The Vrak Shipwreck Museum on Monday announced one of its most important archaeological discoveries in recent history. Specialists from the institution were working with the Swedish Navy in Vaxholm Strait, about 30 km from Stockholm, when they found the ruins of the Äpplet (apple), the “sister” vessel of the iconic Swedish warship Vasa.
The remains of the Äpplet were located in December last year, and although the sides of the vessel had come off, the hull was relatively well preserved. The segment that came loose had two rows of portholes, indicating that it was a 17th century warship, similar in structure to the Vasa.
The historic Swedish ship sank on her maiden voyage, as she left Stockholm Bay, in 1629, and was not raised from the sea floor until more than three centuries later, in 1961. An intense restoration work —98% of the original structure has been preserved— was what motivated the foundation of the Vasa Museum, where the vessel is on display.
“With the Äpplet, we can provide a key piece to the puzzle surrounding the development of Swedish shipbuilding,” said one of the archaeologists responsible for the discovery, Jim Hansson. “It will allow us to understand how other warships have evolved, from the unstable Vasa to the giant capable of navigating and controlling the Baltic Sea.”
In 1625, King of Sweden Gustaf Adolph II ordered the construction of four warships. The two largest, Vasa and Äpplet, were designed by engineer Hein Jacobsson. If Vasa had a tragic fate and sank within the first kilometer sailed, the Äpplet had a long journey of adventures at sea.
In the Thirty Years’ War —the conflict between Catholics and Protestants that marked Europe between 1618 and 1648—, the Äpplet was part of the fleet that left Sweden for Germany, with about 900 soldiers and another 100 sailors on board. At the end of the war, the ship continued in activity for another ten years, until 1658, when she lost the conditions of use and was deliberately sunk by the Navy.
According to the Vrak museum, technical details, dimensions and wood samples confirmed the identity of the vessel, found about 7 meters above the sea floor. The conditions for a boat to maintain its wooden structure for such a long period, however, are quite particular.
Teredo (or sea termites), a xylophagous worm that attacks submerged wood, do not live in the Baltic Sea. This is why maritime archeology is so effervescent in the region: shipwrecks resist decomposition for centuries. The Swedish coast, for example, has dozens of sunken vessels and archaeological sites open to visitors.
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