New fieldwork done at Ghost wreck in Sweden

In the Baltic Sea near Gotland lies a very well preserved 17th century shipwreck. The ship was discovered by Deep Sea Productions and MMTAB/Marin Mätteknik during their search for the Swedish DC-3 airplane lost in 1952. During the recording of a TV series, ”The Wreck Divers”, in 2007, the ship was surveyed using a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV). The analysis below is based on this documentation. In 2008 an international research group (see below) was formed in cooperation between the University of College of Södertörn and the discoverers with the aim of further researching and analysing the wreck.

New fieldwork
From the 5th until the 9th of November 2008, Dutch maritime archaeologist Martijn Manders and the location manager of the Maritime Heritage department in Lelystad  Benno van Tilburg (both RACM), have joined Deep Sea Productions – the discoverers of the site – on a fieldwork trip to an extremely well preserved shipwreck that lies at 130 metres of depth North of Gotland in the Swedish economic zone. This ship is believed to be a 17th century Dutch vessel.
The aim of this expedition was to make detailed recording of the ship and the seabed around it in order to determine whether the preliminary identification of it as being from the 17th century and Dutch and to (hopefully) shed some light on the type of vessel.  
First the location has been recorded with Side Scan Sonar and  Multibeam. Then two Remote Operating Vehicles (ROV’s) have been lowered down included also by light equipment mounted on a frame. The ROV’s contain camera’s and can be moved from the surface with little joy sticks. The smallest of the two could give the researchers some information on the interior of the ship. The large one has been mainly recording the outer part of the hull and the elements of the ship that have been fallen of over time and are laying around the wreck. Also one pinewood samples was taken to be dendrochronologically investigated (tree ring dating).

The results of the field trip are:
Coverage of the whole ship with HD video. Details that can reveal the type of ship have been investigated. This hours of material is still under investigation. The ship is clearly built in typical Dutch style. The form indicates a Flute like ship, but it has many features that indicates towards a Buss as well. This is not that strange since these types of ships looked very much alike in the 17th century. Some “details” like the ration length-width are still under investigation.
In the coming months scientist from Sweden, The Netherlands, UK and US will be investigating the video’s and the samples taken. Also plans are made for yet another field visit in 2009 and a possible dive action (saturation) to the site in 2011.

ROV recording of deck hatch

Deep Sea Productions research ship The Franklin

taking a woodsample for wood-ring analysis

An 17th century Dutch fluytship