HAIFA, ISRAEL—A wreck discovered in 1976 may be the Baron de Rothschild’s long-lost ship, according to new research conducted by Deborah Cvikel and Micky Holtzman of the University of Haifa. The Baron had three ships that carried raw materials from France to his glass factory on the Mediterranean coast in the late nineteenth century in order to produce bottles for a winery at Zichron Yaacov. “We know that two of the Baron’s three ships were sold, but we have no information concerning the third ship. The ship we have found is structurally consistent with the specifications of the Baron’s ships, carried a similar cargo, and sailed and sank during the right period,” Cvikel and Holtzman said in a press release. Earlier excavations of the wreck found pots and tiles stamped with factory marks that helped the researchers participating in the current project to date the ship. One of the pots also contained traces of a chemical used in the production of glass. “This ship could certainly be one of dozens of similar ships that plied the coasts of Palestine during this period. However, there seem to be more than a few items that connect it with Zichron Yaacov, with the glass factory at Tantura, and with the Baron’s Ships. Perhaps we can now conclude that the third ship was not sold and condemned to obscurity like its sisters, but sank with its cargo still onboard,” they said. For more on underwater archaeology, go to "History's 10 Greatest Wrecks."
