Merchant Ship Arrives on Mediterranean Shore: About 25 Centuries Late

"2,500-Year-Old Greek Ship Raised off Sicilian Coast"
National Geographic (August 11, 2008)

"An ancient Greek ship recently raised off the coast of southern Sicily, Italy, is the biggest and best maintained vessel of its kind ever found, archaeologists say.

"At a length of nearly 70 feet (21 meters) and a width of 21 feet (6.5 meters), the 2,500-year-old craft is the largest recovered ship built in a manner first depicted in Homer's Iliad, which is believed to date back several centuries earlier...."

After 25 centuries under the sea, the merchant ship is not in particularly good shape, but archaeologists will be studying it, to learn about shipbuilding technology in those times, and details of shipboard life.