Wreck of the Gottfried: mummies, a sarcophagus, canopic jars and more

A cargo list for the doomed Gottfried suggests that there were 97 crates of Egyptian treasures onboard. As already reported, six or seven mummies in their coffins were washed ashore following the sinking of the vessel on 12th March 1822 in the River Elbe, between Cuxhaven and Neuhaus.

It appears that these coffins were then initially buried because it was feared by locals they might carry plague. Later they were dug up and sold at auction in Hamburg on 4th September 1822.

Where these mummies and coffins - complete with hieroglyphs - went remains a mystery. It has been suggested that these mummies date to 1,900 BC and that they had been stacked on the deck of the ship.

It also appears that an Arab tent and manuscripts in Arabic were also washed ashore. These too have vanished.

Meanwhile, a cargo list for the Gottfried - under the command of Captain Heinrich Jakob Reisbeck - suggests that other artifcats on the ship included a granite sarcophagus (possible from the Saqqara necropolis and perhaps around 4,300 years old), hundreds of pillars, as many vases of alabaster, columns, altars, tablets, statues and stone canopic jars.

June 2010 saw the last official search for the wrecksite. It was authorised by the Archäologische Landesamt Schleswig-Holstein (Archaeological State Office of Schleswig-Holstein) and carried out by the Institut für Küstenforschung ( Institute for Coastal Research), located in Geesthacht. Seabed surveys were carried out by Rostock-based Innomar Technologie GmbH, specialists in underwater acoustic systems. What these surveys revealed remains unknown. I have contacted the company to see if they will release any information.

The search was filmed by Caligari Film GmbH for use in a documentary of the Gottfried for broadcast at some future date by ZDF, the German public-service television network.

Wreck of the Gottfried: Mummies were washed ashore

More information has come to light about the sinking of the Gottfried in 1822 which was carrying Egyptian treasures destined for the private collection of King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia.

The ship sank in a storm on the night of 12th March 1822 in the mouth of River Elbe, where it meets the North Sea, somewhere between the towns of Cuxhaven and Neuhaus. It is thought 97 crates of antiquities were on-board.

Four days after the sinking six and a half mummies in their hieroglyph-adorned coffins were washed ashore. These were later sold at auction in Hamburg on 4th September 1822. Where these mummies and coffins are now remains a mystery, but is know that hair from one of the mummies - a female - was found in the Hamburg Museum of Arts and Crafts in December 2003.

Many thanks to Russell Gilbert in The Netherlands for his investigative work on tracking down these new references to the Gottfried. It appears there is a lot more information buried in historical and newspaper archives about this story.

See the previous post The wreck of the Gottfried and sunken Egyptian treasure

The wreck of the Gottfried and sunken Egyptian treasure

This painting shows the dramatic sinking of the Gottfried in a severe storm in 1822. Onboard was a fabulous hoard of Ancient Egyptian antiquities. 

Now, this treasure trove, thought to consist of 4,000-year-old stone sarcophagi, mummies, steles and reliefs, now lies on the seabed in the murky waters of the River Elbe in Germany.

This hugely valuable cargo was being sent from Egypt to King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia (1770 – 1840) for his private collection. It was this collection which later formed the basis Egyptian Museum of Berlin.

The two-masted Gottfried sank in a severe north-westerly storm on the night of 12th March 1822 in the mouth of River Elbe, where it meets the North Sea, somewhere near the town of Cuxhaven. Attempts to located the wreck have so far been unsuccessful, the last being in in 1998.

The treasures had been collected by the Prussian soldier, explorer and archaeologist Heinrich Menu von Minutoli (1772-1846)*. The expedition, paid for by the Egyptian government, lasted from 1820 until August 1821. Minutoli's collection of antiquities had been purchased by the Prussian king for 22,000 talers**.

It is thought that the largest part of the collection (97 crates) was loaded onto the Gottfried at the northern Italian port of Trieste and was to be unloaded in Hamburg. A smaller part (20 boxes) was sent to Prussia by land.

* Minutoli, by the way, was married to Wolfradine von Schulenburg, who was also an Egyptologist.

** A taler (or thaler or talir) was a silver coin used throughout Europe for almost four hundred years. 

If you have any other information about this wreck I would be fascinated to here it. 

Heinrich Menu von Minutoli