Work to salvage ship abandoned

BANJARMASIN, South Kalimantan: Efforts to salvage a shipwreck from the bottom of the River Martapura have been abandoned because the wreck is too rusty, Antara reported.

Ahmad Husaini Baderi, the head of the museum and artifacts section at the South Kalimantan Education and Culture Office, said the shipwreck, believed to be more than 100 years old, had been covered by soil in the river bed for too long.

The administration had originally planned to raise the shipwreck intact and move it to the Lambung Mangkurat Banjarbaru museum 33 km from here.

Antara did not give the name of the Dutch ship which it described as 15 meters long and with a deadweight of about 50 tons. (emb)