Vrouw Maria

[wreckdiver1715]

Cornelius, a question for you sir. Do you know of any plans to recover the Dutch koff, Vrouw Maria and her treasure from the bottom of the Baltic? More specifically, do you know what became of the treasure hunters who discovered her?

Q

 

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[wreckdiver1715]

Thanks Cornelius, I did indeed enjoy the reading.

Q

 

[dk-diver]

Cornelius,

I just came across 2 records mentioning a kuff named "Vrouw Maria" that wrecked in the sound(?resund) between Sweden and Denmark.My question is what is "Vrouw"? and is it a common name for a ship?

/DKD

BTW less than 10 km from the reported site, is another dutch wreck which are sharing name of well known treasure ships - Brederode. But i dont think these ships carried any treasure .

 

[Cablava]

I am not Dutch but I think it is one of the following, "woman, wife, queen, dame, king" pick your own

 

[dk-diver]

The Kuff was carrying flax and sank 06.06.1838. Can I expect that ship to be armed?

The other ship, Brederode, was the ship of Admiral de Witt. It was sunk in battle with the swedes. Obviosly it was armed and bronze canons was raised from it.

/DKD

 

[dk-diver]

I got the information about the ship and its approximate position in a dispatch archive. Its notes that the ship sank and the cargo was salvaged and sold on auktion. The captain of the ship was P. F. Friedrichs.

Treasure or not, since its lying in my back yard im gonna look for it this spring.

/DKD

 

[dk-diver]

Cornelius, you misunderstood me.Its not the Vrouw Maria mentioned on the abc.se site. Its a different wreck about a nautical mile from the marina in Rungsted, denmark.

Records tell that it sank the 6 of june 1838 and some of the cargo was salvaged and sold on auction by 24 of september 1838.

By the way there is another record of the wreck which spells the name as "Vroue Maria". This record indicate that the ship is from hannover in germany.

Regards

DKD

 

[wreckdiver1715]

Cornelius, you say that the Vrouw Maria has been completely salvaged? I remember that they were debating bringing her up intact, or possibly damaging the ship to extract the cargo. Speaking of cargo, she was believed to be carrying a large collection of oil paintings by some of the masters. Do you know if the art work survived?

Q

 

[Cablava]

Wreck of the Vrouw Maria

http://virtual.finland.fi/netcomm/news/showarticle.asp?intNWSAID=26041 to see the pictures

Written: Jukka Nurminen with Alexander Mustard; both authors are members of YUP, the Young Underwater Photographers' group



Photo: Jukka Nurminen

The northeast Baltic is rather a special region in many ways. The scarcity and specialness of species is remarkable and, in contrast, so too is the abundance of shipwrecks. There are approximately a thousand wrecks of wooden ships in Finnish waters alone, in addition to those in the territorial waters of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Sweden. In fact wrecks of wooden ships are a rarity in the oceans of the world because they are very rapidly devoured by shipworm. The Baltic Sea is different. It is like a very large estuary, salty at one end and fresh at the other, and by the time one reaches Finland, the water is too fresh for many marine species to survive, including the shipworm, making it the best place in all the oceans for diving on ancient wooden shipwrecks.

Our story begins in Amsterdam on September 5th, 1771. The Vrouw Maria, (Lady Mary, i.e. The Virgin Mary) a two-masted wooden merchant ship loaded with a precious cargo including works of art belonging to Catherine the Great of Russia, sets sail for St Petersburg. A month into the voyage the Vrouw Maria is caught in a vicious autumnal storm, close to an archipelago of thousands of islands off southwest Finland. The storm drives the Vrouw Maria on to rocks near the island of Jurmo, a collision which shears off its rudder. And although the Captain, Reynoud Lorenz, and his crew are able to briefly land on a small island, the storm soon builds up again and sinks the Vrouw Maria, with most of its treasures and other cargo still in the hold, on October 3rd, 1771. Only six paintings are salvaged.

Photos: Jukka Nurminen




For 228 years no one knew for sure where the Vrouw Maria foundered, but the lure of a "treasure ship" drove many to try to find her. It was not until June 1999 that the wreck was located by sonar at the depth of over 40 meters, and divers were able to confirm the presence of a wooden, well preserved but rudderless ship and, tantalisingly, with a hold full of crates. While the Vrouw Maria has constituted a challenge for wreck hunters, it has also set a considerable challenge for underwater photographers.

Photo: Jukka Nurminen

In early June 2002 Finnish underwater photographer, Jukka Nurminen, joined a research team from the Maritime Museum of Finland to photograph the wreck. His aim was to take the first images that conveyed the context and scale of the Vrouw Maria to the general public. Equally, pictures were needed by the Maritime Museum of Finland in order to visualize the wreck.

