This picture shows one of the oldest remains of a wooden ship found in the Netherlands. This gallion of around 11 meter was embedded in the sand during approximately 450 years on the bottom of a lake. It was found in 1961, when the lake was pumped dry, surrounded by dikes, and cultivated for agricultural purposes. The remains of the ship were carefully collected and have been reconstructed to the original during 2 years. On the photo one can notice the holes for rowing peddles and the wooden ribs which were used to construct a cabin in the gallion. The ship probably was sailed by a group of immigrants who were bounding for new territories and decided to go ashore 30 km. from Amsterdam. When the group left the ship, they sunk it down in the lake so that there would be no sign of presence of the immigrants. This happened around 1558, 10 years before the Spanish war, which would last for 80 years. As can be seen on the other pictures, the boat has Roman signs, so probably the immigrants were Spanish , Italian or French.

W.M. Young - The Netherlands