malaysian
town of Malacca.

"I think for every mile of coastline in Malaysia there's a
wreck," said Ball, a Briton who heads Malaysia Historical Salvors
Sdn Bhd, specializing in salvaging sunken treasure.

He isn't alone in his belief.

Malaysian authorities recently detained an unregistered
trawler for illegally salvaging porcelain ware from an 18th-
century Dutch galleon, which sank off the west coast town of Port
Dickson.

Marine police seized cases of china and porcelain aboard the
trawler and arrested 12 men caught diving at the site.

Local press reports said the trawler was financed by wealthy
businessmen from Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia.

Ball's company, the first officially hired by Malaysia's
government to salvage a shipwreck, has also uncovered antique
porcelain and china, but in far larger amounts.

It has retrieved four tons of Ching dynasty porcelain over the
past four weeks, local media reports said.

Ball said documents unearthed by the salvage firm from library
work showed the merchant vessel, Diana, foundered on the rocks
off the Malaccan coastline in 1817.

"Apparently the ship's captain was sick and went ashore,
presumably to see a doctor," Ball said. "She sailed off in the
evening and the history books show that she hit a rock out there
in the dark because the first mate was steering the vessel."

Ball, who has been told by Malaysian authorities not to
release operational details about the salvage work, said the
three-masted vessel was headed for Calcutta loaded with cotton,
silk, tea and porcelain from Macau.

"Most of the cargo has rotted away and only the porcelain is
left," Ball said at the recovery site in Tanjong Bidara.

"There's very little left of the ship itself. It isn't like in
the movies where you see the shipwreck intact. This is about the
biggest piece of the ship there is," he said, picking up a block
of dark, rotted wood about two feet (60 cm) in length.

Members of his team of 12 foreign divers take turns being
lowered in a metal cage 30 metres (100 ft) to Diana's wreck.

The team dives for nine hours a day, battling a strong
undertow and visibility limited to an arm's length.

The operation has to be completed by the end of May when 64
oil tankers will call at a nearby jetty belonging to national oil
company Petronas.

There are fears the tankers could drop their 30-ton anchors on
the divers or the treasure they are trying to salvage.

Ball would not put a value on the porcelain already recovered
by his crew. But Malacca chief minister Abdul Rahim Tamby Chik
said the Diana wreck was the biggest find in the region since the
1985 discovery of the Dutch ship Geldermalsen, which yielded the
famous Nanking Cargo.

The Nanking find yielded an estimated $15 million from an
auction by Christie's in Amsterdam.

Abdul Rahim said the items on the Diana were of high quality
and also likely to fetch good prices at an auction.

"The fact that the treasures are being salvaged legally,
attracting worldwide attention, would create better demand for
the items," Abdul Rahim told the New Straits Times newspaper.

He said there were at least a dozen ships buried in the waters
off Malacca.

Malaysian federal authorities have not said what will happen
to the recovered treasure but the government will reportedly get
30 percent of the proceeds of any auction.

Abdul Aziz Mohamad, who heads a national committee dealing
with the salvage of old wrecks, said Malaysia is new to salvage
operations and is "looking at (guidelines) covering the whole
gamut of operations".

"We are making a study of the guidelines produced by other
countries as we do not have such detailed aspects here."

Abdul Aziz said the government has issued licenses to four
companies to salvage wrecks in the country's waters.

Portuguese naus, English schooners, Khmer trading ships,
Japanese warships and even submarines -- are reported to lie on
the bottom of the Malacca Straits -- the key shipping lane
linking the Indian Ocean and the South China.

Malaysia, together with Indonesia, has set up a committee to
salvage antiques from the Flor de la Mar, the flagship of
Portugal's famed Alfonso D'Albuquerque which sank in the Malacca
Straits off Sumatra in 1512.

The Flor de la Mar is reputed to have carried billions worth
in gold, jewels and artifacts, some plundered from the Malacca
Sultanate.