Älvsnabbenvraket - with rye and oats in the cargo

The hull of the wreck was intact and stood upright on the bottom. The stern was at a depth of 12.5 metres and the bow at 17 metres. The rigging was gone and the aft deck was in pieces – perhaps resulting from salvage operations in the years following the shipwreck.

A comprehensive excavation was carried out in the 1970s. The length of the wreck measured 21 metres and its width 6 metres. The ship’s stern was rounded, and it is likely to have had one or two masts. This made it reasonable to assume that it was a so-called galiot, a common type of merchant ship along the coasts of the Baltic Sea in the 18th century.

The divers found grains, mainly rye and oats, in the hold. Corn marigold was among the weed seeds found in the grain. This herb grows in Denmark, northern Germany and southern Sweden, but no farther north than that. The coins on board the wreck all come from northern Germany. The ship was probably on its way from there to Stockholm with its cargo.

The coins are also dated and show that the ship could not have wrecked before 1728. Dating of other salvaged objects – clay pipes, ceramics and bottles – reinforces the assumption that the ship sank in the first half of the 18th century.

So, we know where it comes from and how old it is. But its identity has not been determined for sure.