A sunken 18th-century ship laden with artefacts has been found off Norway's coast during a gas pipeline project, archaeologists said today.
The ship's bell, bearing the date 1745, had been raised as well as an empty French wine bottle, presumably from 1760 to 1780, but five canon, parts of the ship's rigging, almost a thousand other bottles and ceramics were seen on the deck.
"This is a relatively well preserved and big shipwreck from the second half of the 18th century with thousands of artefacts," marine archaeologist Mr Marek Jasinski told reporters. "There's no sunken treasure so far," Jasinski said. Archives are being checked in Norway, Germany, Russia and Britain to try to identify the ship.