The Sinan Shipwreck was a trading vessel that set sail in 1323 from Qingyuan (present-day Ningbo), in Yuan dynasty China, bound for Japan. During its voyage, it drifted off course and sank in the waters off what is now Sinan County, South Jeolla Province. For roughly 650 years afterward, it lay buried beneath the sea, unknown to anyone. This date — and the fact that the ship sank during the Goryeo dynasty — was established by decoding the records on wooden tablets recovered from within the ship itself.
The ship came to light again in the spring of 1975, when a fishing boat working these waters pulled up several pieces of Chinese porcelain in its net. This discovery prompted a preliminary survey the following year, in October and November of 1976, which recovered several thousand pieces of Song- and Yuan-dynasty porcelain and drew intense attention from scholars in Korea and abroad. The survey that followed, conducted over ten separate expeditions across nine years from 1976 to 1984, is recorded as Korea's first underwater archaeological excavation, and ultimately recovered somewhere between roughly 22,000 and 27,000 relics from the Song and Yuan dynasties. That a ship which had lain hidden for nearly 700 years was brought to light by a single fishing net catching by chance illustrates just how long the sea can hold history intact beneath its surface.
The dated wooden tags and the cargo's arrangement matter more than a “treasure ship” label: they connect producers, merchants, temples, and ports across medieval East Asia. Sources count roughly 22,000 or 27,000 objects depending on whether coins, timbers, and other categories are included. The protected wreck site is not a diving attraction. This coordinate points to the excavation monument; the conserved hull and major finds are displayed in Mokpo. The story therefore separates discovery, protected site, conservation, and exhibition.