The search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has discovered a shipwreck from the 19th century.

A vessel in the search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has made the amazing discovery of what is thought to be a shipwreck from the 1800s.

About 80 metres in length, it is the second shipwreck discovered by accident in seven months in the search off the coast of Western Australia for the missing aircraft.

The Havila Harmony was in the search area on December 19 when sonar contact was made with an object on the seabed.

AUSTRALIAN DEPARTMENT OF DEFENCE The search for MH370 continues off the Western Australia coast.

A spokesman for the Joint Agency Coordination Centre said early analysis suggested the object was likely man-made, probably a shipwreck.

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"The search vessel was tasked with further investigation and around two weeks later captured a high-resolution sonar image, confirming that it was the wreck of a ship," he said.

ATSB The scattered remains of a shipwreck found in May 2015.

An expert at the Shipwreck Galleries of the Western Australian Museum believe the vessel dated from the turn of the 19th century.

Maritime archaeologist Ross Anderson said it looked like a large iron or steel sailing ship sitting upright and very intact dating from mid-to-late 19th century or possibly the early 20th century.

"It appears it is collapsing in classic iron ship fashion with the bow and stern triangles upright and intact, and side plating collapsing out to starboard," he said.

Anderson was not able to identify the name of the ship based on the image provided.

"It is a bit hard with the grainy image to determine if it is three or four masted, which would narrow the possibilities, although it is a large vessel some 80 metres in length," he said.

"So many ships have been lost over the years, it is all but impossible to identify vessels or their country of manufacture or port of origin without being able to do more detailed artefact studies."

Anderson said the best clue was often something like crockery that may have visible the name of the shipping line or similar information.

Last May, the wreck of what was suspected to be a mid-19th century cargo ship was also found in the search area.

Images taken by an automated underwater vehicle revealed several man-made objects including an anchor, and a box-shaped object about six metres long. Black rocks scattered across the seabed were thought to be coal.

The museum's maritime archaeologists at the time were able to identify it as a wooden sailing ship with a cargo of coal.

The Havila Harmony departs the search area as early as Thursday, returning to Fremantle for a scheduled port visit.

Another search vessel, the Fugro Discovery arrived in Fremantle for a scheduled resupply visit on Monday and was due to leave Wednesday and arrive back in the search area around January 19.

A third ship, the Fugro Equator, continues to conduct search operations. It will return to Fremantle for a scheduled resupply visit in early February.

More than 80,000 square kilometres of the sea floor has been scoured so far of a 120,000 square kilometre search area.

It is anticipated the search will be completed around the middle of the year.

Australia has led the international search for the plane, which vanished on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014. Six Australians were among the 239 passengers and crew on board when it disappeared.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau is focusing its search on the southern-most part of their targeted area in the "seventh arc" of the Indian Ocean, over a slightly wider terrain, with only one-quarter of the area where the plane was most likely to be found left to be searched.



There have been no confirmed sightings of debris from the MH370 since part of its wing was discovered washed up on Reunion Island, east of Madagascar, in August.