Sunken 18th-century ship discovered by chance off famed Game of Thrones filming spot

An 18th-century boat has been discovered by chance near the majestic stone walls of Croatia’s medieval city of Dubrovnik.

The remarkable discovery was made in April by Ivan Bukelic, who was working on a water pipeline in Dubrovnik’s old port when he stumbled upon a wooden structure buried in the seabed.

“I can now say I discovered a boat at the Old Town Dubrovnik,” Bukelic, who is a diver and undersea builder from Dubrovnik, said.

He said the vessel was some 60 to 80 centimetres (23-31 inches) under the sea bottom.

A key trade port in the Adriatic Sea in medieval times, Dubrovnik has been declared a UNESCO-protected heritage site. It attracts huge crowds of tourists, especially during the summer, and is also known as a filming site for HBO’s Game of Thrones series.

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The remains of the boat in Dubrovnik’s old port have been protected for further examination.

“We still cannot speak of the type of vessel or its dimensions, but we can say for certain, based on the results of radiocarbon analysis, that it was from the late 18th century,” marine archaeologist Irena Radić Rossi said.

Radić Rossi said the aim is to continue with the research in cooperation with Croatia’s Ministry of Culture.

“We must protect it for the future,” she said.

Dubrovnik is a prime example of the effects of mass tourism, a global phenomenon in which the increase in people travelling means standout sites, particularly small ones, get overwhelmed by crowds.

In 2017, local authorities announced a “Respect the City” plan that limits the number of tourists from cruise ships to a maximum of 4,000 at any one time during the day. On a typical day in 2018, about eight cruise ships anchored at the town of 2,500 people, each dumping some 2,000 tourists into the streets.