When thewreckof the Dutch smuggling shipMelckmeytwas notice off the coast of Iceland in 1992 , the only way to explore it was with diving equipment . That ’s no longer the grammatical case : AsLive Sciencereports , wreck partisan can now receive the watery ruin at home by taking a practical tour .
Sunk by a storm on October 16 , 1659 , theMelckmeyt(Dutch forMilkmaid ) is Iceland ’s oldest shipwreck . Its origin are Dutch , but when it define sail 360 class ago , the vessel flew a Danish flag . That ’s because it had been illegal for the Netherlands to swop with Iceland , which was ruled by Denmark at the sentence , so to smuggle goods into Icelandic port , the Dutch sailors pose as a Danish crew .
TheMelckmeytwas one of a fleet of outlaw merchant ship meant to travel from the Netherlands to Iceland in 1659 . After sinking that year , the crash spend centuries in the frigid , protective Ethel Waters off the island of Flatey near Iceland ’s west glide . When it was discovered by local divers in the early 1990s , the lower hull of the ship was still in impressive precondition .
The shipwreck continue in its frosty resting plaza at the bottom of the North Atlantic , but you do n’t need to book a flight or don a wetsuit to see it . In 2016 , researchers from the University of Iceland and the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands captured mellow - resolution scan of internet site and used them to construct a 3D mannikin . Today , that model is available for anyone to search onYouTube , either as a virtual reality experience with a headset or an interactive 360 ° video .
During the three - moment tour , you ’ll follow virtual divers on a journeying into the ship ’s remains . The video ends with a computer - generated example showing what the shipmight have looked likebefore it was ravaged by metre . The video is free for anyone to watch from their computer , but if you find out yourself in Iceland , you may take in the recreation with a VR headset at theReykjavik Maritime Museum .
Itching to get in skin senses with your inner cryptical - ocean explorer ? Here are someshipwrecks you’re able to visitin real - life .
[ h / tLive Science ]
