Books by Niklas Eriksson
Under 1600-talet utvecklades Sverige till en militär stormakt samtidigt som internationella konta... more Under 1600-talet utvecklades Sverige till en militär stormakt samtidigt som internationella kontakter och handelsutbyte vitaliserades. I stormaktens mitt, omgärdat av tusentals svårnavigerade öar, skär och lömska undervattensgrynnor låg Stockholm. Härifrån administrerades landets moderniserade och effektiviserade förvaltning av skatter och tullar för de skepp som utgjorde kontakterna med utlandet. Farlederna genom skärgården kantades av en brokig och ständigt föränderlig bebyggelse som till största delen bestod av skepp.
Spåren efter segelfartygen försvann från havsytan så snart kölvattnet lagt sig, och Stockholms skärgård framstår idag i det närmaste som ett orört naturlandskap. I Stormaktsskärgård berättar arkeologen Niklas Eriksson hur staten omformade farlederna och skapade förutsättningar för handelssjöfarten att röra sig bland skären. Eriksson skildrar en landskaps historia i gränslandet mellan stormakten och det öppna havet, berättad utifrån reseskildringar, kartor, fornlämningar, bilder, skeppsvrak och annat källmaterial.
Riksäpplet deals with a shipwreck that has a neglected position in the grand narrative of the his... more Riksäpplet deals with a shipwreck that has a neglected position in the grand narrative of the history of the Swedish navy. The story of its destiny and the missing accounts in scholarly and popular works in history says something about heritage processes within Swedish maritime archaeology.
On 5 June 1676 Riksäpplet came loose and adrift from its moorings outside Dalarö Sea fortress. The hull struck a rock and sank. The loss was considered both ignominious and embarrassing and the ship’s fate has been overlooked in all major history books. The rock onto which Riksäpplet sank was named ‘Äpplet’ after the incident, and the wreck itself has become an integrated component of the underwater seascape. As a consequence the wreckage has never enjoyed a proper ‘discovery’ or undergone documentation under the sensational forms that many other famous shipwrecks have, even though they have sunk in more inconvenient places.
In Eriksson’s study the official handling of Riksäpplet’s wrecked body is compared to the more wellknown ships Kronan and Svärdet, which both sank during battle only days before. Eriksson draws on different motifs and driving forces behind the study of naval wrecks from the period from his comparison, and the differences are discussed. Riksäpplet has never achieved a prominent position with the romanticising works of history that honour the national heroes and their deeds which are associated with this era of the Swedish Empire. The first half of the book thus sets out to unpack the ideas that have led to the relative disinterest in Riksäpplet in comparison to other shipwrecks.
The second half of the book sets out to analyse Riksäpplet from a specific archaeological perspective, with focus on the ship as material culture. Eriksson’s departure is to explore the relatively low budget fieldwork that has been done at the wreck site. He the combines those facts with a survey of the artefacts recovered from the wreck, of which all are kept in museum archives and private collections. This, in addition to his studies of preserved written correspondence concerning the construction of the ship, has brought new insights into seventeenth-century shipbuilding and how the balance between the global political superpowers affected this trade. In this context Riksäpplet has great potential to show how military alliances are materialized through ships’ architecture.
In the seventeenth- and early eighteenth centuries, fluits were the most common type of merch... more In the seventeenth- and early eighteenth centuries, fluits were the most common type of merchant ship used in Baltic trade. Originally a Dutch design, the majority of all goods transported between Sweden and the Republic was carried on board such vessels. Far from all voyages reached their destination. Down in the cold brackish water of the Baltic, the preservation conditions are optimal, and several of these unfortunate vessels remain nearly intact today. Although thousands of more or less identical fluits were built, surprisingly little is known about the arrangement of space on board, their sculptural embellishment and other aspects that formed the physical component of everyday life on and alongside these ships. Fluits were a fixture in early modern society, so numerous that they became almost invisible. The study of wrecks thus holds great potential for revealing vital components of early modern life. Inspired by phenomenological approaches in archaeology, this thesis aims to focus on the lived experience of fluits. It sets out to grasp for seemingly mundane everyday activities relating to these ships, from the physical arrangements for eating, sleeping and answering nature’s call, to their rearrangement for naval use, and ends with a consideration of the architectonical contribution of the fluit to the urban landscape.
