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Thread: An extraordinary 500-year-old shipwreck is rewriting the history of the Age of Discov

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    An extraordinary 500-year-old shipwreck is rewriting the history of the Age of Discov

    An extraordinary 500-year-old shipwreck is rewriting the history of the Age of Discovery... In the frigid Baltic Sea, archaeologists probing the surprisingly well-preserved remains of a revolutionary warship are seeing the era in a new way

    At the southern edge of Sweden, not far from the picturesque town of Ronneby, lies a tiny island called Stora Ekon. Sprinkled with pine trees, sheep and a few deserted holiday cottages, the low-lying island is one of hundreds that shelter the coast from the storms of the Baltic Sea. For centuries, the spot was a popular anchorage point, but the waters are now mostly quiet; the most prominent visitors, apart from the occasional pleasure boat, are migrating swans.

    For a few weeks in May, however, a new island intruded on this peaceful scene: A square wood raft topped with two converted shipping containers just a few hundred feet from Stora Ekon’s shoreward coast. The floating platform was busy with divers and archaeologists, here to explore what lies beneath the waves: the wreck of a ship called Gribshunden, a spectacular “floating castle” that served as the royal flagship of King Hans of Denmark more than 500 years ago. Historical sources record how the ship sank in the summer of 1495, along with a large contingent of soldiers and Danish noblemen, although not the king himself, who was ashore at the time.

    Shipwrecks from this period are exceedingly rare. Unless a ship is buried quickly by sediment, the wood is eaten away over the centuries by shipworm, actually a type of saltwater clam. But these organisms don’t survive in the fresher waters of the Baltic, and archaeologists believe that much of Hans’ vessel and its contents are preserved. That promises them an unprecedented look at the life of a medieval king who was said to travel with an abundance of royal possessions, not only food and clothing but weapons, tools, textiles, documents and precious treasures. More than that, the relic provides a unique opportunity to examine a state-of-the-art warship from a little-understood period, when a revolution in shipbuilding and naval warfare was reshaping geopolitics and transforming civilization. What Gribshunden represents, researchers think, is nothing less than the end of the Middle Ages and the birth of the modern world.

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    https://www.smithsonianmag.com/histo...tm_source=digg
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    Gribshunden, also known as Gripshunden, and Griffone, was a large Danish warship employed in the fleet of King John I (Danish: Kong Hans) who reigned in Denmark from 1481 to 1513. Gribshunden appears in some of the earliest Danish fleet records and is amongst the first Danish vessels to be described as a carvel. The vessel, which seems to have served as the king’s flagship, sank in 1495 on an important diplomatic voyage bound for Kalmar, Sweden, where King John was to meet with Regent Stent Sture the Elder and the Swedish council, probably to discuss details regarding the Kalmar Union (Barfod 1990: 80-81). Unfortunately, John I arrived at Kalmar without his mighty Gribshunden

    While anchored at the natural harbour off Ronneby on his way to Kalmar, Gribshunden suddenly caught fire and sank, killing several of the men aboard (Barfod 1990: 80-81, 203). By chance, John I was not aboard Gribshunden at this time himself but witnessed the flames engulf his flagship from a distance from within a ship’s boat. The wreck and its location ultimately sank into oblivion.

    The wreck was rediscovered by local sports divers in the 1970s but it wasn’t until 2001, when strange artefacts had been uncovered on the site, that archaeologists were made aware of its existence and began to investigate it. The wreck, which was unidentified at the time, was found to be rather disjointed but otherwise well-preserved. A wooden sample was promptly taken from one of the timbers, revealing that the ship had been constructed of oak wood felled in the winter of AD 1482-83.



    http://moocs.southampton.ac.uk/shipw...nvestigations/



    Gribshunden-figurehead.jpg
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