Divers Discover Wreckage Thought to Be Famous 16th Century Swedish Warship

Divers have found what could be the famous Swedish warship Mars, which was lost in a ferocious sea battle nearly five hundred years ago.

Scuba diving professionals have been searching for the lost vessel for decades and it was finally located over a week ago in the waters near the coast of the Baltic island of Oland, which is situated off the east coast of Sweden.

One of the divers, Richard Lundgren, said: "The ship is lying port-side up and the site is virtually littered with cannons."

Mars was one of the largest ships known in the Baltic during this era, with a crew of 800 and 107 guns. The ship was sunk during a two-day sea battle with the Danish-Lubeckian navy in 1564. The ship was hit by cannon fire and went up in smoke before sinking to the bottom of the ocean.
 

Despite efforts, divers had failed to locate the vessel until now.

The head archaeologist at the Royal Swedish Maritime museum, Andreas Olsson, said that archaeologists will need to examine the wreckage to confirm that it is Mars.

"If this is the Mars it is a truly significant find," Olsson commented. "When it comes to maritime history it really can be seen as the 'missing link' in the chain of what we know of historic shipbuilding -- somewhere between our Swedish Vasa and the English Mary Rose."

He added: “We certainly don’t know of any other ships sinking near those coordinates.”

The wreckage was discovered 75 metres under the surface of the ocean and is reportedly solid oak. Bronze cannons have also been sighted along the seabed close to the shipwreck.

Enthusiastic wreck-diver, Lundgren, said: “To discover a shipwreck is the dream of all divers, but to find Mars, which people have been searching for so long - it couldn’t get bigger than that. I am happy to be Swedish today!”

The Swedish waters offer plenty of scuba diving opportunities for divers including wreck diving, reef dives, ice dives, quarry dives and cave dives.

The island of Orland is a popular scuba diving destination due to an array of sunken World War 1 wrecks, the 18th century Jutholman wreck, and the 19th century Emmy Hasse wreck.

Despite not being one of the warmest locations for scuba diving holidays, Sweden offers plenty of breathtaking underwater sites including flooded mines and approximately 40,000 sunken ships.