Thank you for the kind words and for watching! True: there isn’t much excavated, rather than treasure-hunted. There is the wreck from Aveiro but that is a small coastal craft, rather than a caravel. There is quite possibly one of Columbus’ caravels at Panama, but again has not been excavated.

A lot of archaeological work has been done in the last 20-30 years. We have learned a lot! Unfortunately much has been destroyed by treasure hunters - the modern pirates of the Caribbean - and that explains why we know so little about Spanish and Portuguese galleons and naos. I suppose I will do a few more videos for sure. To some extent it depends on the views and subscribers. And how long Olya will enjoy making them. She is the one who brow-beat me into making them :-)) Thank you for watching!

Smart woman...@@kroumbatchvarov-archaeologist

…she is great!😊

The ancient world is less my strength, but I’ll see what I can do :-) The challenge there is that we have no physical remains at all that can be identified as penteconter or bireme.

Thank you! That’s a good idea - why not indeed. True, my real period of interest is the 17th c, but I could put something up for King Henry VIII’s fleet

@kroumbatchvarov-archaeologist That would be excellent. It's my period of interest and I'd be fascinated to hear you views.

Thank you so much and I appreciate you watching it!

You really made my day with this! Thank you- I am deeply honoured!

I have been wondering whether to continue making these videos- it’s quite a bit of work and time that might be better utilized in writing, but comments like this one, encourage me to continue making them! Thank you again!

Please, please, continue, Sir. I put thirty minutes of my Sunday afternoon aside for you. This short series of three lectures has been highly informative, so thank you for that. May I suggest you present something related to the Anthony Roll and it's history, and the ships associated with 'Great Harry's Navy'? There's a lot to cover there.

Thank you very much indeed! Olya seems to enjoy producing them, so… I have to continue doing them. Thank you for watching!

Thank you! Glad you are enjoying them!

Is this the wreck found in deep water by the SMM and then surveyed by MMT, too? The complete ship with the capstan and masts standing? I think the SMM in their exhibit at the Wreck’s Museum dated it to the 19th c :-). I have no doubt the ship can’t be later than the 17th c and most probably no later than the 16th. She is typical of small(ish) 16th c vessels that would have been known under variety of names in different parts of the world. As to caravel, possibly, but not necessarily.

@@kroumbatchvarov-archaeologist Thank you for answering! :) Those abbreviations don't mean much to me, I'm afraid. There was a press release on this a few years back with the title "Pristine Renaissance shipwreck discovered in Baltic Sea" from Southampton University by Dr. Rodrigo Pacheco-Ruiz, whom you've mentioned a few times in your videos ;) He has also published some lovely underwater footage on his youtube channel. The wreck was indeed found masts & capstan standing and also a dinghy still on deck. I guess I'm hoping some more of her would be published since I'm really interested in the period :) My intention is to make models of Baltic traders throughout the centuries and this seems to be the only find from 15th/16th centuries. Buuut if she's really been dated to 19th century after the initial press release then, well, bummer :D

The tyrant Tsarina Catherine ruled in the second half of the 18th, not the 17th century :-) as to the vessel- I don’t actually know much about it. I would have heard, had it been excavated. It is technically possible to do it, of course, but it is challenging and there has to be a really, really good reason to do it. I actually haven’t seen tye Nar Geo material. Unfortunately, they have quite often sponsored treasure-hunters; this might be one of these cases which would Explain why no information is out there.

@@kroumbatchvarov-archaeologist @fredericrike5974 The ship in question is the Vrouw Maria, a Dutch snow-brig that sank in 1771 in the Finnish archipelago and was indeed carrying quite a valuable cargo. The wreck was found some 25 years ago in an exttremely well preserved state and has been studied periodically ever since then. There have been numerous discussions if the ship should be raised and/or excavated fully but currently the consensus is that she is best preserved where she is. The wreck site is protected under the Finnish law.

