Portion of ship’s knee and frame recovered from wreck. Photo: Kalmar Country Museum

This is a busy time for underwater explorers in the waters off Sweden. Yesterday, we posted about an unidentified object on the Baltic Sea floor which the media has been referring to as the Millennium Falcon.   Recently, divers off the south coast of Sweden have found what is being described as an “extraordinary” shipwreck, estimated to be 800 years old.

‘Extraordinary’ shipwreck found off Swedish coast

Lars Einarsson, underwater archaeologist at the Kalmar County museum, was amazed at the results of the exploration of the ship found off the coast of Sturkö, near Karlskrona. 

“This is an extraordinary medieval wreck. We’ve found that the wood was cut down between 1250 and 1300,” he told The Local.

The long and narrow ship, measuring 14 by two metres, would have been sleek and fast, and most likely used for attacking and looting.

While Swedish media has referred to the find as a Viking ship, Einarsson is quick to point out that this is not the case.

“It was built in the same style as the Viking ships, but that’s not saying much – some ships on Norway’s west coast are still built in that style. This is certainly a medieval wreck, and this is exciting as there haven’t been many found from this time.”

Thanks to Irwin Bryan for passing along the news.