Papers by Niklas Eriksson
Under 2022 har Stockholms universitet genomfört en marinarkeologisk forskningsundersökning i
sjö... more Under 2022 har Stockholms universitet genomfört en marinarkeologisk forskningsundersökning i
sjöarna runt fornlämningen Lojsta slott. Det har länge antagits att Lojsta slott är identiskt med ett
fäste som i en skriftlig urkund benämns som Goltborch och som stormades av Tyska orden 1404. Det
primära syftet med undersökningen var att ta träprover från pålar för att datera dessa genom
dendrokronologisk analys. Den dendrokronologiska analysen styrker antagandet genom att samtliga
prover som kan knytas till borgen kunde dateras till den tioårsperiod då fästet nämns i skriftliga
källor. Därutöver visade undersökningen att Lojstasjöarna rymmer många andra lämningar utöver
den sedan tidigare kända försvarsanläggningen och att undervattensmiljön har en stor arkeologisk
potential
In: Hellman, L.; Hodacs, H.; Makko, A.; Murdoch, S. (eds.) Connected Oceans: A Festschrift to Leos Müller, Lund: Universus Press, pp. 256-271, 2022
Blekinge museum har på uppdrag av Länsstyrelsen i Blekinge undersökt och dokumenterat vraket efte... more Blekinge museum har på uppdrag av Länsstyrelsen i Blekinge undersökt och dokumenterat vraket efter flöjtskeppet Constantia (1676), beläget öster om Inlängan i Blekinge skärgård. Lämningen dokumenterades genom fotogrammetri och manuell uppmätning. Därutöver sågades fem prov för dendrokronologisk analys och ett fyra tegelstenar bärgades för ICP-analys. Området runt vraket metalldetekterades och flera större utslag noterades, möjligtvis kanoner. På lämningen påträffades en träsked samt flera metallfragment från en klocka vilka skyddsbärgades efter samråd med Länsstyrelsen.
Undersökningen visar att lämningen trots sitt nedbrutna tillstånd innehåller flera välbevarade och orörda arkeologiska kontexter vilka kan ge en unik inblick i livet ombord på ett krigsfartyg under stormaktstiden och inte minst användningen av bestyckade handelsfartyg. Därutöver illustrerar hela händelseförloppet kring Constantias förlisning på det strategiska behovet av en flottbas i södra Östersjön, ett behov som Karlskrona därefter kommit att tillgodose.
Linderoth, A. (red.) Fredrik Henrik af Chapman_ myt & verklighet, Karlskrona_ Marinmuseum, s. 33-47. ISSN 1404-0581, 2020
Douglas, C. (ed.) Vrak: Havets rika historia, Stockholm: Max Ström, 119-142, ISBN:9789171265944, 2023
I Linderoth, A. (ed.) Svenskt sjöförsvar 500 år – människor, politik & kulturarv, Marinmuseums årsbok, Marinmuseum: Karlskrona, 70-83. , 2022
This is a short text about a unique ship model from the 17th century. Its led keel indicates that... more This is a short text about a unique ship model from the 17th century. Its led keel indicates that it was intended to sail and at some point it has been converted into a fireship.
International Journal of Nautical Archaeology, 2023
The 16th-century Riddarholmen Ship was discovered in the middle of Stockholm in 1930. Despite bei... more The 16th-century Riddarholmen Ship was discovered in the middle of Stockholm in 1930. Despite being exhibited since 1947, the efforts to reconstruct the ship have been limited. A substantial portion of the recovered parts has never been put on display. This paper aims to shed new light on the ship´s architecture using the original material from the excavation together with an inventory of the timbers in the collections of the Medieval Museum. From this, it is argued that the ship originally had a full deck, three masts, and a forecastle and that it resembles an early purpose-built, gun-carrying warship.
Populär arkeologi, 2023
Marinarkeologiska upptäckter sker inte alltid långt ut till havs eller på stora djup. Vid grekisk... more Marinarkeologiska upptäckter sker inte alltid långt ut till havs eller på stora djup. Vid grekiska Asine påträffades nyligen omfattande fornlämningar-bara några meter under vattenytan.
