Sometimes sediments (sand, mud) protect the wooden wreck from decay. Once the wreck is moved, it becomes a race against time to prevent decay. The way that mu

Sometimes sediments (sand, mud) protect the wooden wreck from decay. Once the wreck is moved, it becomes a race against time to prevent decay. The way that museum wrecks like the Wasa in Stockholm are preserved is by drying every wooden piece and saturating them with plastic resin. This process is slow and labour intensive: the article mentions that preparing the Spanish wreck for display will take four years. The archeology museum in Arles, France displays a conserved Roman river barge which was conserved in this fashion, see their Youtube documentary [0] There are many more known river barges at the bottom of the Rhone, but these are best preserved by leaving them where they are. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUBvSkdJ4Ig https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUBvSkdJ4Ig