Danish slave ships wreckage discovered off coast of Costa Rica, museum confirms

Two 18th-century shipwrecks off the coast of Costa Rica, beforehand thought to have been pirate ships, have been confirmed to be two Danish slave ships, a museum mentioned Sunday.

“Investigations of ship timbers, bricks from the cargo and clay pipes discovered throughout underwater excavations” had decided the id of two vessels shipwrecked in 1710, Denmark’s Nationwide Museum mentioned in a press release.

Marine archaeologists recognized the slave ships Fridericus Quartus and Christianus Quintus, which, in keeping with historic sources, had been wrecked off the coast of Central America in 1710, mentioned the museum. The museum additionally launched pictures of Andreas Kallmeyer Bloch and David Gregory digging underwater and excavating bricks and wooden from the wreckage.

Fridericus Quartus was set on hearth, whereas Christianus Quintus was wrecked within the surf after its anchor line was minimize. Till now, it has not been clear precisely the place the ships had been misplaced.

The museum added that in Costa Rica, it had lengthy been identified that two wrecks had been situated within the waters of the Cahuita Nationwide Park.

“For a few years, nonetheless, they had been considered pirate ships. However when American marine archaeologists in 2015 discovered yellow bricks in one of many wrecks, new questions emerged in regards to the historical past of the ships,” the museum mentioned.

An underwater excavation was carried out in 2023. It was a part of the Nationwide Museum’s new analysis middle, Njord, which the museum mentioned is planning to excavate a number of Danish shipwrecks overseas.

“The analyses are very convincing and we now not have any doubts that these are the wrecks of the 2 Danish slave ships,” Gregory, a analysis professor at Denmark’s Nationwide Museum, mentioned within the assertion.

“The bricks are Danish and the identical goes for the timbers, that are moreover charred and sooty from a fireplace. This suits completely with the historic accounts stating that one of many ships burned,” Gregory added.

Fellow marine archaeologist Bloch, who’s additionally a museum curator, referred to as it “undoubtedly the craziest archaeological excavation I’ve but been a part of.”

“Not solely as a result of it issues significantly to the native inhabitants, but additionally as a result of it is probably the most dramatic shipwrecks within the historical past of Denmark, and now we all know precisely the place it occurred,” the marine archaeologist mentioned.

The Danish authorities banned the transatlantic slave commerce in 1792, however the nation did not abolish slavery till half a century later, in 1847, in keeping with the museum.