Archaeologists made a breakthrough on Monday in their effort to salvage relics from the sunken merchant vessel Nan'ao No 1, when they reached the hold of the ship and began to retrieve items from the water off Shantou in East Guangdong province.

"We'll try to remove all the relics from the sunken vessel within 90 days," Sun said after a previous salvage operation on the ship had to be delayed due to bad weather.

According to archaeologists, the ship is estimated to have at least 10,000 relics, which will be of great value in the study of ancient porcelain production technologies, the country's ancient ocean trade and the ancient "Marine silk road" - China's southern passageway to the outside world.

Some archaeologists also suspect that Nan'ao No 1 may have been used to smuggle arms after copper guns and canons were discovered on the sunken ship.