Researchers Shed New Light on a 15th-Century ‘Floating Castle’ Packed With Guns

In the late 1400s, Europeans started crossing the Atlantic and colonizing much of the world. Two factors, among others, played an important role in European nations’ successful propagation: ships and guns.

In a study published this summer in the International Journal of Nautical Archaeology, researchers shed light on the late medieval artillery aboard the Gribshunden, the royal Danish-Norwegian flagship that sank over five centuries ago off the coast of Sweden. The wreck represents the best-preserved ship from the Age of Exploration, the iconic and brutal time period of European world dominance that began with Christopher Columbus’ 1492 voyage and ended in the 17th century.

“Gribshunden is a rare archaeological resource. It is the most complete example yet discovered of a late medieval carvel warship with extant gun elements,” the researchers wrote in the study. “Much of the wooden ship structure and particularly the oak gun beds have survived on Gribshunden, along with other organic material seldom found on centuries-old wrecks in other bodies of water.”

Scuba divers accidentally discovered the Gribshunden shipwreck in 1971, but formal archaeological investigations didn’t begin until much later, with the first test excavations taking place in the early 2000s.

Anti-personnel weapons for enemy ships

Gribshunden once hosted at least 50 small-caliber guns with lead shot, or projectiles, with an iron core. These weapons were used against enemy ships’ personnel at close range before boarding and capturing the seacraft. While most of the wrought-iron guns wasted away at the bottom of the sea, the researchers were able to recreate them digitally by studying the shapes they left behind in their wooden gun beds, pictured below.

“Study of this site delivers new knowledge of the carvel ship and gun combination at a crucial historical point, as shipwrights and gunsmiths perfected it into the form it ultimately assumed by the mid-16th century—and which then remained substantially unchanged for more than three centuries,” the researchers explained.

Gribshunden was built between 1483 and 1484 near Rotterdam, probably claiming around 8% of the Danish national budget in 1485. According to the researchers, King Hans of Denmark and Norway used the vessel in a unique manner. Rather than employing it for exploration, he treated it as a sort of floating castle. He personally used it to travel around his kingdom and beyond, consolidating his rule through economic, diplomatic, social, cultural, and administrative soft power backed by the hard power represented by the ship’s military might.

Consolidate a kingdom or expand its borders?

If you’re wondering why King Hans didn’t participate in the Age of Exploration—his Viking ancestors would have been proud, after all—the researchers suggest that he was more preoccupied with stabilizing his rule over the Baltic region. What’s more, Pope Alexander VI granted Spain rights to the Americas in 1493, and King Hans probably didn’t want to get excommunicated. As for the Indian Ocean, Spain and Portugal agreed that it would be Portugal’s domain.

Gribshunden burst into flames in June 1495 while anchored off the Swedish town of Ronneby. King Hans wasn’t aboard at the time. A number of the discovered artillery shots feature one or two flattened sides, potentially because the explosion caused the projectiles stored near gunpowder to ricochet within the vessel.

The study ultimately joins a host of other historicshipwrecks coming to light in recent years, providing insight into how humans explored, traveled, traded, and dominated for thousands and thousands of years.