My old friend, Mr Gout, had me immobile for the day, today, so this post will be a bit of a maritime history lesson. That’s the sort of thing I do when I am unable to do anything else. After all, there’s only so much I can write about the view from the sofa.
The other week when Nicoline, Kalle and I visited the library at Oxelösund, I took a photo of a ship model. This is something I’ve done ever since researching the ship models in the Science Museum, Kensington, London. You could say it’s become a habit.
Sometimes I find something interesting about the model.
The model in the library was made in 2005, by Lennart Ekholm of Nykoping. The ship is called “Mastvraket” which means Mast Wreck. It’s named that because it sunk and is now resting with its keel flat on the bottom of the Baltic with the main mast sitting upright as if it is about to set sail underwater. The actual name of the ship is unknown.
Apparently, there’s a model of the wreck as it sits on the bottom of the sea, in Norrkoping Museum of Work. It’s enough to make me want to go and visit. Speaking of which, there’s a maritime museum in Oxelösund, run by Klubb Maritim, but it’s only open in the summer so it’s not like I can find any information from there any time soon.
Anyway, what is known about the wreck is that it was a fully laden Dutch cargo ship which sank in 1714. It was rediscovered in the 1990’s. Then, in 1997, and supervised by the Maritime Museum in Stockholm, researchers took samples of various pieces of timber, metal and glass from the wreck to study.
In 1998, divers spent time supporting the mast with new ropes as it was in danger of falling. Bottles were also salvaged from the cargo to avoid them being damaged. The rest of the cargo remains in the ship. Well, except for the bits possibly looted by less scrupulous people. As things currently stand, the ship is off limits to unauthorised divers.
In order to finance further examination and investigation into the wreck, an association was formed in 1998. This association was called The Mast Wreck Association. It folded on 22 May 2013 and the association papers handed over to Klubb Maritim, Oxelösund who are now responsible for the wreck, along with other local sea related stuff.
A scheduled archaeological investigation in 2020 was postponed because of the pandemic. It was thought that the excavation would go ahead in 2021, virus allowing. I have found a mention from November 2021 when a dive did take place, though not any detail.
The wreck is, historically, very important. The conditions in which it sank have largely preserved it, and there’s not a lot of detail available regarding the maritime practices of the time it was sailing and trading.
Here’s the model which, for reasons known only to the model maker, has a Swedish flag.
That’s all I have found out about this fascinatingly mysterious ship. I may revisit if anything new comes to light.
Shipwrecks aside, I was rather spoiled with Mirinda cooking dinner tonight. Which was a vast improvement on last night’s roast.
By the way, the title refers to this wonderful song by Noel Coward.
