Swedes Discover seventeenth Century Sister Vessel to Famed Vasa Warship

The wreck of the royal warship Vasa was raised in 1961, remarkably effectively preserved, after greater than 300 years underwater within the Stockholm harbor. Guests can admire its intricate wood carvings on the Vasa Museum, one among Stockholm’s prime vacationer sights.

Its sister warship, Applet (Apple), was constructed across the identical time because the Vasa on the orders of Swedish King Gustav II Adolf.

Not like the Vasa, which keeled over and sank simply minutes after leaving port in 1628, the sister ship was launched with out incident the next yr and remained in energetic service for 3 many years. It was sunk in 1659 to change into a part of an underwater barrier imply to guard the Swedish capital from enemy fleets.

The precise location of the wreck was misplaced over time however marine archaeologists working for Vrak—the Museum of Wrecks in Stockholm—say they discovered a big shipwreck in December 2021 close to the island of Vaxholm, simply east of the capital.

“Our pulses spiked after we noticed how related the wreck was to Vasa,” stated Jim Hansson, one of many archaeologists. “Each the development and the highly effective dimensions appeared very acquainted.”

Consultants had been capable of verify that it was the long-lost Applet by analyzing its technical particulars, wooden samples and archival information, the museum stated in a press release on Monday.

Components of the ship’s sides had collapsed onto the seabed however the hull was in any other case preserved as much as a decrease gun deck. The fallen sides had gun ports on two completely different ranges, which was seen as proof of a warship with two gun decks.

A second, extra thorough dive was made within the spring of 2022, and particulars had been discovered that had to this point solely been seen in Vasa. A number of samples had been taken and analyses made, and it emerged that the oak for the ship’s timber was felled in 1627 in the identical place as Vasa’s timber only a few years earlier.

Consultants say the Vasa sunk as a result of it lacked the ballast to counterweigh its heavy weapons. Applet was constructed broader than Vasa and with a barely completely different hull form. Nonetheless, ships that dimension had been tough to maneuver and Applet most likely remained idle for many of its service, although it sailed towards Germany with greater than 1,000 individuals on board in the course of the Thirty Years’ Struggle, the Vrak museum stated.

No choice has been taken on whether or not to lift the ship, which might be a pricey and complex endeavor.