The Wreck and its Surroundings

Location and Surroundings

The wreck is located in the outer archipelago, by the open sea, where it is exposed to winds. The wreck lies in a small deep that is surrounded by shallows. The sea bottom consists of a thick layer of clay and gyttja clay, and the upper layer of the bottom is sand. The depth of the sea is 41 meters on the spot, which means that the water temperature at the bottom is low all the time. There are strong currents near the Baltic proper, and it is likely that changes in the Baltic hydrography can be seen there without delay. The amount of light at the bottom depends on the biological action in the upper layers of the sea. Daylight reaches the bottom of the sea on sunny summer days, but often it is so dim down there that additional light is required. The underwater visibility may go from ten meters down to a half a meter depending on the currents and the amount of algae.

The Wreck's Condition

The wreck is approximately 26 meters long and 7 meters wide. It lies on its keel on the bottom of the sea and leans on its starboard side. The masts, which are standing up, rise to a depth of 22 - 24 meters. The masts are made of three parts, and the upper parts have fallen on the starboard side of the wreck on the bottom of the sea.

On the same area, there is one of the ship's anchors, which has made its way so deep into the bottom of the sea that one of the arms is completely in the ground. The fact that the anchor is in the sea bottom near the wreck reveals that Vrouw Maria sank precisely where the original shipwreck took place. In other words, the ship did not drift after the wreck. The other of the ship's anchors is still hanging in its place on the port side of the railing.

In general, the framework of the ship seems to be in good condition. The salvage operations at the time of the shipwreck did, however, damage the ship a little: the rudder is lacking, and the transom is lost as well. Vrouw Maria was a decorative vessel; one can see lots of different woodcarvings in the wreck. The ship's five-meter-long tiller lies partly crosswise on the stern deck on the starboard side. On the deck, there are various single parts of the framework that either came off when the ship sank or that have fallen down from the rigging in the course of time. Among these pieces are the remains of the deck cabin. The windlass is undamaged, and there is still a lever attached to the windlass stock. Both the pumps are still upright, and one of them still has the piston rod in its place.

Vrouw Maria was a merchant vessel that sailed many days without a break. It was important to have enough room for the cargo but at the same time, ships that spent longer periods of time out on the sea had to have room for the crew as well. The interior of the wreck consists of the crew's quarters in the bow, the hold, and a cabin in the stern. A stovepipe in front of the anchor stock reveals the location of the ship's galley. The pipe reaches the upper deck, and it is build of brick.

The unharmed framework of the wreck gives us a unique opportunity to study the characteristics of a Snow ship. The wreck gives us information on the loading and transportation of the cargo as well as the ship's sailing qualities. By the help of Vrouw Maria, we will also find out more about shipbuilding, which was a central branch of industry. In the 18th century, it was vital in both the economic and political sense to make sure there was always raw material for shipbuilding.

The Cargo and Other Items

The hold of Vrouw Maria shows a cross-section of the different fields of the European society of the 1770's. The wreck tells us about many people: about the suppliers in different countries, the loaders in Amsterdam, the islanders who helped in the attempts to salvage of the ship in Nauvo, and the burgesses in Turku. Because some of the items were salvaged and taken to Russia, the wreck leads us as far as to St. Petersburg. In addition to these, there were of course more people involved with the ship: the men in the Sound customs house and, naturally, the crew of Vrouw Maria.

The hold of the wreck is not big enough for a diver to go in and document the ship without risking his or her own safety or the condition of the ship. This being the case, the interior of the wreck must be documented by the help of a small-size robot camera. Even then, the examination of the interior is difficult since a light layer of sediment covers practically everything. Some things can, however, be recognised under the sediment: there are zinc ingots, packing cases, some of which still have the cover in its place, and a carpet that seems to have been that of a soft kind - cloth, maybe. In addition to these, there are hundreds of clay tobacco pipes that form almost an even layer on top of everything else.

In the summer of 1999, soon after the wreck was found, divers raised six objects from the wreck. A researcher from the Maritime Museum of Finland supervised the operation. A clay bottle, a lead seal, a zinc ingot, and three clay tobacco pipes were on the deck of the wreck or in the upper parts of the hold. So far, these are the only objects that have been raised from the wreck. The clay bottle is a Seltzer water bottle with salt glazing. The bottle had contained mineral water from the mineral springs of the Prince of Trier. By the help of its form and a factory mark, the bottle can be dated to the 1760's.

Some words on the lead seal are still readable, and the text implies the seal has been in a packing of cloth made in Leiden in Holland. Leiden was an important centre of cloth industry in Europe even in the 18th century. In Vrouw Maria there were Dutch cloths, and many of these were salvaged after the shipwreck. The seal may well have come off from a roll of cloth at the time.

By the help of the clay tobacco pipes' form and factory marks, the authorship of the pipes is now known. A metallic analysis of the ingot revealed that it contains zinc. The finding of a zinc ingot corroborates the Sound customs entries, according to which there were more than 6500 kilograms zinc in the ship's cargo. Zinc is used as raw material in manufacturing brass.