OVM 14: wreck diving in the Oostvoornse Meer

The wreck known as Oostvoornse Meer 14 lies at roughly twenty-one to twenty-three metres. Little of its origin or history has been documented beyond oral accounts and footage shot by sport divers. The remains appear to be still in their original position. The structure is largely intact, but without intervention it is likely to break apart.

How the lake came to be

The Oostvoornse Meer was formed in the 1960s by the construction of the Brielse Maasdam in the 1950s and the Brielse Gatdam in the 1960s, part of the large water engineering works around Rotterdam. Once the area was closed off the lake formed, and sand was dredged from it for the construction of Maasvlakte 1.

That dredging exposed a great many wrecks that had settled deep into the bottom. Sand had preserved them for centuries, but changing currents and human intervention altered that. Wrecks that were once buried now lie exposed and vulnerable to decay and disturbance. Sport divers and illegal salvage have damaged them further.

What threatens the wrecks

The greatest threat to the wooden hulls is Teredo navalis, the shipworm. Closing the lake initially lowered the salt concentration and with it the worm, but the deliberate reintroduction of salt water since 2007 has brought the organism back. That is a serious risk to every wooden wreck still lying there.

From the late Middle Ages this was a busy shipping route. The lake holds the remains of more than twelve vessels from the sixteenth to the twentieth century, concentrated in the early seventeenth. That concentration is attributed to a treacherous sandbank marked on a 1645 chart as the Hondenplaat.