The applet was sunk in 1659 as part of an underwater barrier designed to defend the Swedish capital against foreign fleets. Its sister ship is on exhibit at the Vasa Museum, one of the most popular tourist attractions in Stockholm.
Marine archaeologists in Sweden claim to have discovered the sister ship of a legendary 17th-century warship that sank and is now on display in a museum in Stockholm.
Applet (Apple) is the sister ship of the royal cruiser Vasa, which was raised in Stockholm harbor in 1961 after spending more than three centuries below.
The applet was sunk in 1659 as part of an underwater barrier designed to defend the Swedish capital from enemy vessels.
The precise site of the shipwreck has been lost through time, but marine archaeologists working for Vrak, the Museum of Wrecks in Stockholm, revealed on Monday that the wreckage discovered last December is the Applet.
The wreck was discovered on the island of Vaxholm, just east of the capital, and experts were able to identify it as Applet using wood samples and historical information, according to the museum.
“Our hearts raced when we noticed how identical the wreck was to the Vasa,” said one of the archaeologists, Jim Hansson.
“Both the structure and the measurements appeared to be very familiar.”
The intricate wooden carvings of the Vasa are on display in the Vasa Museum, one of Stockholm’s most popular tourist attractions.
The museum claimed in a statement that experts were able to determine that the wreck was the long-lost Applet by analyzing its technical characteristics, wood samples, and archive data.
Several samples collected and analyzed following a second comprehensive dive this spring revealed that oak for the ship’s timber was cut down in 1627 – in the same location as Vasa’s timber just a few years earlier.
A portion of Applet’s sides had sunk to the seafloor, but the hull remained largely intact up to the lower gun deck. The collapsed sides featured two different levels of gun ports, which was interpreted as proof of a battleship with two gun decks.
No decision has been made regarding whether or not to raise the ship, which would be an expensive and difficult undertaking.
The applet was constructed at the same time as the Vasa on the orders of King Gustav II Adolf of Sweden.
While the Vasa capsized and sank within minutes after leaving port in 1628, the Applet was launched the next year and served for thirty years.
According to experts, the Vasa sank because it lacked ballast to counterbalance its huge cannons.
