Why Southeast Asia

WHY SO MUCH SUNKEN TREASURE IN SOUTHEAST ASIA?

The maritime history of Southeast Asia goes back hundreds of years before the first Europeans ever even
dreamed of venturing there. Southeast Asia has a long history as a meeting place of oceans and waterways,
where the maritime trade has always been both prominent and prosperous.

Oriental ceramics, among other goods, were being exported by the Chinese in the first or second centuries
AD. By the beginning of the Tang dynasty in the seventh century, ceramics were a major part of trade. Via the
famous Silk Road, wares of northern China were shipped as far as Persia. Southern wares were going by
sea to Asian countries and then to the Middle East and North Africa by the end of the Tang period (AD 618 -
907). As early as the ninth century Chinese porcelain reached Southeast Asia.

During the early 1500's Malacca was considered to be the richest city in the whole of the Asia region. It was
the main center of trade in Southeast Asia at the time. Not only was it's harbor filled with ships from all over
the north and southeast Asia region, but also vessels from the west as far away as Arabia, India, and Africa.
They came to trade and barter goods of every imaginable kind. Elephants, ivory, north and Southeast Asian
ceramics, gold, precious stones, perfumes, spices, just about every type of luxury and exotic merchandise
was traded there.

The rich Asian trade also attracted many nationalities including, Portuguese, Dutch, Spanish, English,
Americans, etc. who's ships carried and traded in everything from porcelain, gold, silk, silver, etc. While many
ships arrived and returned safely back to their home ports - many thousands also weren't so lucky and ended
up sinking into watery graves and taking all their precious cargoes with them.

It is estimated that laying on the ocean floor around the world that there is more treasure and valuable items
then the combined total value of all the currency in the entire world today. With the price of gold and silver
skyrocketing these days, now is an excellent time and opportunity to seriously pursue some of the wealthy
shipwrecks cargos laying on the ocean floors.

For hundreds of years, transport
by sea was the only means of
getting people and goods from
one place to another. Literally,
thousands of ships of all origins
have passed through Southeast
Asian waters throughout the
years transporting cargos "of
every imaginable kind" to and
from.

Of these many thousands of
passing ships, it is a well known
fact that many hundreds of them
have foundered at sea due to
severe storms and, or, wrecked
on one of the many hidden or
unchartered reefs in the south
China seas.

In the earlier days, when a ship
discovered or wrecked on a
reef or shoal, the survivors, if
there were any, upon returning
to port would immediately report
its position to the map makers
(the equivalent of today's
hydrographic society), so that
it's position would be placed on
the latest nautical charts. This
would, hopefully, prevent other
ships from wrecking at the
same place.

Those were the days of the
pioneers, the days of trial and
error. At the time, there was no
other way.