Its condition is pristine, but its identity is a mystery. For now, maritime archaeologists call it Okänt Skepp, Swedish for “unknown ship.”
For 500 years, the Baltic Sea held in its depths a tall ship of the Renaissance era. Around the time the ship sank, Columbus was discovering the New World. His fleet vanished long ago. But the Renaissance vessel suddenly reappeared recently, remarkably well preserved in the icy Baltic waters.
The first hint of its existence came in 2009, when a sonar survey by the Swedish Maritime Administration registered an anomalous blip on the Baltic seafloor. Then, early this year, a robotic camera, employed by a commercial team surveying an undersea route for a natural gas pipeline, illuminated not the gooey seabed but a mysterious hulk.
In March, an international team of scientists lowered a pair of tethered robots to explore and document what turned out to be the Renaissance sailing vessel.
“It’s amazing,” said Rodrigo Pacheco-Ruiz, a maritime archaeologist at the University of Southampton, in Britain, who led the investigation. “We’re still a little bit over the moon.”
A lack of oxygen in icy depths can discourage the usual riot of creatures that like to feast on lost wooden ships. After centuries of wear and generations of aquatic colonizers, masts and planking can disintegrate into mounds of debris and layers of seabed ooze.
The Baltic discovery is being announced on Monday. The research team, which includes a number of doctoral students, found the ship lying intact, its hull well preserved from keel to deck, as well as its masts and some rigging. Resting on deck, leaning against the mainmast, was a small wooden boat for ferrying crew members to and from the larger ship.
Various rare items were also visible aboard the ancient wreck, including a wooden bilge pump and a capstan, a wide cylinder used for winding up lengths of rope. The ship’s anchor was also visible, and its presence helped date the wreck to the late 15th or early 16th century, Dr. Pacheco-Ruiz said.
