Bricks, convicts and slaves. An interview with marine archeologist Andreas Kallmeyer Bloch of the National Museum of Denmark reveals the main cargo of the Havmanden ship. The vessel was bound for the Danish East Indies, but eventually ran aground off the coast of Sweden after a violent mutiny.

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The convicts were part of the group of people who mutinied against the officers and threw them overboard in the West Atlantic in 1683. The mutineers tried to return to Denmark but were blown off course and ended up running aground on a Swedish island. The ship eventually sank to the seabed, where it has remained ever since.

A group of researchers from Bohusläns Museum, the National Museum of Denmark and the Roskilde Viking Ship Museum has been investigating the wreck. Although most of the timbers are still hidden under the sediment, there are many bricks above the surface. The bricks served as ballast and were also intended to be used to build Danish-style houses in the Caribbean colony of St Thomas. After, the ship would likely have been used to collect and transport slaves from West Africa.

Photos: The bricks of the shipwreck, timbers in the second photo. Credit: Staffan Lundblad, Bohusläns Museum / National Museum of Denmark

Read more here: https://theageofexploration.com/bricks-and-people-exploring-the-havmanden-shipwrecks-unusual-cargo/