En sådan plats där omfattande fornlämningar helt nyligen har påträffats under vatten är boplatsen Asine på nordöstra Peleponnesos i Grekland.
Här har svenska arkeologer grävt i olika omgångar i över hundra år. Misstankar om att bosättningen avsatt spår och att den fortsätter ut på sjöbottnen har funnits länge, men det är först nu som ett marinarkeologiskt projekt vid Stockholms universitet har uppdagat hur
betydande dessa anläggningar faktiskt är.
The International Journal of Nautical Archaeology, 2021
It has been known that a large, clinker-built shipwreck lies on the seabed near the Hotel
Bellevu... more It has been known that a large, clinker-built shipwreck lies on the seabed near the Hotel
Bellevue in Dalarö in the Stockholm archipelago since the 1960s. The wreck has been the
subject of several small-scale archaeological investigations. This article reports the results of
recent marine archaeological fieldwork that concluded that the Bellevue wreck is the
remains of a late medieval ship equipped with a forecastle. Moreover, the analysis shows
that it was a larger vessel for its day. The article argues that the wreck resembles what may
be referred to as a hulk.
Facing the Sea, 2021
A sea route is more than a simple path between obstacles formed by Nature.
Harbour installations... more A sea route is more than a simple path between obstacles formed by Nature.
Harbour installations, fortifications, customs offices, and umpteen other
expressions of material culture formed the architecture of the sea routes – an
architecture that underwent a significant remake in the fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries. This essay looks at how the Swedish state took control of the natural
landscape along the sea routes into Stockholm and transformed them.
Eriksson, N. 2021, Baltic and east European shipbuilding influences in the Swedish Empire: tracing local and inter-regional shipbuilding traditions from the armed vessel Bodekull, built 1659-1661 and sunk 1678, In. Boetta, G., Pomey, P., Poveda, P. (Eds.) Open Sea, Closed Sea, ISBSA 15, p. 51-56. Boetta, G., Pomey, P., Poveda, P. (Eds.) Open Sea, Closed Sea: Local and Inter-Regional Traditions in Shipbuilding, Proceedings of the Fifteenth International Symposium on Boat and Ship Archaeology Marseuilles 2018, 2021
Research in the Swedish military archives has revealed the identity of the 'Edesö Wreck' as the B... more Research in the Swedish military archives has revealed the identity of the 'Edesö Wreck' as the Bodekull belonging to the Swedish navy. The vessel was one of around 45 struss vessels ordered by King Karl X Gustav in 1659 to be used to transport troops and horses between the Danish isles. As a consequence of the king's sudden death in January 1660 and the end of the war against Denmark, the semi-finished purpose-built invasion fleet was rebuilt into vessels for which the navy had better use. It is still possible, however, to trace the original design of the vessel through the preserved hull structure.
The Mariner's Mirror, 2020
The Griffin or, as it was sometimes called, Gribshunden (griffin hound) was a ship that belonged ... more The Griffin or, as it was sometimes called, Gribshunden (griffin hound) was a ship that belonged to the Danish–Norwegian King Hans. The ship sank in 1495 and was one of the largest and most modern warships of its day. In 2015 a peculiar figurehead carving was raised from the wreck. It is shaped like a beast swallowing a man screaming in agony. The question is, what this sculpture is meant to symbolize? This article aims to shed light on the enquiry through placing the sculpture in a wider chronological context. Against the background of a general overview,
from the dragon heads of the late Iron Age to early modern figureheads, it is argued that the sculpture raised from the Griffin was carved in a period when figureheads did not relate to the ship’s name or owner, but that the monstrous head is an expression of the spirit or character of
the vessel.
Forum Navale, 2020
Sweden´s oldest Ship Drawing: an investigation and interpretation
Sweden’s oldest drawing of a sh... more Sweden´s oldest Ship Drawing: an investigation and interpretation
Sweden’s oldest drawing of a ship is kept in the National Archives. It depicts a warship with two rows of gunports, hence the working name ‘The anonymous two-decker’. Unfortunately, nothing is known regarding its provenance, when it was made, or who drew it. Most likely we will never know which ship is depicted. However, this does not imply that the drawing is totally vapid or incomprehensible. The aim of this article is to date the drawing, but also to narrow down in which historical context the drawing may have been created in. The article also sets out to discuss which ships may have been of a similar design. An underlying motif is to make the drawing more accessible for further research.