While the conditions off southern Finland are excellent for wood preservation, they are not ideal for photography, especially the photography of a shipwreck 26 metres long and 7 metres wide, in the almost pitch darkness of the Baltic Sea. The problem was that the images he wanted required ambient light exposures which were only possible to take with a tripod - a large one - because the deck of the vessel was more than 5 metres above the seabed and the bow was close to six. Where could he find a tripod of those proportions? And more importantly, would it be useable underwater?

The answer to Jukka's problem soon became clear, but it was not a reality that he wanted to consider: if he wanted a six-metre tall tripod he would have to build one himself. The finished tripod consisted of 7 parts: a tripod (1.7-3.8 metres), one 1-metre and two 2-metre extension parts that could be used in any combination with a special socket, a ball head that allowed the camera orientation to be altered in seconds, and a quick-change plate. He also fitted snow shoes to the tripod, which it needed to stand on the soft sediment, and attached a cable release to the camera to ensure sharp, long exposures.

The largest configuration he used was six metres, which was tall enough for the bow and the stern. The large tripod felt a bit cumbersome on the first few dives but soon Jukka was repositioning it regularly, despite its in-water weight of more than 10 kg. Long exposures underwater can be a real revelation because the camera is able to record more than our eyes can see at the time. His biggest problem was composing the shots because the features of the Vrouw Maria were very difficult to see in the gloom. Due to a lack of time on the wreck he was not able to take a top-down view of the bow or stern, which would have required a full 9-metre tripod.

Photos: Jukka Nurminen


Jukka's photographic equipment.


Jukka concludes, "I am pleased with the results, given the level of difficulty and the degree of experimentation. As photographers, we often stick with our well-used methods to guarantee a high strike rate of good shots when we dive. However, persevering with a new technique and technology adds another weapon to our photographic armoury. My experiences with the tripod not only got the job done for me, but also taught me a new photographic approach well suited to many subjects in the Baltic."

It is a technique that will serve Jukka well as he embarks on new projects with the Gulf of Finland's beautiful wrecks.

A Part of European Cultural Heritage
? text, pictures, drawings and map: The Maritime Museum of Finland


The wreck offers an unspoiled and concrete opportunity for people of the 21st century to experience the everyday reality that prevailed in our part of the world more than two hundred years ago. The undamaged framework of the wreck enables us to study the characteristics of a snow ship, a two-masted ship of the 18th century. It gives us information on the loading and transportation of the cargo plus the ship's sailing qualities, and helps us find out more about shipbuilding.

The cargo that is still inside the wreck was gathered in Amsterdam from various parts of the world. From Amsterdam, it was supposed to go to St. Petersburg via the Baltic, the main seaway of northern Europe. The Baltic Sea has traditionally been the most important trade route in northern Europe and a channel for cultural influences to spread from one country to another. The cargo on board the Vrouw Maria represents a change in trading on the Baltic Sea, whereby merchants began to use smaller ships. Smaller ships could use different routes occasionally, and the cargoes in such vessels consisted of a variety of goods.

The events and people connected with the Vrouw Maria are a part of Europe's international past. The Vrouw Maria is thus a natural part of Europe's cultural heritage.

Environmental Conditions
? Maritime Mus. of Finland

Route of the Vrouw Maria's final voyage.The wreck is located in the outer archipelago, close to the open sea, in a location exposed to winds. The area is hydrographically unstable and strong currents are typical there. Daylight reaches the seabed on sunny summer days, but additional light is required for underwater work. The water temperature at the bottom is low all year round; even in summer time, it stays below eight degrees Celsius.

General Condition of the Wreck
The wreck is approximately 26 metres long and 7 metres wide. It lies on its keel on the seabed. The lower parts of the masts are upright, rising to a depth of 22-24 metres. One of the anchors is still hanging in place on the port side of the railing. The salvage operations at the time of the shipwreck damaged the vessel's aft a little, and the damage is still to be seen, but in general, the hull is in excellent condition. Most of the cargo still lies in the hold. In fact there is so much of it that it is impossible in some places for the divers to get inside.

 

[Cablava]

This site has a 2005 update, however it mainly carries the history of the wrecking etc. With just a few lines on the present status of the wreck and its cargo. But Cornelius may know the situation better as he often does.

 

[modrian]

Again, I have to ask where you heard that it's been salvaged? I can findno articles or information on this, and beins such a major wreck, I find that pretty hard to believe these days. I agree that this is one of the greatest underwater archeological finds ever, both by cargo and preservation of the wreck. From what I undestand one of the plans was that they were going to lift the wreck to shallower waters and then begin the removal of cargo. Raising the wreck would be problomatic because they'd have to do a spray-system similar to that done on the Mary Rose to prevent deteriation, though the final result would be pretty amazing. If it has been salvaged, do you have any names or organizations? I'd love see what they've come up with....