The story
About 800 years ago, during the Song dynasty, a wooden merchant ship about 30 meters long set out from China loaded with goods for foreign markets. It sank off the coast of Guangdong, perhaps in a storm.
In 1987, a team searching for another wreck pulled up pottery and found Nanhai One, which means South Sea Number One. Instead of digging underwater, Chinese archaeologists decided to lift the entire ship.
In 2007, they lowered a huge steel box around the ship and its surrounding mud, then lifted all of it, weighing thousands of tonnes, onto a barge. It was moved into a giant pool inside a museum, where archaeologists could dig it out slowly, like on land.
How it went under
The ship sank long ago and was covered by mud, which protected its wood and cargo. It was found in 1987, raised in 2007, and is now being studied and displayed.
What life was like
Song dynasty China was a world trading power. Merchants loaded ships with porcelain, iron pots, silk and coins. Sailors used compasses, one of the great Chinese inventions, to find their way. The ship's cargo included personal items too, like jewelry, a gold belt and cosmetic boxes.
Wow facts
- The whole ship was lifted from the sea in a steel box in 2007.
- Archaeologists found more than 180,000 objects, including about 160,000 pieces of porcelain.
- Thousands of copper coins and iron pots were stacked in the hold.
Photos
阳江海陵岛“南海一号” Zhangzhugang, CC BY-SA 4.0
Relics and treasures
- Nanhai One hullthe wooden ship, in the Maritime Silk Road Museum
- Porcelain cargobowls and plates from Song kilns, in the Maritime Silk Road Museum
- Gold belta long gold waist chain, in the Maritime Silk Road Museum
- Copper coinsthousands of Song coins, in the Maritime Silk Road Museum
How we know
After its 1987 discovery, divers studied the wreck, and the 2007 lift allowed full excavation from 2013 onward. Coins, pottery styles and inscriptions help date it to the 1100s or 1200s.
What you would see today
The ship is displayed in the Maritime Silk Road Museum on Hailing Island, Guangdong. Visitors watch archaeologists at work on the ship in its giant pool and see its treasures in the galleries.
For teachers and classrooms
Suggested level: grades 3-5. Print this page as a lesson sheet with the story, vocabulary, discussion questions and a quiz with an answer key.
Key words
- merchant ship
- a ship that carries goods to trade
- Song dynasty
- a period of Chinese rule from 960 to 1279 CE
- excavation
- careful digging to find and study things from the past
Talk about it
- Why might archaeologists choose to lift a whole ship instead of digging underwater?
- What do the goods on this ship tell us about what people wanted to buy long ago?
Try this activity
- Draw a map of Nanhai One as it looked at its busiest, and label three things people did there.
- Find Nanhai One on the Ruinscape timeline, then pick another place from the same century and compare them.
- Use one link in Sources below to find a real object from this place. Describe what it is made of and what it tells us.
Quick quiz
How was Nanhai One raised?
- In a giant steel box
- Piece by piece by hand
- With balloons only
- It floated up on its own
Show the answer
A. A huge steel box lifted the ship and its mud together.
Which Chinese dynasty is the ship from?
- Song
- Qin
- Ming
- Han
Show the answer
A. It is a Song dynasty merchant ship.
What was most of the cargo?
- Porcelain
- Cars
- Paper
- Glass marbles
Show the answer
A. About 160,000 pieces of porcelain were found.
Sources and further reading
Ruinscape lessons are written for students and checked against encyclopedia and museum records. Go to the sources: these links search real museum collections, the UNESCO list and research by archaeologists.
- Wikipedia articleEncyclopedia overview with its own references
- UNESCO World HeritageOfficial listing, if the site is protected
- Google Arts & CultureMuseum exhibits, virtual tours and close-up photos
- British Museum collectionReal objects, photos and catalog notes
- The Met collectionObjects and essays from the Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Smithsonian collectionsU.S. national museum records
- 3D models on SketchfabScans of sites and artifacts (check each license)
- Scholarly articlesResearch papers by archaeologists and historians
Read the full background
The Nanhai One (simplified Chinese: 南海一号; traditional Chinese: 南海一號; pinyin: Nánhǎi Yī Hào – South China Sea No. 1) is a Chinese merchant ship, which sank into the South China Sea during the Southern Song dynasty between 1127 and 1279.
Background text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Last updated: October 2026. How we make Ruinscape.