Mysterious shipwreck found full of household items near Sweden is dated to 14th century

New details have emerged surrounding the mysterious wreckage of two medieval ships found off the coast of Sweden last spring. Researchers have finally determined their ages and far-flung origins.

The merchant vessels were discovered near the construction of a railway tunnel in Varberg, about 120 miles north of Copenhagen, according to a Nov. 16 news release from Arkeologerna, an archaeological consulting company.

The vessels were known as cogs, a common type of medieval ship, according to archaeologists.

Cogs were “large, with a spacious cargo space, and were mostly equipped with one mast and one large square sail,” according to the Estonian Mere Museum’s website.

The remains of the vessels were found about 30 feet from each other, a highly unusual occurrence, according to archaeologists. One of the wrecks consists of a nearly intact port side, making it the best-preserved cog wreck ever found in Sweden. Only seven had previously been found in the country and fewer than 40 have been discovered in all of Europe.

Months after archaeologists’ initial discovery, wood samples retrieved from the wreck have finally been analyzed and the results address unanswered questions.

The larger vessel, known as Varbergskoggen 1, was constructed with wood dating to 1346, archaeologists said. The timber was sourced hundreds of miles away in the Netherlands, Belgium and France.

The smaller ship, known as Varbergskoggen 2, was built using trees from northern Poland between 1355 and 1357, meaning that though the ships share a final resting place, they were sourced from separate countries.

As to why or how the pair of ships sank, researchers are not yet sure.

The larger of the two ships “rolled on to its port side while it was still rigged so the ship must have been in use at the time,” Anders Gutehall, one of the archaeologists on the project, told McClatchy News, adding that the wreck site was a shallow bay at the time the ships sunk.

“We are not sure if they sunk during a storm or if someone deliberately sunk them,” Gutehall said.

Bad weather, collisions, flooding and shifting of improperly stored cargo are some of the main reasons ships go down, according to the Maritime Injury Center.

Soil samples may eventually reveal the types of food and other cargo that were stowed on board, archaeologists said, which may provide more answers about the ships’ final voyages.

The wreck was close to the medieval town Getakärr, indicating the crew was likely transporting goods to or from the town, Gutehall said.

A variety of household items found inside the wreck, including leather shoes, wooden spoons and engraved kegs, may also help researchers in further unraveling the mystery of the sunken vessels.

“In the coming year we will continue with examining the ships’ timber and document each of them with a hand held laser scanner...which will also be used for a 3D reconstruction,” Gutehall said.

At least several other ancient shipwrecks have been discovered off the coast of Sweden in recent years.

A 500-year-old ship full of soldiers and Danish nobility was found off the coast of southern Sweden in 2021, according to the Smithsonian Magazine.

And in October, archaeologists announced another Swedish shipwreck was rediscovered by scuba divers, according to previous reporting from McClatchy News. Samples of the timber led researchers to the conclusion that the wreck was the Äpplet, a 17th century warship commissioned by a Swedish king.

Google Translate was used to translate the news release from Arkeologerna.

Wreckage of a warship — sunk over 300 years ago by its navy — rediscovered in Sweden

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