In 1773 the Royal Captain, a British East Indiaman, hit a shoal and was lost on its way to Balambangan from Canton while transporting goods, which consisted of 100,000 pieces of Chinese porcelain, as well as tea, silk, glass beads and gold. The captain and most of the crew were able to rescue some of the Company’s treasures and eventually made it to Balambangan.

The Phu Quoc Wreck is that of a Thai ship of the 14th or early 15th century. It was found by Vietnamese fishermen off the island of Phu Quoc on the west coast of Vietnam, and partially looted before it came to the attention of the Vietnam Salvage Corporation (Visal) and became an object of commercial exploitation.

The compartmentalised hull was found to be in excellent condition. Unfortunately the cargo of Thai ceramics had suffered major damage during the wrecking process and through looting.

In September, 2006, the remains of an ancient merchant ship were discovered near the port of Siraf at a depth of 70 meters. The ship’s cargo contains big jars that can attest that the ship has belonged to either the Parthian dynasty (248 BC-224 AD) or the Sassanid dynasty (224 AD – 651 AD). Those two dynasties played significant roles in maritime trade intheir time, as the Persian Gulf was a central place on the maritime trade routes between Byzantium and Europe and with Asian countries, especially China.

The Pandanan Shipwreck is an archaeological site which was excavated in 1995 by the Underwater Archaeology Division of the National Museum of the Philippines in Pandanan Island, in the coast of Southern Palawan. The ship was surmised to be a Southeast Asian cargo boat travelling from either Vietnam or Southern China and is one of the best preserved pre-Spanish trading ships within the jurisdiction of Philippines.

The Ngomeni shipwreck is located close to the Kenyan shore, in shallow water in Ras Ngomeni, within the Kilifi county close to Malindi. The shipwreck has been identified as a Portuguese vessel which sank in the 15^th or 16 centuries, at a time where the Portuguese controlled the Western Indian Ocean trade.

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The Nanyang shipwreck, located in Malaysian Territorial Water was found ten miles from Tiomo island. The construction details noted thus far, which include transversal bulkheads joined with wooden dowels, indicate a South China Sea type ship. The length of the vessel appears to be 18 meters and the beam 5 meters and it may have carried as much as 10,000 pieces of pottery, primarily celadon from the Sisatchanalai kilns, many of them showing scars from the use of spur discs.

This wreck was discovered in 63 metres of water, 23 nautical miles from the coast. The ship may have exceeded 30 metres in length with a beam of 8 metres, making her one of the largest wooden wrecks discovered in the South China Sea. She reflected the 'South China Sea' type; hull planks and transverse bulkheads were joined with wooden dowels.

The junk Lena sank around 1490 during the Ming-Dynasty in the reign of the Emperor Hongzhi. The Lena shipwreck was discovered in 1997 at a depth of 48 meters.  She was wrecked on a reef and sank off the island of Busuanga, in the Philippines, one of about 7,000 islands, reefs and sandbanks in the area.