By Emma Young
A Ming Dynasty relic discovered by two men from Shark Bay on Australia’s Mid West coast has made its second major TV appearance in their search for its origins – and the process has thrown up two fresh shipwreck mysteries.
Retired WA Museum fellow and corrosion expert Dr Ian McLeod tested the bronze infant Buddha and said it had lain there at least 100 years before its 2018 discovery by filmmakers Leon Deschamps and Shayne Thomson on a metal-detecting trip. In 2023, Antiques Roadshow’s Asian art expert was awestruck by the icon, identifying it as a rare Ming relic that would have belonged to somebody “of some standing”.
The team, with Deschamps and Thompson (second and third from left) plan their run.
Disney+ series Shipwreck Hunters has now stepped in to search for the tiny but hefty statue’s origin. Propelled by the success of season one, including the discovery of a 111-year-old Finnish shipwreck, in season two premiering Wednesday, the hunters investigate how something potentially made for a Chinese emperor ended up in WA.
“It’s like something out of the movies,” the Hunters say as Deschamps and Thompson show off the Buddha, which they now own under relevant legislation.
In the 15th century, the Chinese Ming treasure fleets were sailing vast distances, and Deschamps and Thompson hope to find out if one such vessel made it this far south.
WA maritime archaeologist Dr Deb Shefi tells host Andre Rerekura it is likely the statue arrived with the Chinese and Malaysian communities who came to the area for the pearling industry 150-200 years ago, and there is no other evidence the Chinese came to Australia during the Ming Dynasty.
“[But] there are still stories out there to be told; there are several pearling camps still unlocated and shipwrecks that still need to be found,” she says.
The Hunters set out with the two locals to investigate tales of locations around Dirk Hartog Island, where seagrass has grown in the shape of a 300-foot ship, and another of a large anchor lodged in the seabed.
In heading 35 kilometres across the bay to the island’s rugged and dangerous coastline, the episode showcases the dolphins, dugongs, sea snakes, humpbacks and whale sharks of the World Heritage Listed area, the team particularly distracted by visits from enormous and playful manta rays.
After years of efforts to trace the Buddha’s history, its finders are emotional and nervous.
“After five years of wanting to get out here, we’re finally here,” Thompson tells the team before the nailbiting first dive, with Deschamps and Thompson left on the boat glued to a communications channel.
The second series of Shipwreck Hunters on Disney+ showcases the discovery of a baby Buddha statue on WA’s Mid West coast, and attempts to unravel the mystery of its arrival.
“We’ve got something,” one cries, seeing the anchor, and they take video, photogrammetry and measurements for WA Museum experts, who confirm it’s a not a Ming Dynasty item but still a remarkable find: a European-style Admiralty anchor “creating a new shipwreck mystery in Shark Bay”.
The next day they target the huge hull shape outlined in seagrass, featuring unnaturally straight lines they hope signal the presence of an ancient ship.
They drop flags and dive while the Shark Bay locals again wait on tenterhooks.
They find no shipwreck, but that night Kieran Wardle, owner of the Dirk Hartog Bay homestead, shows the team his drone photo of a 300-foot ship-shape underwater, with “stern” and “bow” visible.
The team checks it out and finds the shape – formed not by seagrass this time, but coral.
This would be the biggest historic wreck ever found in Australia if it is a ship, and they dive as Deschamps and Thompson wait one last time.
After an extensive physical search they deploy a magnetometer to try to discern what might be too far buried to see or feel.
They also investigate apparent drag marks possibly representing a trail of shipwreck debris where the original wreck, if there was one, may have moved.
They resurface to redeploy the magnetometer, manoeuvre as close as possible to the reef – and this time get a ping of something large made of iron.
One of the team searches the seabed.
Again the team hits the water – and persistence pays off. They find another anchor, much bigger than the first, its stock nearly two metres long.
And while it’s not from 15th-century China, it represents yet another new mystery.
Shafi, at the museum, dates it from the late 19th to early 20th century.
“We were really excited to see this one,” she says.
“This would have been from a sizable ship.
“Some mysteries will never be solved, but it’s fun to keep looking.”
Meanwhile, Deschamps and Thompson are finding the Buddha an appropriate forever home, deciding not to auction the piece but give it to the Australian government to gift to China.
They have written to the office of WA Attorney-General Tony Buti asking him to raise the matter with the federal government.
Leon Deschamps with Antiques Roadshow’s Lee Young.Credit: FINN Films
“Our late mate Nick, the first person to see the Buddha after its discovery, told us this was a sacred object, and so we should look for a custodian who would respect that,” Deschamps and Thompson said.
“It’s been an incredible seven-year journey this object has sent us on, but it’s time for him to go home.
“It is our hope it would end up being gifted to President Xi Jinping who could bestow it upon the monks of the Buddhist Association of China so that it may continue to be worshipped by those that find it sacred.”
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