During a survey campaign by the French Navy using an underwater drone on March 4, the presence of a massive object off Ramatuelle, in the Gulf of Saint-Tropez, was detected. A remote -controlled robot is then deployed and captures the first images of a wreck resting 2,500 meters deep. 30 meters long and 7 meters wide, it contains a remarkably well -preserved cargo.
Provisionally called “Camarat 4”, pending formal identification, the ship was studied for two months. On June 11, 2025, the department of underwater and submarine archaeological research (DRASSM), attached to the Ministry of Culture, made the discovery public. It would be a renaissance merchant ship, probably intended for the Mediterranean navigation. The first observations suggest that he would have left the Liguria region, in northern Italy.
The cargo includes around 200 hand -painted earthenware jugs, adorned with plant patterns or religious inscriptions such as “IHS” – an abbreviation for the name of Jesus in Greek. There are also a hundred yellow plates, unidentified metal bars and six guns.
For the Drassm, this wreckage “Constitutes a remarkable discovery by its depth, its unprecedented character”. A 3D photogrammetric modeling of the site is in preparation, accompanied by targeted samples. A college of experts was formed to analyze the ship and its cargo. These studies should last until 2026. The available equipment being unsuitable for great depths, a collaboration with the French Research Institute for the Operation of the Sea (Ifremer) is envisaged. A digital exhibition is announced for 2027.
The discovery also raises environmental issues. Contemporary waste – such as cans and yogurt pots – have been found near the wreckage, testifying to deep water pollution. The ministry thus wishes to associate this archaeological project with a public awareness approach, both on the stakes of conservation of the underwater heritage and on the impact of anthropic waste.
At a record depth of 2,500 meters, “Camarat 4” exceeds that of the wreckage of the French submarine La Minerve, found in 2019 near Toulon at 2,370 meters, which hitherto held the record for a wreck located in French waters. Other discoveries have also marked the last years: in June 2025, the HMS Endeavour, one of the ships used by Captain James Cook during his expeditions to the Pacific, was identified off the United States. This ship, considered one of the first to accosted in Australia, had disappeared for more than two centuries.
In 2015, a Colombian team found the wreckage of the Spanish Galion San José off the coast of Cartagena, sunk in 1708 during a naval confrontation with the British. It would have contained some 200 tonnes of gold, silver and precious stones now plunged 600 meters deep.
In 2022, the SS Nemesis, a Australian coal carrier who disappeared at sea in 1904, was located by chance off Wollongong, in New South Wales. Taken in a storm, the ship had sunk with 32 people on board. It is a company specializing in the recovery of containers which, during a technical mission, located the wreckage, thus lifting the veil on a disappearance which has remained unexplained for more than a century.
The most famous wreck, that of the Titanic which was sinking in 1912, was located in 1985 at approximately 3800 meters deep in the southeast of Newfoundland. It was explored for the first time by a submarine in 1986.
