Discovery: Largest Medieval Cargo Ship Ever Found
- Editor OGN Daily
- 54 minutes ago
- 2 min read
Spotted off the coast of Denmark, the 600 year old trading vessel is “exceptionally well-preserved.”
Forty feet below the surface in the strait between Denmark and Sweden, researchers have discovered the final resting place of a trading ship from the Middle Ages. Extravagantly outfitted and remarkably preserved, it’s an ancient cargo vessel also known as a cog. Experts say it’s the largest ship of its kind ever found.
According to Denmark’s Viking Ship Museum, the silt-covered vessel - called Svælget 2 - measures about 92 feet long, 30 feet wide and 20 feet tall, and experts estimate that its cargo capacity was 300 tons.
“The find is a milestone for maritime archaeology,” says archaeologist and excavation leader Otto Uldum. “It is the largest cog we know of, and it gives us a unique opportunity to understand both the construction and life on board the biggest trading ships of the Middle Ages.”
Analysis of the shipwreck’s wood revealed that Svælget 2 was built around 1410. Its planks are made of Pomeranian oak from modern-day Poland, and the wood of its frame came from the Netherlands.
Artnet says that cogs were developed around the tenth century “as a safe and efficient means to transport massive quantities of goods,” and that their "substantial cargo holds trumped [those] of Viking vessels such as knarrs, while their towering sides made them harder to board during sea skirmishes.” These vessels were made to sail north from the Netherlands, around Denmark and toward the Baltic Sea. Though massive, a cog had the advantage that it could be managed by a small crew, and transformed maritime trade in northern Europe as they could transport goods on a scale never seen before.
