Ancient Ship Found Completely Preserved in Baltic Sea

The vessel, believed to date to the late 15th or early 16th century, has led marine archeologists and a team of international scientists to probe into the untainted remains of this medieval warship.

The Baltic Sea is of great interest to scientists and historians, as it represents the economic center of the medieval trading group of Northern European ports.

The peaceful experience was short-lived as a new island invaded the scene. The intruder was a square wood raft with two shipping containers a few hundred feet away from Stora Ekon’s shoreward coast

Built in 1485, the Gribshunden was a Danish warship that served as the royal flagship and seat of government for King Hans of Denmark. Per historical sources, the ship sank along with soldiers, Danish noblemen, and the accompanying squadron.

He regularly sailed on her and was aboard the ship for its final voyage — which was in the summer of 1495. The Gribshunden led a squadron of ships escorting the king from Copenhagen, Denmark to Kalmar, Sweden.

The vessel style was cutting-edge for its time and large at about 32 meters in length. She was a new amalgamation of northern European and Mediterranean architecture, a fusion of disparate styles and building techniques. 

At that conference, Hans expected the Swedish Council to accept his rule and elect him king of Sweden, fulfilling his ambition to reunify the Nordic region under a single crown. Along the way, the ships anchored near Ronneby, Blekinge. 

Although the historical written sources are mute on whether women were aboard the ship, archaeology may reveal this aspect of fact later. 

The union was always a victim to the conflicting interests of monarchs who wished to create a strong nation-state and those of the nobility, particularly in Sweden, who did not want to cede their power to a central monarchy. King Hans intended to reestablish the Kalmar Union while asserting his authority over Sweden as their king.

The elite group paraded in their finest clothing. The soldiers were armed with the latest gunpowder weapons. The king ordered the ship stores be filled with the most extravagant food and drinks for days of lavish feasting. 

On the Southern coast of Sweden lies the wreck of the 115-foot-long medieval warship Gribshunden. The hall settled on the seafloor, about 11 meters of water. She is one of the best-preserved ships found from the Age of Discovery.

Unfortunately, Sten Sture never turned up for the meeting, leaving the status of the Kalmar Union uncertain for the next two years until the 1497 Battle of Rotebro, where the Union was reaffirmed by John’s victory and Sten’s defeat.

“The dating of this wreck underlines the importance of the discovery,” Dr. Pacheco-Ruiz wrote in an article about the discovery. “It is rare to find a ship in such an astonishing condition that predates the larger and more powerful vessels involved in the later Northern Seven Year’s Wars (1563-1570) – a period of great importance which defined the path of modernization of Scandinavian nations.”

But thanks to the brackish waters of the Baltic sea with low oxygen levels, the chances of these organisms surviving are second to none. As a result, this ancient warship has been left free of seaworm damage and is among the best-preserved ships from this period.

“The wreck is in such good condition because of the strange Baltic environment. The low salinity here is unsuited for shipworm, which eats wood in the world’s ocean system. The seafloor is a fine clay, ideal for preserving organic material, and low dissolved oxygen levels further contribute to the preservation of organics,” said Brendan Foley of Lund University, who supervised the excavations.

The ship’s bowsprit – which extends out the front of the vessel – is visible. The wooden capstan and bilge pump, and other rare elements, can also be gleaned. Swivel guns were also found intact, along with a tender boat that would have been used to ferry crew to and from the ship. It’s almost like it sank just yesterday.

So, the wreck’s site remained a backup for the divers when the weather precluded them from diving in the other areas. Unaware of the wreck’s identity, the divers did not tell local archaeologists about the discovery until 2001. 

Archaeologists identified the ship as Gribshunden using techniques like a dendrochronological sampling of the ship’s timbers, which showed that they came from the royal flagship that sank in the summer of 1495. With medieval experts like Niklas Eriksson, the true identity of the ship was made known.

Also, this ancient relic provides a unique opportunity to examine a state-of-the-art warship from a period when a revolution in shipbuilding and naval warfare was reshaping geopolitics and transforming civilization.

The artillery consisted of light, anti-personnel guns that were not intended for the sinking of ships. Instead, they offered support for hand-to-hand combat forces. In 2021, a 13.5-foot-long gun carriage and carved linstock were discovered in the wreckage.

Among the shocking discoveries during the excavation was a wooden barrel containing the well-preserved remains of a butchered Atlantic sturgeon fish. Brenden Foley documented this finding in a study published in the Journal of Archaeological Science.

They comprise one species of cereal, one species of oilseed, four species of fruits and vegetables, eight species of spices, two species of nuts, one species of medicinal plant, and 23 species of wild taxa. All recovered remains were subfossil specimens.

The archaeological potential of plant remains in underwater environments connected to wreck sites is extraordinary. The presence of a diverse range of economic plants aboard the ship indicates the high-status lifestyle of the Danish king.

“In the field, we knew that we had something special the moment the exotic spices appeared in the excavation,“ Foley said. “The saffron was obvious—nothing else looks like it. And we also could see peppercorns in the excavated material. We expected there would be more, but we needed the expertise of an excellent archaeobotanist.”

Suggestive of the ship’s Gribshunden (“Griffin-Hound”) name, the chimeric figurehead is described as a dog-like or dragon-like sea monster with lion ears carved to resemble a monster devouring a person in its crocodilian mouth.

Based on later chronicles, the most likely cause was gunpowder stored in the ship’s hold that accidentally ignited, setting off a fire aboard the ship. But, the details remain unknown.

It is also preserved in an eyewitness account by a young survivor of the explosion. The accounts describe how King Hans, who reigned over Denmark and Norway from 1481 to 1513, sailed east from Copenhagen in the summer of 1495 toward Kalmar, Sweden, to attend a political summit.

“I thought if it was important, I’d have heard of it already,” he says, sitting in a makeshift office on the dive platform. He began his journey to Stora Ekon in 2017 on a quest to see the wreck himself.

In 2019, the international group he had assembled set up a white scaffold on the seabed to define their excavation trench. Also, they choose a site near the ship’s stern.

Even though everything was covered in black sediments and marine growth, it didn’t deter these committed experts. As they worked at each stage of the excavation, they took photographs and videos for record purposes.

Another unexpected discovery was the several panels of decorated birch bark. From the detailed peacock design to the beast that resembles a unicorn, truly this was no ordinary ship but the lost Gribshunden.

Amidst the finds were nine wooden gun carriages, a 13-5 foot long carriage far larger than the ones previously found. Certainly, these were some of the scattered remains that attested to the lost Gribshunden’s military might.

The copper links embellished the cuffs, collar, and waist of an iron mail shirt worn by a soldier. Though barely discernable through the tarnish, its symbols hinted that this could be the maker’s mark of the armor.

At Lund University, a dozen researchers from different scientific fields launched an interdisciplinary study of all the artifacts raised since the 1970s. The results of this investigation not only highlight aspects of nautical archeology but Hans’ attempt to build a new nation-state at the end of the Medieval period.

Additionally, the wreck also provides clues on how shipbuilding techniques were transmitted and how ships like the wrecked Gribshunden influenced the balance of power in the Baltic and across the globe at large.

Conversely, the ship’s internal layout and physical spaces occupied by the various ranks of men aboard will demonstrate the origins of today’s naval traditions. This shipwreck is rewriting history.