17th century shipwreck found off Swedish coast

Associated Press ^ | November 16, 2011 | Malin Rising

[decimon]

STOCKHOLM (AP) — A shipwreck discovered in the murky waters of the Baltic Sea is believed to be a legendary 17th century warship whose captain went down with it in battle rather than surrender to the enemy.

Deep Sea Productions, an underwater research team, said Wednesday it believes the 25-meter (82-feet) wooden wreck it found off the island of Oland this summer is the ship Svardet, which sank when Sweden was defeated by a Danish-Dutch fleet in a 1676 naval battle.

Malcolm Dixelius, a member of the research team, said that wood samples show the wreck is from the 17th century. He also said the stern of the ship is missing, which is consistent with historical reports that Svardet went under after a fire and explosion at the stern.

[decimon]

To the sea in ships ping.

[blueunicorn6]

An explosion at the rear of the ship? Herring.....they were cooking herring and they blew the ship up. How do you explain that to the king? Best to go down with the ship.

[commish]

Was it red herring?

[blueunicorn6]

Stinkin’ communist herring. “Fish of the world unite!”

[Rudder]

...found it between the Swedish islands Gotland and Oland at a depth of between 50 and 100 meters, surrounded by the hundreds of canons it carried when it went under.

Hundreds of cannons?

No wonder it sank.

[decimon]

I didn’t notice the spelling of ‘canon.’ Maybe they were very religious. ;-)

[SunkenCiv]

GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach	join list or digest view topics view or post blog bookmark post a topic subscribe
Thanks decimon. Hanseatic League ping. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.

[Gator113]

Oh to be young again.

Being involved in such discoveries would be so darn sweet.

[Winstons Julia]

“17th century warship whose captain went down with it ...”

Surely an ancestor of MINE! If they find treasure I claim it for my booty.

[Rudder]

...the spelling of ‘canon.’ Maybe they were very religious. ;-)

Hugh Betcha, I missed that.

'Careless with the canons'...Is this a story?

[Altariel]

For the last time, I wasn’t at the helm!

[Bigg Red]

The helm you say!

[colorado tanker]

According to Wiki, the Svardot was set on fire by a fire ship. This painting shows the Swedish flagship exploding after it foundered at the outset of the battle. Svardot is shown surrounded by allied ships.

The flagship, Kronen, was the largest ship in the Swedish navy at the time and was armed with 126 guns. So, the story of "hundreds" of cannon is in doubt, unless they were counting cannon from other sunk ships. According to Wiki the Swedes lost five ships to sinking while the allies only lost the one ship they fired.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks colorado tanker.

[colorado tanker]

You're welcome.

The Kronen story was interesting too. They carried too much canvas and tried too sharp of a turn, which listed the ship so badly water came in through the gun ports. The ship then listed even worse which allowed fires to get to the powder magazine.

Not a good way to start a battle - lose your flagship to bad seamanship instead of enemy fire.

[SunkenCiv]

Is the Kronen explosion that resulted in the Swedish sailor getting blown a ways up into the air, and some distance, landing more or less safely in the sails of another crafft?

[colorado tanker]

I don’t know whether that happened in the Kronen explosion or not. I tend to doubt it though because it was over on its side when it blew.

[SunkenCiv]