Copper trade and canon fire – The Wittenbergen Wreck

In 1981, parts of a ship and its cargo were dredged from the Elbe near Wittenbergen. The surviving parts of the wreck point to a seafaring ship with a strong ribbed frame and carvel planking. Its keel length was app. 30 metres with a tonnage of no less than 200 tons. It was made of oak from Lower Saxony, felled around 1571. Subsequent repairs date from between 1595 and 1600.
The cargo consisted of copper bars, brass dishes, knives, textiles and muskets. Further finds were personal belongings of the merchants who were on board, and the ship’s crew.

The cargo of copper
The load of copper occupied most of the hold. A total of around eight tons of copper were salvaged from the wreck. The copper bars break down into the following types:
· unprocessed slabs of refined copper from the so-called Saiger process that involved removing the silver from argentiferous raw copper by adding lead
· rectangular beaten copper slabs stamped with the coat of arms of the chamber of commerce of Neusohl (now the Slovakian town of Banska Bystrica) and the marque of the Augsburg-based Paller banking house which controlled sales of Neusohl copper from 1569
· round beaten copper slabs
· brick-shaped copper bars with various stamped marks and symbols.

Knives and dishes
These knives designed for everyday use, all the same shape with wooden handles, were probably made in southern Germany and bear various stamped hallmarks. They were probably sorted accordingly and packed in barrels.
The brass dishes, probably also manufactured in southern Germany (Nuremberg?), were stackable. Some were still piled up inside each other when the dredger grabbed them and crushed them together.

Cloth
All that remained of the precious textiles were the seals from the individual bolts of cloth. These show, however, that wares from Amsterdam and Leyden were on board.

Trade with Africa and India
The remains of the ship and its cargo dredged from the Elbe near Wittenbergen in 1981 give a unique insight into Hamburg’s trade relations around 1600. Links with Portugal supported a lucrative trade in raw copper and brass products with Africa and India. Besides pearls and precious stones, this trade brought mainly spices to the European market, especially pepper for which there was great demand.