At the bottom of the Black Sea, below about 150 metres, the water contains no oxygen at all, and shipwrecks preserved in that dead zone include a 2,400-year-old Greek merchant vessel found in 2018 with its mast, rudder and rowing benches still intact on the seafloor

At the bottom of the Black Sea, below about 150 metres, the water contains no oxygen at all, and shipwrecks preserved in that dead zone include a 2,400-year-old Greek merchant vessel found in 2018 with its mast, rudder and rowing benches still intact on the seafloor

In the deep water of the Black Sea, below roughly 150 metres, oxygen simply runs out. Not low. Not stressed. Zero. And in that lightless, oxygen-free layer, a Greek merchant ship recorded by remote camera in 2017 and announced to the world the following year lies on the seabed with its mast still standing, its rudder in place, and the benches where rowers once sat still recognisable after roughly 2,400 years. The ship is about 23 metres long. It…