Sweden

Vrak – Museum of Wrecks is a new museum about the Baltic Sea’s unique wrecks and cultural heritage, and a sister museum to the Vasa Museum in Stockholm. Nowhere else in the world are there as many well-preserved shipwrecks as in the Baltic Sea.

Vrak brings their stories to the surface while leaving the wrecks themselves and their objects on the seafloor where they are best preserved. The new museum serves as a hub for wrecks, new discoveries and research throughout the Baltic Sea region. 

Badewanne originally discovered the wreck last year at the depth of 85m. This summer, during the filming of the documentary film Fluit, the dive team found the transom of the exceptionally well-preserved wreck.

As the divers succeeded in turning over the transom, which was lying face down on the seabed, an engraving with the year 1636 was revealed, along with an image of a swan. The swan is presumed to represent the name of the ship. The divers also took measurements of the wreck to determine the accurate size of the vessel.

On Friday 29 Jan and only a few hours apart, we received similar updates from the organisers of the New Jersey-based Beneath the Seas dive show and the Swedish Dive Show, Dykmässen, which in recent years have been taken place in Gothenburg in the Swedish West coast. Both announced that they will be postponing their respective events until next year due to the restrictions being imposed because of the pandemic.

Beneath the Seas writes:

Press Release

It was due to be held this upcoming weekend - Saturday 14 and Sunday 15 March 2020.

The organiser regrets the inconvenience caused. A future date that will be announced as soon as possible.

However, Swedish Navy spokesman Capt. Bo Rask said Thursday there were no signs the submarine had been damaged by weaponry, but a metal wire

The submarine, a Whiskey-class vessel from the 1950s that was once common in the Soviet navy, was discovered by chance during a seabed survey.

The wreck lies on the seabed in the Swedish economic zone. Some hope that the find will finally prove that Sweden were subject to repeated intrusions by former Eastern bloc submarnes during the 1980s.

In the 1930s, the Soviet Union built a series of submarines called the S class, based on German designs.

In the summer of 1942, the S7 sank the Swedish cargo ships Margareta and Luleå, delivering iron to Germany. Shortly after, the sub was cruising on the surface at night, off the Swedish coast not far from Norrtälje, when she was spotted by the Finnish submarine Vesihiisi. The Vesihiisi fired one torpedo and the S7 sank quickly.