VietNamNet Bridge – The Ca Mau wreck is an old ship which was discovered in 1998 in Vietnam’s Ca Mau province. This ship was sunken while transporting Chinese ceramic products from Guangzhou to Europe.

Ca Mau--the southernmost province of Vietnam, is located 350 km south of HCM City.
The shipwreck in the waters of Ca Mau was first discovered by fishermen in 1998.
The excavation of the Ca Mau shipwreck has yielded a total of over 130,000 fairly good condition artifacts.
This kind of plate is called “Scheveningen landscape” in the 18th century.






It is believed that the shipwreck was that of a ship involved in trading Chinese ceramics. 
The ship carried some thin porcelain blue and white tea bowls with inscriptions
"Made in Yongzheng reign" and some blue and white bowls with "Made in Great Qing Yongzheng reign."
This kind of plate looks similarly to a sample of plate in Delf town, in the Netherlands in the 18th century.






Coins with inscriptions of Kangxi Thong Bao were also recovered.  As the pieces
still possess characteristics of Kangxi Period, it is generally held that the ceramics from
 the cargo were from late Kangxi to Early Yongzheng period. The bulk of cargo consisted of
mainly blue and white, some number of under glaze blue and copper red and some
Jingdezhen and Shiwan lead-glazed sancai type wares. Part of cargo was auctioned
 in Netherlands by Sotheby's in January 2007.
(Japanese porcelains produced at the order of the Dutch)






A stone-made seal in the Ca Mau shipwreck. It was decoded by Paul A.Van Dyke from the
Macau University. According to this researcher, around 30 Chinese ships landed Southeast
Asian ports, including several coming to Batavia (Jakarta today). The stone-made seal in
 the Ca Mau shipwreck is called Pan Tingcai. It might belong to a trader or
 an assistant to the captain of the Ca Mau ship.






The ship was built in around 1725. Prof. Christiaan J.A. Jorg, in an article entitled
“The Ca Mau porcelain cargo,” wrote that porcelain items in the ship were in kangxi and Yongzheng styles.
Chinese porcelain vases.





Chinese porcelains on the Ca Mau ship.






British (left) and Japanese porcelain vases.
Archaeologists say that a lot of porcelain items on the Ca Mau ship are in European style,
but it does not mean that this batch of porcelains were for Western customers.
These items are now on display at the History Museum of Vietnam and were introduced at
a three-day seminar on archaeology in Hanoi. In the next two years, many
Vietnamese treasures will be exhibited in Germany.



PV