Niklas Eriksson

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 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 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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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’.

In 1971 the remains of an old shipwreck were found in shallow water inside the island of Stora Ekön, south of the town of Ronneby in southern Sweden, but it was not until 2000 that archaeologists observed that it was in fact the remains of a large medieval ship. Several underwater archaeological surveys have been carried out at the site and the recovered artefacts are preserved at Blekinge county museum. Wood samples from the wreck was dated to 1483 and in connection the wreck was identified as the remains of King Hans large warship Gribshunden, which sank in the Blekinge archipelago in 1495 on its way from Copenhagen to Kalmar. In 2013 renewed surveys at the wrecksite were initiated through the project “Ships at War” at Södertörn University. Through these surveys it could be stated that Gribshunden resembles one of the state of the art, specially built warships that was introduced in this period. These ships were extremely expensive and very rare already in the 15th century. The survey also showed that much of this important ship still is preserved. The text is based on a lecture for the Swedish Society for Maritime History on 21 November 2018.

The Swedish warship Mars was considered to have been one of the largest ships in the world when it exploded and sank in 1564. The problem is that no written accounts clearly reveal its dimensions. This article reviews how different researchers have discussed the size of Mars in the past. It also aims to shed new light on this topic by using information from the archaeological survey carried out at the wreck site since 2011. Even if the result is approximate it clearly shows that Mars was indeed an impressively large ship by sixteenth century standards, but not as large as many previous researchers have thought.

I Östersjöns bräckta vatten bevaras organiskt material för-undransvärt väl. Den låga salthalten gör att skeppsmask och andra tränedbrytande organismer inte trivs. Sjunkna skepp kan stå mer eller mindre intakta på sjöbottnen i hundratals år, med bevarade skrov, däck och ibland till och med master. Välbevarade vrak kan påträffas i nästan hela Östersjön, men den omfattande sjöfarten och de maritima verksamheterna vid Dalarö har resulterat i en koncentration av lämningar just här. Någon systematisk och heltäckande inventering av de fornlämningar som finns på sjöbottnen har aldrig gjorts. De vrak och andra lämningar som kommit att registrerats har påträffats av privatpersoner, myndigheter och företag i samband med sjömätning eller dykning. Hittills har inga förhistoriska fartyg eller båtar påträffats i kommunens vattenområde. En bidragande orsak till detta är att de förhistoriska farkosterna var relativt lätta och klena kon-struktioner som lätt faller samman och översedimenteras till följd av vattnets rörelser. I takt med att mät instrument blir allt bättre och att sjöbottnen karteras i samband med anläggningsarbeten påträffas hela tiden nya tidigare okända lämningar. Handelsfartyg Under medeltiden introducerades större och mer kraftigt byggda fartygstyper. Till de mer välkända fartygs-typerna hör koggen som traditionellt förknippas med handels förbundet Hansan. De var medeltidens stora handels fartyg, även om de i vissa sammanhang även kom att användas i samband med krig. Ett vrak som av allt att döma är resterna efter ett relativt stort medeltida fartyg påträffades så sent som 2017 i vattnen utanför Nåttarö. Även om det delvis rasat samman så framstår det som i det närmaste komplett och har till och med stora delar av riggen kvar, vilket är världsunikt (se bilden ovan).

In 2003 a well preserved shipwreck was discovered north of Dalarö in the Stockholm Archipelago. Artefacts indicated that the ship sank during the mid or later half of the 17th century. An archaeological survey revealed that even if the vessel was very small it showed many details that are usually found on large sailing warships, such as gun ports along the sides and a lion figure head. Despite the massive attention the wreck has achieved, from researchers, media and others, the original identity of the wreck has remained an open question until now.
In the preserved minutes and letters of the Swedish Admiralty kept in
the Military Archives reveal that the Swedish king Karl X Gustav ordered
a number of small vessels to be used for transport of horses and soldiers in his war against Denmark in 1659. After the unpredicted death of the king, the campaign against Denmark was cancelled and the unfinished ships were rebuilt in different ways.
One of these was Bodekull, which was built under supervision of the
newly recruited English Master Shipwright Thomas Day between 1659
and 1661. As the design was changed during construction, several unique details, that are also visible on the wreck, are mentioned in the preserved correspondence between the shipyard and the Admiralty.
In October 1678 the Bodekull was sent from Kalmar to grind cereals at a
mill along the coast. Despite his instructions they sailed to Fagerholmen in the Stockholm archipelago. On its way back the ship hit a rock and sank.
20 barrels of water soaked flour was sent to Stockholm. This article summarizes the archival research that has led to the identification
of the ship.

This article complements the archaeological account of the so‐called ‘Edesö Wreck’ with archival research that has led to its identification. In 1659 the Swedish King Karl X Gustav ordered a number of vessels for transport of horses and soldiers while at war with Denmark. The king died just a few months later, the war with Denmark was aborted, and the unfinished vessels were rebuilt to serve other purposes. One of these was Bodekull, built under English master shipwright Thomas Day between 1659 and 1661. In October 1678 Bodekull sank in the Stockholm archipelago. Alterations made during construction mentioned in written sources have been noted on the wreck and strengthen the argument for the identification.

