Restoration work has started on artifacts recovered from the sunken warship named after Chinese revolutionary Sun Yat-sen, according to China.org.
More than 200 pieces of chinaware and five swords were retrieved from the Zhongshan Warship and are now being repaired.
This will be the first major restoration work done on the relics since the warship was taken out of water in 1997, according to Wang Ruihua, curator of the Zhongshan Warship Museum located in Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei Province.
The renovation of the warship itself was completed in 2000.
Wang told state-based media Xinhua News Agency that the purpose of the renovation of the artifacts is to raise public awareness on the brutality of war.
The restoration work, according to Wang, is also a vital step toward "better relic preservation."
The Zhongshan Warship was sunk in the Yangtze River by Japanese bombs during the War of Chinese People's Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, which took place from 1937 to 1945.
When it was recovered in 1997, some 5,000 artifacts were found in it. The items were taken to Hubei Shipyard for preservation.
"Zhongshan" is Mandarin for "Yat-sen."