The Hội An Wreck

South China Sea, Vietnam   July-August 1996

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The Hội An wreck lies 22 miles off the coast of central Vietnam in the South China Sea, at 16.04°N 108.6°E, at a depth of approximately 230ft, and was discovered by Vietnamese fishermen in the early 1990s. 

In 1996, Malaysian-Chinese businessman Ong Soo Hin teamed up with Oxford University archaeologist 

Mensun Bound to work with Vietnam's National History Museum in excavating the site. The project took four years and cost an estimated $14 million. Over 250,000 intact examples of Vietnamese ceramic were recovered. These photographs are a selection from the several thousand taken during the preliminary excavation.