Drawings from the seventeenth century and earlier are very rare.
Through comparing the present drawing with the few other examples that
exist it is apparent that it has not been used for calculating lines and shape
of the ship’s hull, but rather to present the general layout and arrangement
of decks, gunports and different rooms aboard.
An analysis of the drawing reveal that it was drawn in 1:64 scale using
a ruler of about one foot’s length as the single tool. Contemporary master
shipwrights used dividers, curve rulers and similar to produce their drawings.
Hence ‘The anonymous two-decker’ is more of a sketch than a proper
drawing. With no doubt it was made by a person with substantial knowledge
about ships and how to draw and calculate with scale, but it questionable
if it was a master shipwright.
The drawing has several notes and texts in English. The colour of the
text differs from the colour of the ink in the drawing, which indicates that
the text is secondary. This means that the person who drew the image and
the one who wrote on it do not have to be the same. Previous researchers
have suggested that the drawing was made in England or from an English
original, but in fact there were several English and Scottish master shipwrights
working at Swedish shipyards in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth
century. The text could have been made by one of them.
The drawing reveals the ship´s main dimensions: Length of keel, width,
depth of hold, as well as some other measurements. It is not possible to
identify a particular ship that corresponds to these dimensions, but it is apparent
that the ship is proportionally wide in relation to its length, which
is archaic. The number of gunports however corresponds to what we know regarding the Swedish ship Scepter, this without saying that the drawing depicts this very ship. Scepter was likely much larger than ‘The anonymous two-decker’.
On War on Board: Archaeological and historical perspectives on early modern maritime violence and warfare / [ed] Johan Rönnby, Huddinge:: Södertörns högskola, 2019
Gränsløs, 2019
Skulpturen från Gribshunden påminner om de vidunder som återfinns i medeltida kyrkor. Exemplen hä... more Skulpturen från Gribshunden påminner om de vidunder som återfinns i medeltida kyrkor. Exemplen här är från Alskog respektive Bunge kyrka på Gotland. Foto: Niklas Eriksson Framställningen och slutsatserna ska betraktas som preliminära och jag är väl medveten om att ämnet knappast är uttömt i och med denna text. Fördjupade studier skulle tvivelsutan bringa ytterligare aspekter i dagen.
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Books by Niklas Eriksson
Spåren efter segelfartygen försvann från havsytan så snart kölvattnet lagt sig, och Stockholms skärgård framstår idag i det närmaste som ett orört naturlandskap. I Stormaktsskärgård berättar arkeologen Niklas Eriksson hur staten omformade farlederna och skapade förutsättningar för handelssjöfarten att röra sig bland skären. Eriksson skildrar en landskaps historia i gränslandet mellan stormakten och det öppna havet, berättad utifrån reseskildringar, kartor, fornlämningar, bilder, skeppsvrak och annat källmaterial.
On 5 June 1676 Riksäpplet came loose and adrift from its moorings outside Dalarö Sea fortress. The hull struck a rock and sank. The loss was considered both ignominious and embarrassing and the ship’s fate has been overlooked in all major history books. The rock onto which Riksäpplet sank was named ‘Äpplet’ after the incident, and the wreck itself has become an integrated component of the underwater seascape. As a consequence the wreckage has never enjoyed a proper ‘discovery’ or undergone documentation under the sensational forms that many other famous shipwrecks have, even though they have sunk in more inconvenient places.
In Eriksson’s study the official handling of Riksäpplet’s wrecked body is compared to the more wellknown ships Kronan and Svärdet, which both sank during battle only days before. Eriksson draws on different motifs and driving forces behind the study of naval wrecks from the period from his comparison, and the differences are discussed. Riksäpplet has never achieved a prominent position with the romanticising works of history that honour the national heroes and their deeds which are associated with this era of the Swedish Empire. The first half of the book thus sets out to unpack the ideas that have led to the relative disinterest in Riksäpplet in comparison to other shipwrecks.
