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 The wreck was found 600 metres south of a shoal which at its shallowest lies only seven metres below the surface. The size of the junk means that the draught would be unlikely to be more than two and a half metres, three at most. The position seems to indicate that it might have grazed the reef during a storm which would have produced some deep troughs in the waves. Note that the waters in which the wreck was found are known to be particularly difficult to navigate because a high swell builds up quickly during bad weather. This fact was already known in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.
The destination of the Lena reef junk remains an enigma. It can be assumed that after loading up with ceramics, some of which originated from the kilns at Jingdezhen, Longquan and Guangdong, as well as various other merchandise such as bronze gongs and bracelets, frying-pans and iron ingots, the junk set sail from the port of Zhejiang or Fujian. The junk then made for southern China where it took on board jars of various types. It then made for a port in Siam where the holds were loaded with an additional quantity of ceramics from various kilns.
There are three final destinations for the cargo: The high quality of the ceramics may indicate that at least part of the cargo was destined for a very demanding market such as Persia, the Mameluke Empire or the Ottoman Empire.
Another theory is that the cargo was destined for the Moslem sultanates of the Philippine islands, the large island of Borneo or the Moluccas. In view of the presence on board at the time the vessel sank of merchandise from China and Siam, we should resign ourselves to considering that unforeseen circumstances, probably linked to the weather, must have pushed the junk far from any logical route. The fact that the wreck was found south of the Lena reef � which probably caused the catastrophe � as if it were travelling from north to south, simply adds to the mystery.
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Pictures by Fr�deric Osada
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