Two diagrams of the shipwreck.Image credit: Alexander Rauscher and Jim Hansson
Posted on 03/07/2025 8:21:32 AM PST by SunkenCiv
A more than 500-year-old shipwreck off the coast of Sweden isn't a Viking vessel after all, scientists have found.
A 15th-century shipwreck off the coast of Sweden may be Scandinavia's oldest shipwreck built in the innovative "carvel" style — a design that gave it the strength to carry heavy cannons, archaeologists say.
The wreck at Landfjärden, south of Stockholm, is one of five in the area that have been known since the 1800s. They were commonly thought to have been from ships dating to the Viking Age (A.D. 793 to 1066).
But last year, maritime archaeologists at Vrak, the museum of wrecks in Stockholm, revealed that four of the wrecks date to the 1600s and 1700s and that the oldest wreck was built before 1480 and perhaps as early as the 1460s, museum curator and project manager Håkan Altrock said in a statement.
"It's a large ship, likely about 35 metres [115 feet] long and 10 metres [33 feet] wide," he said. "The ship's frame still rises high above the seabed, and in the stern, both the sternpost and rudder remain upright."
The most significant aspect of the wreck, now known as "Vrak 5," is that it was built in the "carvel" style, with planks on the hull that were flush with neighboring planks so that the whole hull surface was relatively smooth, Altrock said.
...the use of carvel-style flush planks — an innovation from the Mediterranean dating to about the seventh century A.D. — meant that a ship's hull could be reinforced with framing to make it stronger. This was an important consideration when ships started carrying cannons in the 15th century, Altrock said, so traditional "clinker-built" ships soon became obsolete.
(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...
Two diagrams of the shipwreck.Image credit: Alexander Rauscher and Jim Hansson
As medieval ships go...that must be the SS Rosa DeLauro.
Interesting that the date bracketing a seafaring power would be the successful Norseman land battle at Hastings.
Well, I learned something here. At first I thought this was a spelling mistake. I am familiar with the caravel type of ship used by the Portuguese and Spanish. I didn't know about "carvel". Turns out it's significant.
The unsuccessful Battle of Stamford Bridge is why the end of the bracket is there.
The Normans had some Viking roots, hence their violence and short-lived House of Normandy in England, but were French speakers.
The Battle of Stamford Bridge, shortly before Hastings, was a resounding defeat for one of the last Viking armies. It was the last time a full invasion fleet was assembled and sent to England or Europe by the Vikings.
Same here. I thought at first that it was a typo. Now, it could be that Caravel is some kind of alt-spelling or variant type, dunno. Clinker-built includes sewn boats, which is a very old tradition, but as tonnage went up, things changed.
What AzSteven said. :^)
:^)
One that comes back to me is when Hagar came home to his wife and gave her a lock for their home. He’d been On the Vik and sacked a castle that had the lock. How’d you get it? It was easy, I just pulled it out. :^D
My favorite John Wayne fistfight is the one that takes up the last, I dunno, 20% of “The Quiet Man”. :^) Also the bar fight in “Hellfighters” is amusing.
It was at this point that I lost the thread.
Clinker hulls have the planks riveted together, typically with copper. Carvel hulls require calking, starting with fiber (such as cotton or okum) driven into a beveled butt joint with a carefully managed gap between planks and then a sealant (from tar to modern elastomers). Both leak like a seive when put into the water dry as the wood swells. If a carvel hull is too tight when dry, it can pop fasteners. Its assembly must be to much more careful tolerances in planking.
All of the later kings of England are descended from William of Normandy (a.k.a. William the Bastard).
Came here to comment the same thing. Never knew about the carvels. Thought they were referring to Fudgie the Whale.
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