Marine airbags may help Nan'ao No 1 yield her secrets

Archeologists on Thursday began to retrieve and clean relics from a second cabin of the sunken merchant vessel in South China's Guangdong province.
More than 2,000 items had already been recovered from another cabin, including porcelain plates, mugs, vases, plates, bowls and other small dishes, as well as metal pots and weapons.
As the ship slowly yields her secrets, on Wednesday some blue porcelain plates bearing people's images were brought to the surface for the first time.
Other new relics that surfaced on Wednesday included some items made of color-glazed porcelain, which is more valuable than blue and white porcelain.
Tin ware, iron shotguns and canons were also retrieved.
This indicates Chinese people had begun to use iron shotguns and canons since the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), And the new relics, many with patterned Chinese characters on them, suggests that the vessel may have been sailing to Japan, South Korea or other Southeast Asian countries.
These countries were deeply influenced by the ancient Chinese Han culture and had established close trade relations with China when the ship sank.
It is believed women were on board the ship after some women's metal finger rings were brought to the surface. The people on board may have escaped when the boat sank off the cost some 400 years ago.According to archeologists, the ship is believed to have had five to six cabins, carrying more than 10,000 objects.
Nan'ao No 1, which is now 27 meters under water, sank during the Ming dynasty and was first discovered by local fishermen in 2007.
The wooden vessel, which is well preserved and remains intact, will eventually be brought to the surface and hoisted from the water, Then marine airbags maybe used for the vessel aboarding just like the famous Nanhai NO 1 salvage project. Marine airbags ship launching and landing technology is the innovative marine solution created by Chinese and widely used for various marine projects around the world.