Startling Images of Well Preserved 450 Year Old Shipwreck

[RickI]

Below decks on the Mars in about 250 ft. of water in the Baltic Sea. Photo from Ocean Discovery's Facebook Page


"Mars, also known as Makalös ("peerless; astounding") was a Swedish warship that was built between 1563 and 1564. It was the leading ship of king Eric XIV of Sweden's fleet, and at 48 meters[1] and equipped with 107 guns it was one of the largest warships of the time, even larger than the famous Swedish ship Vasa. In 1564, during the Northern Seven Years' War, the ship caught fire and exploded during the first battle of Öland in the Baltic Sea."
Swedish warship Mars - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

She was engaged in a naval action with Danish forces when German's allied with the Danes started hurling fireballs at the vessel from nearby Lübeck. The vessel was set alight and eventually the powder magazine exploded destroying the ship and killing much of its compliment of 672 souls. About 100 were taken prisoner by the Danes.

The location of the Mars off Sweden in the Baltic Sea
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As with some other old wrecks in dark, cold deep, near anaerobic waters the state of preservation of both organic and inorganic wreckage is remarkable. They have been doing sophisticated optical and acoustical imaging on the wreck including 3-D sonar scans. They created a particularly impressive well illuminated two dimensional composite image of the wreck and debris field.

Continued with more background, still and video images at:

Startling Images of Well Preserved 450 Year Old Shipwreck - FKA Kiteboarding Forums

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[Tom Winters]

I've always kept an eye out for Greeks bearing gifts, but I'm adding Danes with fireballs to the list.

 

[RickI]

Good point, at least in those times. It is amazing just how war-like we were at times in the past. Case in point, I recently learned about Venice sending 25 large boats, 6 galleys and 2 frigates 20 km over land through the Alps in the "Galeas Per Montes" in 1439. They wanted to take control of Lake Garda and a greek sailor made the suggestion. It took 2000 oxen, continuous felling of trees to serve as rollers and an army of slaves and laborers to convey the fleet at times up and over mountains?! The fleet lost its first engagement against the Milanese despite the heroic (dumb?) effort. More battles and wars followed between these parties. Some of the ships have been found underwater.

I've always kept an eye out for Greeks bearing gifts, but I'm adding Danes with fireballs to the list.