I'm wondering how someone in the late 16th to early 18th century would
seal a container to make it waterproof and also protect it from the
ravages of being submerged in seawater for several hundred years.  I'm
thinking it could be a regular wooden chest, but then wrapped in lead
sheets with all the edges sealed with molten lead.

The concept is that the characters are on vacation to a world that just
created the jump drive and by all observable data points, they did it on
their own and without outside assistance.  While cruising across a
tropical sea, they stop at a shoal to do some recreational diving and
find an old wreck.  Inside the wreck is the sealed container and when
they open it, they find several repair logs, a couple text books on jump
drive design and theory, a log book, and a small computer with a
holographic display.  The twist is that the wreck is dated from almost
four hundred years earlier, the books and computer are from slightly
before that, and the log book is from an IISS ship that disappeared
about the same time.

The characters, being characters, begin researching what they found and
put the planet's status as another major race of Humanity at risk...and
thus targets on their backs.

Any thoughts?

--
Kurt Feltenberger
xxxxxx@thepaw.org/xxxxxx@yahoo.com
“Before today, I was scared to live, after today, I'm scared I'm not living enough." - Me