Remains of 400-year-old ship found beneath quay ice in middle of Stockholm

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Last updated at 5:43 PM on 26th November 2010

The remains of a ship dating from the 1600s have been discovered in the centre of Sweden’s capital

The wrecked vessel, thought to be Russian, was stumbled upon by a labourer renovating a quay outside the Grand Hotel in Stockholm.

Archaeologists are particularly interested in a previous unknown technology used to build the boat.

The planks of the ship are not nailed down, but sewn together with rope.

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Find: A worker stands near some of the wooden beams from a unique shipwreck discovered in front of the Grand Hotel in Stockholm (Creative Commons Licensed)

‘The discovery of the wreck is extremely interesting given the place where it was made. There was a naval shipyard on this spot until the start of the 17th century,’ Maritime Museum director Hans-Lennarth Ohlsson said.

The discovery was made when a couple of weeks ago, a labourer found something unusual in his bucket.

Marine archaeologist Jim Hansson at the Maritime Museum was called to the Strömkajen quay, near the royal palace, where he quickly realised the value of the sensational find.

Discovery: The beams in the shipwreck were fastened together using rope, rather than being nailed down

‘We were super-excited. It may sound a little strange when one finds little excavated pieces of parts of a ship, but I have never seen anything like it,’ he said.

With the exception of another ship found in 1896, all other shipwrecks uncovered in and around the Stockholm harbour have featured planks that were nailed together.

‘We really know nothing about this technique other than that it was used in the east,’ Mr Hansson told The Local website.

Mr Hansson guesses that the ship is from east of the Baltic, possibly from Russia.

The ship's position, well into the quay, reveals that it is from the 1600s or earlier.

The wreck was not necessarily linked to the yard, however, and archaeologists have been unable to say how long before 1700 it might have sunk.

Marine archaeologists will send samples to Denmark's Copenhagen National Museum for analysis to be dated as precisely as possible, with results expected by January 2011.

In addition, they will monitor the rest of the excavation.

‘It is pretty damn nervewracking. It is rare that an archaeologist gets to take a part in something like this,' Mr Hansson said.

'One gets to leave the kids at home and stand in a pit of mud at Christmas.'

In 1961, the Vasa, a Swedish warship, was salvaged from just outside Stockholm harbour.

The ship, which foundered on her maiden voyage in 1628, was largely intact and has since become one of Sweden's most popular tourist attractions.