IMMH: "Treasures of Monte Olivia" on show from June.

The International Maritime Museum Hamburg (IMMH) will open the "sunken treasures of Monte Olivia" to the public from 1 June 2023.

The "Monte Olivia"

The 160-metre-long ship was launched on 28 October 1924 at Blohm&Voss and was put into service in 1925 by the Hamburg-Südamerikanische Dampfschifffahrts-Gesellschaft (HSDG), or Hamburg Süd for short, as a passenger ship for 2,500 passengers on cruises.

Returning home from Santos in Brazil after the outbreak of war, the "Monte Olivia" managed to break through the blockade to Hamburg in October 1939. In the same year, all German ships were captured by the Kriegsmarine and utilised for various purposes as transporters, auxiliary warships, accommodation ships, etc. The "Monte Olivia" was initially used as an accommodation ship for the navy and from 1945 as a hospital ship. She capsized in Kiel's Scheerhafen on 3 April 1945 after being hit by bombs that fell alongside the ship and tore open the ship's side. The crew was in an air raid shelter at the time of the attack. She was raised and scrapped in 1946.

A normal dive ...

On 30 August 2022, divers from the Scientific Diving Association (SDA) set off with the support of One Earth - One Ocean (OEOO) to investigate a report from an angler. The angler reported that he always gets his fishing hooks stuck in the same place in Kiel harbour. This was an indication of a potentially lost net, as SDA and OEOO have been working together for seven years to search for and recover lost fishing nets on a voluntary basis on up to 50 days a year.

... with a surprise

After just under an hour, the divers give the signal to surface. They have their hands full, but they are not nets, but metal objects. "We couldn't find a net, but the whole Baltic seabed is full of scrap metal"!

The head of operations, an experienced research and wreck diver and president of the SDA, notices the stamps on the objects at first glance. They are the HSDG insignia. He already recognised this from the shipwreck of the "Cap Arcona", also from Hamburg Süd. As is well known, this stamp was only found on valuable silver crockery and cutlery.

The divers confirmed once again that it was a large area full of metal parts, including watering cans. These watering cans later turned out to be silver carafes for coffee and tea.

Silver in the harbour basin

But how did the supposed silver end up at the bottom of the Baltic Sea? Research has revealed that this is exactly where the "Monte Olivia" capsized. A large part of the ship's equipment and cargo probably went overboard when the ship was salvaged.

After contacting the State Archaeological Office (ALSH) in Schleswig, the SDA received a permit for further prospection relatively quickly, because anyone who digs or loots without a research permit is committing a criminal offence.

It was just as important to involve the water police and the harbour authority, as looting was to be expected when the find became known.

In mid-October, the team dived specifically at the site of the sinking and recovered around 30 items made of silver. It quickly became clear that hundreds of silver items and other finds were lying on the seabed. Another curious discovery was a motorbike from the Second World War.

Since November 2022, the SDA research divers have carried out further missions almost every week in order to recover as many objects as possible. The operating conditions were not always pleasant, especially in winter, with water temperatures of 4 degrees and snow and freezing rain. Many of the artefacts had been pushed deep into the sediments by the propeller movements of large mooring ships and had to be literally uncovered from the sludge. An early brown algae bloom obstructed visibility in spring, meaning that the artefacts could be felt almost blindly. By 3 May 2023, almost 300 objects - mostly silverware - had been recovered in more than 20 dives.

What to do with the "sunken treasures"?

Even though individual artefacts from Hamburg Süd's past are sometimes highly traded on the Internet, commercial marketing of the objects was not in the interests of the SDA, which works on a voluntary basis - this unique treasure should be accessible to the public! As many important Hamburg Süd artefacts and archives are already in the IMMH, it was clear from the very first meeting between the SDA President and the IMMH Board that the finds would be exhibited in the International Maritime Museum Hamburg once they had been released.