Archaeologists Study Rare 1480s Warship Wreck Near Stockholm
Marine archaeologists from the Vrak Museum of Wrecks and Södertörn University have studied a rare late medieval wreck known as Vrak 5 in Landfjärden, a bay near Häringe, south of Stockholm, in Sweden’s Baltic Sea archipelago. The ship dates from the 1480s and may be the oldest known medieval warship built in Sweden or Denmark.
About 35 metres of the hull survive, and researchers believe the ship was originally 40 to 45 metres long. Its planks were laid edge to edge, known as carvel building, which makes it an early example of this method in the region. Studies of the timber suggest it came from Blekinge in southern Sweden.
Divers found bricks and mortar that may be the remains of a galley stove, wooden deadeyes once used to tension the rigging, and a mast made of nine joined sections bound with heavy rope. The team used a pump, a curtain to protect the surrounding seabed and 3D modelling to record the site.
The ship may have sunk in 1501, when King Hans of Denmark attacked and burned Häringe, but researchers say no direct link has been proven. Work on another Baltic wreck, the Osmund wreck with its iron cargo, is also being presented.
CrewMirror Takeaway
The finds give seafarers a glimpse of how ships of 500 years ago were built, rigged and run, and how crews cooked and lived on board long before modern ship design.
