Divers Exploring The Depths Of The Baltic Found A 400-Year-Old Impeccably Preserved Wreck

A team dives down through the frigid depths of the Gulf of Finland, the easternmost section of the Baltic Sea. They’re heading for a shipwreck they believe probably dates from WWI or WWII. Yet that’s not what they find. Instead, they come across something entirely unexpected. It’s a merchantman that sank some four centuries ago. But what utterly astonishes the Finnish divers is the fact that the 400-year-old wooden ship is almost entirely intact.

Spotting The Ship

Peering through the chilled waters the men can clearly see the shape of the ship which is identified as a fluyt, sometimes spelt fluit. That was a specialized Dutch-built trading vessel in widespread use in the 17th century. These plied the Baltic Sea at a time when the Netherlands were the predominant maritime traders in those waters and around the world.

280 Feet Below

The vessel sits in about 280 feet of water at the bottom of the Gulf of Finland, resting level on its keel. And astonishingly, this ancient ship still has its cargo stowed in its hold. These fluyts were clearly built to last. But there’s something else at work here as well – the nature of the sea at this depth in these waters.

Preserving Conditions

The fact is that where this fluyt lies, even although it’s in the depths of the sea, the salinity level is exceptionally low, as are both the temperature and light levels. That means that some of the organisms that would normally make short work of a timber-built vessel simply aren’t present. That’s in stark contrast to warmer, more salty seawater, where a wooden ship soon disappears.

Dutch Fluyt

Fluyt is not a word you come across every day, so just what is the story behind these Dutch vessels? Well, they can be traced back to the shipbuilders of a Dutch port city called Hoorn in the north of the country about 20 miles north of Amsterdam. The city’s history goes right back to the 8th century and in the years after its founding it became an important maritime trading center.