A 500-year-old merchant ship was found at the bottom of the North Sea by a Dutch salvage team, the Ministry of Culture said Wednesday.

It is the oldest shipwreck to ever be discovered in Dutch waters.

The ship was probably 30 meters long, built around 1540 and transported copper belonging to the prominent German merchant family Fugger.

The Fuggers had a copper monopoly in the 16th century. Copper plates salvaged from the shipwreck bear the family trademark.

The salvage experts accidentally discovered the wreck near the Dutch Wadden Islands.

The team had been searching for hundreds of containers knocked off the MSC Zoe in January on the way to Germany.

The find marks an "enrichment of Dutch cultural heritage," said Culture Minister Ingrid van Engelshoven.

What do with the shipwreck has yet to be decided.