Among the islands of the Stockholm archipelago, at a depth of 28 meters, in 2017 the wreck of a merchant ship dating back to the 16th century,

Among the islands of the Stockholm archipelago, at a depth of 28 meters, in 2017 the wreck of a merchant ship dating back to the 16th century, probably Swedish made, destined for the transport of material was located and documented by the archaeologists of the National Maritime Museum. ferrous and in particular of Osmond iron, of which about thirty barrels have been found.

 Loads of this type of iron, produced mainly in the Scandinavian area and exported to Germany and Holland in the form of spheres obtained from the refining of crude iron in special furnaces, are known only in two other shipwrecks, always from the waters of the Baltic.

 The ship, in excellent conservation conditions like most of the wooden wrecks of the area, thanks to the particular conditions of salinity and temperature of the Baltic that protect hulls and superstructures from the destructive action of xylophagous and teredini, still has the mast in the position of navigation, is about 20 meters long and 7.5 wide, and is characterized by elements of naval carpentry halfway between medieval construction techniques and those of the modern age: a precious fossil guides, in short, an age of great transformations , able to tell with a remarkable level of detail the transport of raw and refined metals between Sweden and Finland around the middle of the sixteenth century.

 Despite the decision to keep the wreck's coordinates secret, however, the looters managed to locate the site, and in the course of repeated dives they stole pottery and significant artifacts protected for five centuries from the cold waters of the Baltic: this is what the underwater archaeologists involved in the study of the wreck, recently returned to explore the hull. 

 "What happened was very sad: it was like tearing pages from a book; now we have the cover left, but we have lost the content forever", Jim Hansson, the archaeologist who has been coordinating operations on the site.  The looting apparently went on for several months.