US$50m plan is in place to salvage Asian wrecks

SINGAPORE - In Tilman Walterfang's eyes, the seabed around Indonesia is a bonanza.

After discovering three treasure-laden shipwrecks in Indonesian waters between 1997 and 1998, including the famous Tang treasure that was sold to Singapore in 2004 for US$32 million ($51.4 million), the German treasure hunter is returning to the region for more.

He believes more wrecks are resting on seabeds across Southeast Asia, especially in the Strait of Malacca, one of the world's busiest shipping lanes and dubbed by some as a graveyard of ships for its treacherous reefs.

"Nobody knows exactly how many shipwrecks are there but we will find out," the 49-year-old former engineer said.

He is working with investors on a US$50 million plan to salvage wrecks in Indonesian and Vietnamese waters under national licences akin to production-sharing contacts for oil.

In 1998, Walterfang found the wreck of an Arab ship with more than 60,000 ceramic pieces, and gold and silver artefacts from China's Tang dynasty.

Walterfang, who is married with five children in New Zealand, said he shrugged off advice that the Tang artefacts be auctioned immediately.

"I decided to go to New Zealand, far away from the media, far away from the world and tourists, to conserve it first."

Meanwhile, the Bakau wreck (a 15th-century ship that he found in 1998), is still under conservation in New Zealand. It is destined for a Bali museum.

- REUTERS