Wreckage of a warship — sunk over 300 years ago by its navy — rediscovered in Sweden
The ocean’s shadowy depths gave up one more secret as Swedish marine archaeologists finally found a shipwreck they’d spent years searching for.
Scuba diving off the coast of Vaxholm, Sweden, marine archaeologists noticed a pile of rocks, the researchers said in a video from the Vrak Museum of Wrecks. Sticking out of the rock pile sat the hull of a massive shipwreck.
“Our pulses spiked,” one marine archaeologist, Jim Hansson, said in an Oct. 24 news release.
The hull of the sunken ship stretched about 20 feet off the ocean floor, experts said. The sides of the ship had fallen off, coming to rest on the ground nearby. Portholes showed the ship originally had two gun decks on different levels, researchers said and photos show.
Archaeologists returned to the site to study their discovery and identify the wreck. They took samples of the algae-covered timbers by sawing chunks off with a handsaw, measured the design and size of the ship and looked at archival data.
Everything pointed them to one conclusion: They had found the Äpplet.
The Äpplet, meaning the apple, was a 17th century warship that was commissioned by the Swedish king in the 1620s, experts said. The king, Gustav II Adolf, ordered four new warships to be made, two large and two medium-sized. The first large ship – the Vasa – sank on its maiden voyage but, since its rediscovery, has become an iconic shipwreck.
The Äpplet, with a slightly different and wider design, launched in 1629 and easily outlasted its sister ship, marine archaeologists with the Vrak Museum of Wrecks said. The ship carried Swedish troops to Germany during the Thirty Years’ War and remained in the navy until 1658.
By then, the Äpplet had become expensive to maintain and, in 1659, was likely determined to be not worth repairing, archaeologists said. Instead, the Swedish forces deliberately sank the Äpplet in the waters off Vaxholm, where it would serve as a barrier to any enemy forces attempting to reach Stockholm, about 15 miles to the west.
Marine archaeologists at the Vrak Museum of Wrecks thought they’d discovered the Äpplet two different times in 2019, but both times investigations revealed the wreckage belonged to other ships. This time, the researchers are certain.
The wreckage of the Äpplet was first spotted in December 2021, but the find was just announced on Monday, Oct. 24, the museum said.
“With Äpplet, we can add another key piece of the puzzle in the development of Swedish shipbuilding,” Hansson said. “The find is also valuable for those who want to uncover a new piece of exciting history through the old ship. Äpplet is part of our (Swedish) cultural heritage.”
“This (the Äpplet) will help us understand how the large warships evolved from the unstable Vasa to seaworthy behemoths that could control the Baltic Sea,” Patrik Höglund, another maritime archaeologist at the museum, said.
YouTube closed captions were used to translate the museum’s video.
This story was originally published October 25, 2022 at 5:23 PM with the headline "Wreckage of a warship — sunk over 300 years ago by its navy — rediscovered in Sweden."
