Shipwreck Found in Svalbard - Could Originate From 18th Century Russia

Marine archaeologists from the Norwegian Maritime Museum are studying a wreck that they located last year at Kokerineset, in Grønfjorden, Svalbard. What remains is a 6 m piece of the ship's rear side. The complete vessel measured 15 m. The team's working hypothesis is that it was built around the White Sea in Russia and sailed in the Pomor trade.

To date the wreck, the divers searched for screws, threads and paint, which are typical of building after around 1850. They found no metal fasteners, only wooden pegs. The hull looked like Dutch construction, a style used between 1600 and 1800. Archaeologist Jørgen Johannessen of the museum told High North News that perhaps only three wrecks in Svalbard carry a construction year earlier than 1900.

Johannessen links the ship to Russia because the timber is densely grown pine, which points to a cold region, and this does not fit Dutch yards. He also says Tsar Peter the Great ordered Russian ships to be built in the Western, meaning Dutch, manner. With help from historians, the researchers place the ship in the Pomor trade between 1710 and 1760, so it is well over 200 years old. That trade was run by Russian merchants from the White Sea region in Finnmark and Troms, from the 18th century until 1917. If the hypothesis holds, this could be the oldest wreck found in Svalbard.

The wreck lay in the intertidal zone, where tide or ice could have carried it off. Sysselmesteren (the Governor of Svalbard) and the Svalbard Museum moved the pieces to Longyearbyen. Researchers are there now, recording them with scanners and taking dendro samples, which show where the timber grew and in which year it was cut. Johannessen says cold water preserved the wood well, since shipworm is rare in the north. Divers measured 8 °C in Grønfjorden down to 77 m, and shipworm breeds when water passes 10 °C.

The Governor pays for the project, and the Svalbard Museum handles the collection of the remains. Test results are due in June.