The second half of the book sets out to analyse Riksäpplet from a specific archaeological perspective, with focus on the ship as material culture. Eriksson’s departure is to explore the relatively low budget fieldwork that has been done at the wreck site. He the combines those facts with a survey of the artefacts recovered from the wreck, of which all are kept in museum archives and private collections. This, in addition to his studies of preserved written correspondence concerning the construction of the ship, has brought new insights into seventeenth-century shipbuilding and how the balance between the global political superpowers affected this trade. In this context Riksäpplet has great potential to show how military alliances are materialized through ships’ architecture.
Papers by Niklas Eriksson
sjöarna runt fornlämningen Lojsta slott. Det har länge antagits att Lojsta slott är identiskt med ett
fäste som i en skriftlig urkund benämns som Goltborch och som stormades av Tyska orden 1404. Det
primära syftet med undersökningen var att ta träprover från pålar för att datera dessa genom
dendrokronologisk analys. Den dendrokronologiska analysen styrker antagandet genom att samtliga
prover som kan knytas till borgen kunde dateras till den tioårsperiod då fästet nämns i skriftliga
källor. Därutöver visade undersökningen att Lojstasjöarna rymmer många andra lämningar utöver
den sedan tidigare kända försvarsanläggningen och att undervattensmiljön har en stor arkeologisk
potential
Undersökningen visar att lämningen trots sitt nedbrutna tillstånd innehåller flera välbevarade och orörda arkeologiska kontexter vilka kan ge en unik inblick i livet ombord på ett krigsfartyg under stormaktstiden och inte minst användningen av bestyckade handelsfartyg. Därutöver illustrerar hela händelseförloppet kring Constantias förlisning på det strategiska behovet av en flottbas i södra Östersjön, ett behov som Karlskrona därefter kommit att tillgodose.
En sådan plats där omfattande fornlämningar helt nyligen har påträffats under vatten är boplatsen Asine på nordöstra Peleponnesos i Grekland.
Här har svenska arkeologer grävt i olika omgångar i över hundra år. Misstankar om att bosättningen avsatt spår och att den fortsätter ut på sjöbottnen har funnits länge, men det är först nu som ett marinarkeologiskt projekt vid Stockholms universitet har uppdagat hur
betydande dessa anläggningar faktiskt är.
Bellevue in Dalarö in the Stockholm archipelago since the 1960s. The wreck has been the
subject of several small-scale archaeological investigations. This article reports the results of
recent marine archaeological fieldwork that concluded that the Bellevue wreck is the
remains of a late medieval ship equipped with a forecastle. Moreover, the analysis shows
that it was a larger vessel for its day. The article argues that the wreck resembles what may
be referred to as a hulk.
Harbour installations, fortifications, customs offices, and umpteen other
expressions of material culture formed the architecture of the sea routes – an
architecture that underwent a significant remake in the fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries. This essay looks at how the Swedish state took control of the natural
landscape along the sea routes into Stockholm and transformed them.
from the dragon heads of the late Iron Age to early modern figureheads, it is argued that the sculpture raised from the Griffin was carved in a period when figureheads did not relate to the ship’s name or owner, but that the monstrous head is an expression of the spirit or character of
the vessel.
Sweden’s oldest drawing of a ship is kept in the National Archives. It depicts a warship with two rows of gunports, hence the working name ‘The anonymous two-decker’. Unfortunately, nothing is known regarding its provenance, when it was made, or who drew it. Most likely we will never know which ship is depicted. However, this does not imply that the drawing is totally vapid or incomprehensible. The aim of this article is to date the drawing, but also to narrow down in which historical context the drawing may have been created in. The article also sets out to discuss which ships may have been of a similar design. An underlying motif is to make the drawing more accessible for further research.
Drawings from the seventeenth century and earlier are very rare.
Through comparing the present drawing with the few other examples that
exist it is apparent that it has not been used for calculating lines and shape
of the ship’s hull, but rather to present the general layout and arrangement
of decks, gunports and different rooms aboard.
An analysis of the drawing reveal that it was drawn in 1:64 scale using
a ruler of about one foot’s length as the single tool. Contemporary master
shipwrights used dividers, curve rulers and similar to produce their drawings.
Hence ‘The anonymous two-decker’ is more of a sketch than a proper
drawing. With no doubt it was made by a person with substantial knowledge
about ships and how to draw and calculate with scale, but it questionable
if it was a master shipwright.