Dear Torsten, thank you for watching and for the comment! Votive models certainly have distorted proportions- you are right. For the B to L ration, we haven’t got a single source that speaks of such proportions. The lowest proportion we have is length of keel to beam of 2.75 if memory serves me right. So significantly different, especially length overall vs beam. This model is know to have hung in a church at some point. Of course, this does not mean that it was originally built for this purpose. It may have been repurposed as result of a traumatic experience by the owner :-)

There are certain levels of complication in this project - beyond what I actually know of the administration - that make it harder to predict when a complete excavation might be undertaken and by whom. At present I am aware of one transversal trench (which I don’t think was quite completed in 2019) approximately amidships. We came to the conclusion that we were excavating right at the forward end of the sterncastle. From documents it is know that her burthen was about 300 tons - which of course, has nothing to do with her displacement. The keel is visible in the stern section, where most crutches (floor timbers) are still standing. The forward part of the keel is buried. The stem and the hawse holes are visible and lying on the surface so a very rough estimate of her length can be guesstimated. The Lund folks uploaded a 3-D scaled site model to one of the 3D sites (SketchUp???) from which you can take measurements and see what’s visible. Hopefully one day the ship will receive the attention that it deserves with focus on the ship itself. I may not live long enough to see it, though :-)

@@kroumbatchvarov-archaeologist Thanks so much for the prompt and comprehensive reply. Unfortunately I haven't been able to locate the 3D site. Would you have any advice on how I could find it? Even the beam dimension would be enough information to answer my question about size.

I have now found a couple of websites which give an estimate of the Gribshunden's size as roughly 32-35 metres long and 12 metres wide. Thank you for providing this channel - it's of great interest and value.

You are spot on on all you say! Archaeology loves patterns, repetition - everything that the media doesn’t like! :-). When we have one ship of a type and age, all we can say is “this ship was built this way”, but doesn’t mean that all ships at the time were built this way. You are absolutely correct about this. This is why The Skuldelev ships were so important for the study of Norse shipbuilding. It offered 5 wrecks built in the same tradition, but different vessels for different purposes. The same with the Yenikapi wrecks from Istanbul: once published, this will give us incredible look into Byzantine shipbuilding and seafaring, together with the other contemporary vessels excavated- like Yassiada 7th century, the Bulgar Wreck from Serce Limani (1025 AD), the Black Sea 9th c wreck, the Bozburun, Maagan Mikhael B wreck, etc. returning to Gribshunden. The permitting situation apparently is complicating the situation. You have seen mostly the Lund group articles. They don’t have ship specialists, so they concentrate on the material culture. Some of it is very interesting and important for understanding the site, sure. But the most important find there is actually the ship itself. Because it is unique. The MARIS team are more ship-oriented. They are now working (and me with them) on putting together a view of the stern, based on the insubstantial work that has been done hitherto. We are hoping eventually to expand the excavation and document the whole wreck. Well, I am hoping that this will happen. Meanwhile, we are going to work on Elefanten in the coming year (1554 built).

Dear Dr. Batchvarov, It’s great to know that you are participating. For me, this means there is hope that some light will be shed on the actual design of Gripshunden sooner rather than later! And, thank you for detailed reply! In your reply, you mentioned some other wrecks and their respective datings. Could the dating process in maritime archaeology be a topic for one of your future videos? It would be very interesting to learn about how findings are dated, especially from a real field expert.

@@kroumbatchvarov-archaeologist Interesting. What are the thoughts regarding future work on Gribshunden? I can imagine there would be quite some expense involved in an excavation, as well as the cost of care of any parts recovered. Excavate and re-bury, or excavate and display? How much of the wreck is actually buried and how much is exposed?

I have been idly wondering about the video and have not really put an effort to look for it. As a matter of fact, I haven’t checked with him and that is the obvious first stop, of course! True, this is not my particular period, but I ought to try tracking it down. It would be good to be able to show students and to use it as comparative material when working on the hull of Gribshunden with my colleagues who are the primary investigators there. Thank you for this information! I think I will follow up on it!

Do you know at what university did Mr. Ashwell matriculate?

@kroumbatchvarov-archaeologist Glad if I have been of some assistance. He was at the University of Bristol. His dissertation is available online for free, (apologies for not sharing; unfortunately KZfaq does not allow links but removes such comments) it contains some interesting comments on the internal framing. Sounds like very interesting times coming up with regards to Gribshunden indeed. I myself am originally from Ronneby and my brother still lives in Karlskrona, so it is in my old home area. 😀 (I am now living in Australia since 25 years back)

Thank you!