Has the "Baron Rothschild's ship" whose traces were lost over 100 years ago been found?

*Dr. Deborah Zwickel and Mickey Holtzman from the Department of Maritime Civilizations at the University of Haifa propose to identify the ship that was discovered already in 1999 off the coast of Tantura as the lost baron's ship. The ship we found matches the specifications of the baron's ships in terms of structure, it carried a similar cargo and it sailed and sank at the right time," they said*

Was the "Baron Rothschild ship", which was one of three ships that transported raw materials from France to the glass house founded by the Baron in Tantura, and whose traces were lost at the end of the 19th century, found after over 100 years? In a new study, the researchers of the Department of Maritime Civilizations from the School of Marine Sciences of the University of Haifa seek to identify the ship that was discovered already in 1999 on the coast of Dor as the lost "Baron's Ship". "Of the three baron ships, there is evidence that two have been sold, while there is no information about the third. The ship we found matches the specifications of the Baron ships in terms of structure, it carried a similar cargo and it sailed and sank at the right time," said Dr. Deborah Zwickel and Mickey Holtzman, who are investigating the ship.

In 1893, Baron Rothschild established a glass factory in Tantura Beach, in order to produce in Israel the wine bottles for the wine cellar in the nearby Yaakov Memorial, when the person who actually founded and even managed the factory was Meir Dizengoff, the first mayor of Tel Aviv. Baron Rothschild even purchased three small ships to transport raw materials from the factories in France to the factory and manned them with a Jewish crew. The record books of that time recorded the purchase of these ships and their model. It was also noted that the ships were damaged several times, but in the end - two of them were sold, while the fate of the third was lost.

Now, Dr. Zwickel and Holzman suggest that the two-masted ship that was excavated for the first time already in 1999 off the coast of Tantura is the lost Baron's ship. As mentioned, the ship was excavated in the years 1999-2000 with excavations that focused mainly on the structure and once again in 2008, with excavations that focused mainly on the contents, which included pots, pottery, ceramic tiles, roof tiles, barrels, boxes and a number of cloth sacks. The current study is based on processing the findings of the 2008 excavation.

Following the first excavations, the researchers concluded that it was a Schooner type ship and extended it with a very rough dating to the years 1660-1960. The current processing of the finds has greatly shortened the number of years, with fabric fibers and strips from the ropes found placing the ship in the 19th century. However, what further focused the dating, and above all, the dating of the ship's last voyage, were the finds found on top of the jugs, ceramic tiles and roof tiles. In a careful review, the researchers noticed that most of these materials were stamped with the stamp of the factory where they were produced, when in total the researchers found six marks of factories, all from France, all active at the end of the 19th century. Once they found the lion emblem of a company called "Guichard Brothers", the date of the ship's sinking became even more focused, because this company appeared in the commercial directory of Marseilles in 1897-1889.

So it is already clear that this is a ship that carried French raw materials to Israel, which were also used in the young settlement of Zichron Yaakov, mainly the roof tiles and ceramic tiles, and part of its route passed near Tantura at the end of the 19th century. What links it even more to the baron's ships is the fact that in one of the pots the researchers found the substance as barium sulfate BaSO4 which is known as a substance that improves the transparency and luster of glass, a substance that is remembered as a substance ordered by the glass factory run by Dizengoff in Tantura, for Baron Rothschild.

"There is no doubt that this ship could be one of dozens of similar ships that sailed in these years off the coast of Israel. However, it seems that there are quite a few details that connect it to the memory of Jacob, to the Batantura glass factory and to the baron's ships. Perhaps now we know why the third ship was not sold like its sisters and its traces were lost - it simply sunk on cargo", the researchers concluded.