The drawing has several notes and texts in English. The colour of the
text differs from the colour of the ink in the drawing, which indicates that
the text is secondary. This means that the person who drew the image and
the one who wrote on it do not have to be the same. Previous researchers
have suggested that the drawing was made in England or from an English
original, but in fact there were several English and Scottish master shipwrights
working at Swedish shipyards in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth
century. The text could have been made by one of them.
The drawing reveals the ship´s main dimensions: Length of keel, width,
depth of hold, as well as some other measurements. It is not possible to
identify a particular ship that corresponds to these dimensions, but it is apparent
that the ship is proportionally wide in relation to its length, which
is archaic. The number of gunports however corresponds to what we know regarding the Swedish ship Scepter, this without saying that the drawing depicts this very ship. Scepter was likely much larger than ‘The anonymous two-decker’.
Spåren efter segelfartygen försvann från havsytan så snart kölvattnet lagt sig, och Stockholms skärgård framstår idag i det närmaste som ett orört naturlandskap. I Stormaktsskärgård berättar arkeologen Niklas Eriksson hur staten omformade farlederna och skapade förutsättningar för handelssjöfarten att röra sig bland skären. Eriksson skildrar en landskaps historia i gränslandet mellan stormakten och det öppna havet, berättad utifrån reseskildringar, kartor, fornlämningar, bilder, skeppsvrak och annat källmaterial.
On 5 June 1676 Riksäpplet came loose and adrift from its moorings outside Dalarö Sea fortress. The hull struck a rock and sank. The loss was considered both ignominious and embarrassing and the ship’s fate has been overlooked in all major history books. The rock onto which Riksäpplet sank was named ‘Äpplet’ after the incident, and the wreck itself has become an integrated component of the underwater seascape. As a consequence the wreckage has never enjoyed a proper ‘discovery’ or undergone documentation under the sensational forms that many other famous shipwrecks have, even though they have sunk in more inconvenient places.
In Eriksson’s study the official handling of Riksäpplet’s wrecked body is compared to the more wellknown ships Kronan and Svärdet, which both sank during battle only days before. Eriksson draws on different motifs and driving forces behind the study of naval wrecks from the period from his comparison, and the differences are discussed. Riksäpplet has never achieved a prominent position with the romanticising works of history that honour the national heroes and their deeds which are associated with this era of the Swedish Empire. The first half of the book thus sets out to unpack the ideas that have led to the relative disinterest in Riksäpplet in comparison to other shipwrecks.
The second half of the book sets out to analyse Riksäpplet from a specific archaeological perspective, with focus on the ship as material culture. Eriksson’s departure is to explore the relatively low budget fieldwork that has been done at the wreck site. He the combines those facts with a survey of the artefacts recovered from the wreck, of which all are kept in museum archives and private collections. This, in addition to his studies of preserved written correspondence concerning the construction of the ship, has brought new insights into seventeenth-century shipbuilding and how the balance between the global political superpowers affected this trade. In this context Riksäpplet has great potential to show how military alliances are materialized through ships’ architecture.
sjöarna runt fornlämningen Lojsta slott. Det har länge antagits att Lojsta slott är identiskt med ett
fäste som i en skriftlig urkund benämns som Goltborch och som stormades av Tyska orden 1404. Det
primära syftet med undersökningen var att ta träprover från pålar för att datera dessa genom
dendrokronologisk analys. Den dendrokronologiska analysen styrker antagandet genom att samtliga
prover som kan knytas till borgen kunde dateras till den tioårsperiod då fästet nämns i skriftliga
källor. Därutöver visade undersökningen att Lojstasjöarna rymmer många andra lämningar utöver
den sedan tidigare kända försvarsanläggningen och att undervattensmiljön har en stor arkeologisk
potential
Undersökningen visar att lämningen trots sitt nedbrutna tillstånd innehåller flera välbevarade och orörda arkeologiska kontexter vilka kan ge en unik inblick i livet ombord på ett krigsfartyg under stormaktstiden och inte minst användningen av bestyckade handelsfartyg. Därutöver illustrerar hela händelseförloppet kring Constantias förlisning på det strategiska behovet av en flottbas i södra Östersjön, ett behov som Karlskrona därefter kommit att tillgodose.
