Underwater Archaeology! This was my dream when I was a teenager. Diving, finding sunken ships and lost structures. That was until I found out that Underwater Archaeology is like the super hard mode of normal archaeology and even more fatal...and my rose-coloured view faded away.

Still, I did take Underwater Archaeology as an extra course, and the professor of that class (Henry) was my diving buddy for some time so I stayed pretty close to that watery fire. I just really love the sea, so I naturally gravitate towards it. I'm pretty sure I was a fish in a past life, or at the very least a mermaid.

Which is also why I took the job of helping create a digital map and inform the public on the excavation of the Rooswijk. The Rooswijk was a Dutch VOC ship that sank on its second voyage in 1740, in the English Channel in a part known as the Goodwin Sands. Its 300 men crew died in the storm and for centuries the ship and its cargo lay undisturbed in the sand.

For those who are interested you can find that gorgeous map here; https://www.cloudtour.tv/rooswijk/overview_/0_0

Henry worked on this excavation as well as some other archaeologists I dove regularly with. Being known as a certified diver among the crew made my job a lot easier because they knew I was capable of going down with them and handling an underwater camera without obstructing their work or damaging the ship. (which happens more often than you think, but I won't go into that now)

So, I worked with my diving equipment and the underwater archaeologists worked with theirs, and under the sea, we stayed out of each other's hair.

Above water, we weren't so lucky.

Because of the location of the ship, we were in the middle of the sea on a ship, which was really big, but only about 10% of that massive space was our living quarters. And with that I mean EVERYTHING. Kitchen, bathroom, bedrooms, living area, everything. It was cramped!!

In order to keep sanity among the massive crew, we all worked in shifts. You would be on the ship for a week or two and then go back with the skipper to the mainland and work there on the preservation of the artefacts etc.

This particular day, I was at the end of my time on land and would head out to the ship with one other female archaeologist, Selena. Selena's boyfriend was our skipper, the guy who brought everyone to and from land and delivered supplies to the ship. We also called him Skipper for some reason, so I call him Skipper here as well.

The three of us were on our way to the docks when Skipper got the brilliant idea of getting McDonald's for the entire crew on the ship. After being stuck on a ship for two weeks only eating soups, fish, pasta and veggies, you get a hankering for meat and just junk food in general. Although I always craved chocolate first...anyways we went to McDonald's and Selena and I placed our massive order.

As we were waiting for our order we chatted about some of the things that had been found recently; a leather shoe, coins and a cannon when out of nowhere two men approached us.

"Are you girlies talking about that ship?" One of the men asked us. Confused, I inquired if he meant the Rooswijk and they both nodded excitedly. I told them that yes we were talking about that and that we are currently working on the excavation.

"Oh, I didn't know they had multiple treasures on that boat." One of the men commented, grinning at the two of us and I immediately realized that I was not dealing with some interested locals, but just a bunch of perverts. So, I remarked that yes archaeology is a profession done by both genders and noted very loudly that Skipper had to come to help us carry the food, hoping that the presence of another man would make these guys go away.

Well, they did back up a little when Skipper came over but still kept their eyes on us as we grabbed our order and preceded to follow us out as we walked to our car.

All the way to the docks, the men kept driving behind us, which infuriated Skipper but Selena kept a cool head, saying we would lose them anyway since we were going out at sea. And she was right after we boarded Skipper's boat the men were gone.

Once we were at the ship it was starting to get dark, and the crew greeted us with open arms. Or they greeted the fact that we had brought burgers and fries with open arms; I don't blame them. So, we all ate on the deck, enjoying the food and telling stories when, all of a sudden, the lights of an approaching boat were spotted by Henry.

Seeing how Henry and I were the only two Dutch people on the ship at that moment, he called me over first to confirm that he wasn't hallucinating. As we were both staring out into the sea the boat turned off its lights and engine as if whoever was on it didn't want to be seen.

"Were you being followed?" Henry asked me. Confused I at first said no, but then the encounter with those men at the McDonald's came to mind and I explained Henry how they had followed us up until the docks, but definitely not further.

Both Selena and Skipper confirmed my story once we told the rest of the crew about the ship in the darkness and within seconds it was all hands on deck. The captain of the ship, Skipper's grandfather, a seadog of a Scottish captain was bellowing commands left and right, mixed with the most colourful cussing we've come to expect from such an old salt sailor.

Large searchlights were turned on to illuminate the dark waters around us, and immediately we could make out the two men from the McDonald's with some others on the boat drifting beside us.

As soon as one of the men saw Skipper staring at them from the railing of our ship he yelled something about how he would take the girly's after he had taken the loot and groped himself through his diving suit. I didn't see his gesture, being held away from the railing by Selena, but judging from Skipper's reaction it was pretty vulgar. Two archaeologists had to physically hold Skipper back from jumping into the sea to punch the man.

Henry informed the captain that he had called the coastguard, and they were on their way. But other than that we were powerless to do anything.

All we could do was watch as the two men dove into the dark waters in their diving gear. Several archaeologists, including me, noted that they were wearing wetsuits, which would make it impossible to dive in these cold waters for a prolonged period of time, but it did little to ease the tension.

To give a little explanation for the non-divers, wetsuits and drysuits are the two different types of diving suits. The difference between a wetsuit and a dry suit is that wetsuits let water in and are used in warmer water temperatures, while drysuits feature seals and heavier insulating materials to keep the wearer dry in cold water conditions.

The water in the English Channel in April was about 10°C (50°F) at most, with strong currents and barely an arm lengths of visibility, not ideal conditions for wetsuits or night diving.

Another thing to take into account is that the Rooswijk was pulled apart when it sank.

If you look at the map in the link you can see that the ship is not in one piece anymore, so it's not easy to find if you don't know what you're looking for.

But did that calm our nerves as we stood there powerless to do anything about these idiots diving into freezing waters, NOPE. I've never seen so many people so anxious. We couldn't go in after them, it was far too dangerous to dive with these conditions in the dark.

All we could do was just wait for the authorities to show up and pray that in the meantime the excavation site wouldn't be destroyed.

Luckily, it didn't take long for the coastguards to come with three boats, searchlights, sirens, the whole package. They fished the men out of the water, searched their boat and came aboard our ship to take our statements.

As soon as Skipper told one of the officers what the man had said the officer grinned from ear to ear. "Interesting, with this kind of information I guess we'll have to charge these men for Piracy with violence."

Yes, you heard that right. Just for making the threat of stealing and harming members of our crew the men got charged for Piracy with violence. The UK Piracy Act turns out to be very strict. Anyone with intent to murder, stab, cut, wound, or unlawfully do any act by which the life of any person being on board of or belonging to a ship or vessel may be endangered, shall be guilty of this felony.

Even any act of inciting or of intentionally facilitating any illegal acts of violence directing at the crew of another ship is considered piracy. Meaning that even the man steering the ship was arrested for piracy, because, guess what, we were in British waters.

I don't know precisely what happened to the men after that, they did have to go to jail I believe, but I don't recall how long. We asked the officer to keep everything quiet so that other people wouldn't get the bright idea to go steal our loot, which wasn't even that valuable, but hey, they didn't know that.

And the downside of this all was that everyone became very weary to talk about the excavation or invite reporters onto the ship. I had to tell every reporter that was interested in covering the excavation that I had to read their piece before it would be published and that they couldn't film or photograph anything without our consent.

So, as much as I liked the first Pirates of the Caribbean, I hope I never encounter another pirate apart from Jack Sparrow in Disneyland.