再び砂から姿を見せたホイアンの沈没船、なぜ掘れないのか

On the afternoon of July 25, 2026, Lê Quốc Việt, vice chairman of the Da Nang City Tourism Association, and others walking the shore of Hoi An West ward in Da Nang City (formerly Cam An ward, Hoi An City, Quang Nam Province) found the frame of a wooden ship emerging from the sand. As Thanh Niên reported the next day, the 26th, the ship hasn't moved from where it was found nearly three years ago, and its wood surface is covered all over in green algae. The exposed timber, however, is showing signs of deterioration from weather and seawater. No dimensions have been released for this exposure. It was first found on the morning of December 26, 2023, when the exposed part was about 15 meters long and 3 meters wide and the wooden frame remained relatively intact. Two years and seven months on, this ship has yet to undergo a single full-scale excavation. Although on July 15 the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism issued a document approving a policy of emergency excavation, the start still awaits the city's approval.The coast of World Heritage Hoi AnThis standstill unfolding there is also, for travelers, the story of "a site you might go to and not get to see."

A ship that appears each time the waves scour the sand, then is buried again

Whether the hull surfaces depends on the waves and sand at any given time. After it was first confirmed at the end of December 2023 it was buried in sand, measured once in February 2024 and then vanished again. It re-emerged in August 2025, and when Typhoon No. 13 in early November heavily scoured the coast, the upper hull appeared almost entirely (Nhân Dân). Then on July 25, 2026, the waves carried the sand away again.

What's known about the ship's features comes from a detailed survey conducted in 2024 by the Hoi An Center for Cultural Heritage Preservation together with the Quang Nam Provincial Museum (now the Da Nang Museum) and others. It's of a Southeast Asian build, with a ridge on the bow side (sống mũi) and multiple layered outer planks; the frame uses bằng lăng (crape myrtle) wood, and the outer planks use kiền kiền, both tropical hardwoods. Nguyễn Thu Hương, deputy director of the Da Nang Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, explains that because of procedures under the new cultural-heritage protection law, emergency excavation can't begin right away.

How a gap of two years and seven months came about

The two-year, seven-month gap isn't the result of anyone leaving it be. On July 1, 2025, Quang Nam province was merged into Da Nang, and Hoi An was reorganized into wards. The ship lies on the shore of Hoi An West ward, but at the time of discovery the jurisdiction was Quang Nam province, and the investigating bodies span the Hoi An World Cultural Heritage Preservation Center and the Quang Nam Provincial Museum, now merged into the Da Nang Museum.

The rules moved too. The Cultural Heritage Protection Law took effect on July 1, 2025, replacing the procedures for excavating underwater sites with a new framework. As VietnamNet reported on July 23, a July 15 document from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism removed this legal snag. In the paper's interview, Deputy Director Phuong said they were rushing to finish the paperwork and plan and were at the stage of putting it to the city People's Committee for approval.

At the same time, the design of the excavation itself is a hard problem. In November 2025, a plan was presented to stop the water with Larssen steel sheet piles, strip the soil grid by grid, and dig over about 45 days from December while leaving 15–20 cm of protective soil on the wood's surface. With that unimplemented, by the time Dân trí reported on April 17, 2026, a two-stage plan of 2026–2027 and 2028–2030 had surfaced. The paper also reported moss and mold on the exposed surface and structural members separated by the waves.

15 meters or 17? Why the number moves

The dimensions in the reports waver each time because what's measured is 'the part sticking out of the sand at that moment.' The full length of the vessel isn't established. Here are the figures published at each point in time.

Details of the structure are recorded in a 2024 survey. According to VnExpress, there are 28 ribs (giang) of bang lang wood, 11.5–16 cm thick and 25–31.5 cm wide. The planking is kien kien wood 7 cm thick, and part of the hull is double-planked. The bulkheads are pine, with 12 compartments about 1.6 meters deep. Iron nails are used at the joints.

This combination is the basis for dating it. A survey by the Hoi An Cultural Heritage Preservation Center together with the University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Ho Chi Minh City and the Quang Nam Provincial Museum found a construction blending Southeast Asian and Chinese shipbuilding techniques, andMid-to-late 14th century to the 16th centuryis believed to be from. The bow ridge, the many layers of outer planking, and the use of tropical hardwood for the main timbers point to a Southeast Asian type. Dividing compartments with bulkheads, fixing with iron nails, driving nails diagonally into the plank edges, and using temperate wood (pine) point to a Chinese type—that's the reading.All are estimates from structure, technique and material, not a fixed dateA survey team led by Nguyen Thi Ha (M.A.), a lecturer in the archaeology department of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Ho Chi Minh City, is carrying out C14 dating, wood-species identification and pollen analysis on samples taken in 2023, Nhan Dan reports. Because no pollen remained in the sediment samples, it is judged that the sinking happened underwater. As of 1905, the spot where the ship was found was land 700–800 m inland from the water's edge. The sea has since carved away several hundred meters of land.

The type of vessel isn't settled either. Per Nhan Dan, its scale -- over 17 m long and over 5 m wide -- leads many researchers to rule out a coastal fishing boat. Its construction from hardwood also points to a vessel built for long voyages and cargo transport. But the cargo is unexcavated, and whether it's a merchant or naval ship hasn't been confirmed.