En sådan plats där omfattande fornlämningar helt nyligen har påträffats under vatten är boplatsen Asine på nordöstra Peleponnesos i Grekland.
Här har svenska arkeologer grävt i olika omgångar i över hundra år. Misstankar om att bosättningen avsatt spår och att den fortsätter ut på sjöbottnen har funnits länge, men det är först nu som ett marinarkeologiskt projekt vid Stockholms universitet har uppdagat hur
betydande dessa anläggningar faktiskt är.
Bellevue in Dalarö in the Stockholm archipelago since the 1960s. The wreck has been the
subject of several small-scale archaeological investigations. This article reports the results of
recent marine archaeological fieldwork that concluded that the Bellevue wreck is the
remains of a late medieval ship equipped with a forecastle. Moreover, the analysis shows
that it was a larger vessel for its day. The article argues that the wreck resembles what may
be referred to as a hulk.
Harbour installations, fortifications, customs offices, and umpteen other
expressions of material culture formed the architecture of the sea routes – an
architecture that underwent a significant remake in the fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries. This essay looks at how the Swedish state took control of the natural
landscape along the sea routes into Stockholm and transformed them.
from the dragon heads of the late Iron Age to early modern figureheads, it is argued that the sculpture raised from the Griffin was carved in a period when figureheads did not relate to the ship’s name or owner, but that the monstrous head is an expression of the spirit or character of
the vessel.
Sweden’s oldest drawing of a ship is kept in the National Archives. It depicts a warship with two rows of gunports, hence the working name ‘The anonymous two-decker’. Unfortunately, nothing is known regarding its provenance, when it was made, or who drew it. Most likely we will never know which ship is depicted. However, this does not imply that the drawing is totally vapid or incomprehensible. The aim of this article is to date the drawing, but also to narrow down in which historical context the drawing may have been created in. The article also sets out to discuss which ships may have been of a similar design. An underlying motif is to make the drawing more accessible for further research.
Drawings from the seventeenth century and earlier are very rare.
Through comparing the present drawing with the few other examples that
exist it is apparent that it has not been used for calculating lines and shape
of the ship’s hull, but rather to present the general layout and arrangement
of decks, gunports and different rooms aboard.
An analysis of the drawing reveal that it was drawn in 1:64 scale using
a ruler of about one foot’s length as the single tool. Contemporary master
shipwrights used dividers, curve rulers and similar to produce their drawings.
Hence ‘The anonymous two-decker’ is more of a sketch than a proper
drawing. With no doubt it was made by a person with substantial knowledge
about ships and how to draw and calculate with scale, but it questionable
if it was a master shipwright.
The drawing has several notes and texts in English. The colour of the
text differs from the colour of the ink in the drawing, which indicates that
the text is secondary. This means that the person who drew the image and
the one who wrote on it do not have to be the same. Previous researchers
have suggested that the drawing was made in England or from an English
original, but in fact there were several English and Scottish master shipwrights
working at Swedish shipyards in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth
century. The text could have been made by one of them.
The drawing reveals the ship´s main dimensions: Length of keel, width,
depth of hold, as well as some other measurements. It is not possible to
identify a particular ship that corresponds to these dimensions, but it is apparent
that the ship is proportionally wide in relation to its length, which
is archaic. The number of gunports however corresponds to what we know regarding the Swedish ship Scepter, this without saying that the drawing depicts this very ship. Scepter was likely much larger than ‘The anonymous two-decker’.
På seminaret sammanfattas resultat från nyligen genomförda studier kring skulpturmotiv på handels- och örlogsfartyg från 1600-talet, seklet då den exteriöra skeppsdekoren nådde sin absoluta kulmen. Akterspeglar, låringsgallerier och galjoner utstyrdes med grotesker, ornament, vapensköldar, alabasterblad och liknande såväl utskurna som målade ornament. Förutom de rent funktionella aspekterna av dessa utsirningar, som att upplysa om fartygens namn, deras ägare eller deras hemmahamn, så röjer de också en hel del kring fartygens samhälleliga sammanhang. Skulpturerna visar på arkitektoniska och stilmässiga influenser, men också ideal, lojaliteter och allianser.