Bozburun
Built - 874 AD
Sunk - c 880 AD
Depth - 30 - 35 m (99 - 115 ft)
Found by - Mehmet Askin
Excavation - 1995 - 1995
Number of dives - 8,500
Cost (fieldwork) - $400,000
Cargo - c 1200 - 1500 amphoras
Hull - c 15 m (49 ft) long, c 5 m (16 ft) wide
"The early summer wind had blown steadily out of the northwest, as it often did in the Aegean, but now, just as they were approaching the entrance to the harbor, the wind veered abruptly to the northeast. They would not make the harbor. The captain turned west to run before the sqall for the shelter of Crescent Island, but he did not count on the sudden shift in wind jibing the sail and cracking the yard. Unable to sail and being blown onto a rocky lee shore, he had no option but to anchor and wait out the wind or make repairs. First one anchor was dropped, and then another, but the channel was deep with a sloping bottom, and the anchors would not bite..."
"How can we know the details of a wreck that happened more than 1,000 years ago? The sailors are long gone, only the bottom of the ship survives, and the cargo, amphoras that once contained wine, seems uniform and unremarkable. Partly it is from our own experience of four summers on the same rocky spur, excavating the shipwreck. We are sailors too..." - Fred Hocker
Source
Hocker, Fred. "Sampling a Byzantine Vintage: Boxburun, Turkey," in "Beneath the Seven Seas," edited by George F. Bass, pp. 100-105. New York and London, 2005.