Postmedieval shipwrecks: reflections on maritime archaeology and historical archaeology with examples from the Baltic Sea That the brackish water of the Baltic Sea provides ideal conditions for preservation of organic material is a well-known fact. With this in mind it is a bit surprising just how little archaeological efforts that has been put into surveying these wrecks. The majority of these remains date to the early modern period. The study of these remains are thus associated with the assets as well as problems associated with historical archaeology. This paper reviews some of the research efforts carried out on wrecks in the past with focus on the relationship between history and archaeology. It is argued that the often claimed unique archaeological potential of the Baltic wrecks, tend to become overshadowed by narratives sprung out of written sources. The paper ends with a couple of examples of discussions that are only possible to raise from well-preserved shipwrecks. Inspired by phenomenology and the current research on historical buildings it is argued that ‘the lived experience’ is a possible way forward to raise other questions and to highlight other aspects of the past. The examples discussed are the everyday environment onboard fluits, a very common type of merchant ship, and the famous naval ship Svärdet that went down during a fierce battle in 1676.

SUMMARY: The 84-gun ship Riksäpplet was one of the first ships in Sweden built under supervision of the newly recruited English master. In 1676, the ship came adrift, struck a rock and sank. In 2015 a minor field survey of the wreck was undertaken. An inventory of finds recovered from the wreck in various museum collections and in private hands has been compiled and the preserved correspondence from the construction of the ship has been re-examined. This material has provided new insights regarding the peculiarities and special architecture of Riksäpplet.

Svärdet (1663-1676) - a ship built in the Dutch manner. During the first half of the
Seventeenth century the Swedish navy relied on Dutch master shipwrights who built ships in what was dubbed as ‘the Dutch manner’ Det holländska manéret. By the midcentury, the relations between the countries deteriorated to war. In this situation the Swedish Admirality sought for shipbuilding competence in England, which resulted in the introduction of the English manner – Det engelska manéret. In 2011 the remains of the ship Svärdet was discovered outside Öland. The ship was built 1660 to 1663 and sank during a battle in 1676. This paper presents the results from the initial survey of the wreck. Together with written sources and some preserved images of the ship it has been possible to get an impression of what the ship looked like. Focus of the paper is to present Svärdet as an example of one of the last ships built by the Dutch master shipwrights.

Historical archaeology may be characterised by an intricate relationship between written sources and material remains. In research focusing on shipwrecks, this often results in descriptions of the events associated with one particular ship. These are narratives written from a historical horizon, where written sources provide the explanation to material remains. The aim of this paper is to show that a combination of material remains and written sources may be used as a departure point for a discussion on social conditions on board merchant ships in a more general sense. The case used is the fluit or fluitship Anna Maria, launched in 1694 and which foundered in Dalarö harbour, Sweden, in 1709. The site is ideal for such a study partly as it has been surveyed archaeologically on several occasions since the 1960s and most recently in 2010, and partly because historical research has been carried out on the related written accounts. Taken together, this material enables a unique opportunity to reconstruct and study the everyday environment on board a large fluitship.

Floating neck-gable houses: On the sculptures of the fluyt in early modern Sweden and the Netherlands

Early Modern warships are sometimes compared to floating palaces. The sculptural decoration on their transoms, galleries and beakheads follow a carefully thought out symbolic language that aimed to legitimize royal ambitions and claims to power. But merchant ships also carried elegantly carved ornaments and figures. However, the message conveyed by these sculptures was different from that of contemporary warships.

Among early modern merchant ships the so-called fluyts hold a prominent position. Originating in the Netherlands, thousands of more or less identical ships were built during the 1600s and ensuing centuries. But despite the large number of ships built, surprisingly little information about their decoration has survived in our time. In recent years, several archaeological investigations of fluyts, have been carried out in the Baltic Sea which has resulted in new knowledge about the ships. It has been found that the decoration of the fluyts, just as on contemporary naval vessels, follow a clear pattern.

The ship´s home port was communicated by its city coat of arms. Ships’ names such as the White Swan, The Rose or Crescent as well as familiar characters from the Bible were also represented by sculptures on the ship´s transom. But the sculptures served not only a practical purpose. Like the contemporary warships, they expressed their owners’ ideology and societal ambitions. Fluyts should perhaps not be compared to floating palaces; they are rather a counterpart to the merchants’ neck-gabled houses in cities like Amsterdam.

In the Swedish context, the vessels appear as a kind of billboard for a Dutch attitude towards trade. This article aims to discuss the message communicated by the fluyts’ exteriors against this fond. How did these ships affect the urban environment in which they were moored?

In 2003 a well-preserved shipwreck was found north of Dalarö in the Stockholm archipelago. In 2007 and 2008 the site was surveyed jointly by archaeologists from the Swedish National Maritime Museum, Södertörn University and the University of Southampton. The surface finds were inventoried and drawings produced of the hull structure, which measures 20 m between the posts. This paper presents the results of recording the hull. The original name of the ship, as well as the precise history of its demise, are unknown, but it appears to have been a small man-of-war, built and probably sunk in the late 17th century. It was possibly built in England, or at least in the English fashion of that time.

Regarding the identity of this wreck, read the article 'A New view of the Edesö Wreck: identifying the Swedish naval vessel Bodekull, built 1659-1661 and sunk 1678 from written sources'  IJNA 47

... in DiVA. Create reference ». Author: Eriksson, Niklas (Södertörn University, School of Culture and Communication, Maritime Archaeological Research Institute). Title: Recording a large three-dimensional ship structure, thoughts rendered from the Dalarö wreck project. Department ...

Att Östersjöns bräckta vatten bevarar skulpturtyngda skepp förvånansvärt väl är en omständighet som seglade in i det allmänna medvetandet med bärgningen av regalskeppet Vasa. Men det finns många fler utsmyckade skeppsvrak. Vissa skulpturer ligger kvar på botten vid sina respektive vrak medan andra förvånansvärt obemärkt har letat sig hem till privata samlingar eller till museimagasin.
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.