Researchers say "hurry"; officials answer "procedure"

• Nguyễn Văn Việt, director of the Center for Southeast Asian Prehistory, said the expert consensus is that the ship's preservation of its original form is astonishing, with almost no shift in position. To excavate safely, building a protective embankment immediately is essential, and he proposes a method of dividing the ship into separate sections and processing one section at a time, a full 3D scan during excavation, and setting up a temporary treatment room beside the excavation pit. “We stand before an unprecedented chance to rescue an irreplaceable piece of heritage” (Thanh Niên, November 20, 2025).
• Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Quy of the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences' Institute of Archaeology called the vessel the sole surviving example within the cultural sphere of the Quang region's native 'ghe bau' boats — an irreplaceable historical source — and said that linking it with Hoi An's old quarter could make a new cultural and tourism hub.
• Tran Dinh Thanh, deputy director of the Cultural Heritage Department, sets out two options—raising the hull whole, or dismantling it with numbering and records to reassemble later—and says both should be prepared in parallel on grounds of feasibility and safety. On preservation, he notes that chemical-treatment and dehydration methods from Japan and elsewhere are effective for waterlogged wooden remains, while pointing out that Vietnam has no standardized procedure yet.
• Pham Phu Ngoc, deputy head of the Hoi An World Cultural Heritage Preservation Center, says the hard part is not the raising itself but the preservation afterward -- if storage conditions are poor, the damage is irreversible (Nhan Dan, December 5, 2025).

The administration's explanation, too, reads as a matter of order rather than reluctance. Deputy Director Phuong cited that it's a technically intricate project running continuously from archaeological survey to excavation, preservation, exhibition and use; that the volume of artifacts is large and costs mount; and that highly specialized advisory contractors are needed. Timber long submerged in seawater begins a race against deterioration the moment it's dug up. Nhân Dân writes that old wood can crack and crumble after just a few hours' exposure to air.

How Japanese readers might read the decision not to dig

First,The decision 'don't excavate until preservation is feasible' is being taken openly—that. The Cu Lao Cham shipwreck off Hoi An was excavated from 1997 to 2000 and yielded about 240,000 artifacts. The more that comes out, the more the burden of conservation and storage remains. That the size of a number isn't a measure of success is something the same town has already experienced.

Second,The period when a change of rules halts the actual work is longer than you'd think. The enforcement of the Cultural Heritage Protection Law and the merger of Quang Nam Province and Da Nang City both fell on the same July 1, 2025. A two-step structure—needing the city's approval even after a ministry's approval—shows up the same way for ruins as for projects.

Third,The timing of the exposure can't be controlled. Whether this vessel is visible is held by typhoons, waves and tides. In the dawn hours when the beach's face shifts most in a day (Hauling nets with fishermen on a dawn beach: the very first thing on a July morning in Da Nang)—as with that, the amount of sand differs between morning and evening.

Will a new 'sight' be born in Hoi An?

Vietnam is steering toward turning ruins sleeping underground and underwater into tourism resources. That the Funan-era port town of Oc Eo in the Mekong Delta has begun moving toward World Heritage listing (1,500 years in the Mekong: the Funan port town of Oc Eo moves toward World Heritage status) is one example. VietnamNet reports that the Hoi An ship, too, is set up to fold excavation, preservation, display, and use into a single plan, so it may become a future viewing attraction. That said, nothing about the display's location, scale, or timing has been announced as of now.

The realistic ripple is more likely that Hoi An's story widens from 'the Japanese Bridge and old-quarter streetscape' to 'a port city open to the sea.' According to Nhan Dan, 14th–16th-century Hoi An drew hundreds of merchant ships from China, Japan, Siam and the Indonesia direction. Walk only the streets and it looks like a land-based heritage, but what this vessel speaks of is the sea-side technology that made the town possible. Hoi An's Museum of Trade Ceramics displays 368 ceramic pieces, including items salvaged from a shipwreck off Cu Lao Cham. Grasp the sea story first, then walk the old quarter, and the display cases look different.

Facts to nail down before heading there

Here's a summary of the conditions currently published about the site. Yen conversions use 1 yen = about 162 dong (as of July 2026).

It's not about stopping you from going to the beach itself. But inside the ropes is under protection, and getting close to photograph or touch it isn't anticipated. A banh mi tour of the Old Town (Six in a day gets people talking: touring Hoi An's famous banh mi shops, with prices), if you extend to the beach while you're at it, the right attitude is to count yourself lucky if it's visible.

Summary

The July 25, 2026 exposure confirmed anew that a ship estimated to date from the 14th–16th centuries remains on Hoi An's coast. The province's approval came on July 15. What remains is the city's approval and the design for how to protect the wood after digging.

There are three things a Hoi An visitor can do now. One: since whether the site can be viewed hasn't been announced, don't put “see the shipwreck” in your itinerary. Two: choose the Museum of Trading Ceramics as one of the five sites on the combined ticket, and get a handle on seaward Hoi An first from the salvaged goods of Cu Lao Cham. Three: before your trip, search “tàu cổ Hội An” and check whether excavation has begun. If it does, part of the shore may become off-limits.

Sources:Thanh Niên／VietnamNet／Dân trí／VnExpress／Thanh Niên (November 2025)／Nhân Dân／Công an Đà Nẵng／Hoi An World Cultural Heritage Preservation Center