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(Image credit: John Fhær Engedal Nissen/The National Museum of Denmark)
Centuries-old shipwrecks off the coast of Costa Rica, long idea to have actually been the home of pirates, are in fact Danish ships that participated in the 18th-century transatlantic servant trade, brand-new research study exposes.
The 2 shipwrecks being in the shallow waters off the coast of Cahuita National Park in southern Costa Rica and have actually been understood about for years. An opportunity discover of distinct yellow bricks near one of the wrecks, followed by a more thorough examination of the ships’ contents and wood, allowed marine archaeologists from Denmark to verify that the wrecks were really 18th-century Danish servant ships.
These shipwrecks are now believed to be the remains of the Fridericus Quartus and Christianus Quintus, which vanished off the coast of Central America in 1710, and previously, had actually never ever been discovered.
“It’s been a long process and I’ve come close to giving up along the way, but this is undoubtedly the craziest archaeological excavation I’ve yet been part of,” Andreas Kallmeyer Blocha marine archaeologist and museum manager at the National Museum of Denmark, stated in a declaration “Not only because it matters greatly to the local population, but also because it’s one of the most dramatic shipwrecks in the history of Denmark, and now we know exactly where it happened.”
The Fridericus Quartus and Christianus Quintus were big ships utilized by the Danish West India Companywhich ran Denmark’s transatlantic servant trade in between West Africa, the Danish West Indies (consisting of the modern-day islands of St. Thomas, St. Jan and St. Croix), and Denmark. Smaller sized in scale compared to the British, French or Portuguese empires, Denmark was an active individual in the transatlantic servant trade from the mid-1600s till the early 1800s, according to the Digital Encyclopedia of European HistoryMore than 120,000 shackled Africans were transferred by the Danish West India Company alone.
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According to the National Museum of Denmark, historic sources mention that both of the ships sank in 1710. As the Fridericus Quartus was preparing to leave Ghana, the enslaved individuals broke out of their shackles and rebelled. The disobedience stopped working and the ship’s team cut off their leader’s hands and after that beheaded him. To secure versus more discontent, the Christianus Quintus accompanied the Fridericus Quartus, bringing the overall variety of individuals on both ships to 800. They got lost on their method to the Dutch nest of St. Thomas and were running low on food. The team threatened mutiny, requiring the enslaved individuals be launched so the team might divide the ship’s staying food amongst themselves.
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The captains concurred, and around 600 enslaved individuals wound up on the coasts of Costa Ricaafter which the Fridericus Quartus is believed to have actually ignited. The Christianus Quintus, on the other hand, had its anchor rope cut and was quickly smashed to pieces by the waves. The precise website of the wrecks stayed unidentified.
David Gregory, a marine archaeologist and research study teacher at the National Museum of Denmark, takes a look at yellow bricks by the shipwrecks in Costa Rica. (Image credit: Jakob Olling)
Yellow bricks
The 2 wrecks off the coast of Costa Rica had actually long been understood to residents, and were presumed to be pirate ships due to their broken-up state, recommending that they might have sunk after fighting one another. This presumption was challenged in 2015 after archaeologists discovered yellow bricks in one of the ship’s remains.
The clay from this yellow brick was evaluated, resulting in its recognition as a Flensburg brick. These bricks were utilized nearly specifically in Denmark and its nests, and were just made in really specific locations in Denmark.
Now, after a subsequent undersea excavation in 2023, the National Museum of Denmark has actually now exposed their findings.
“The analyses are very convincing and we no longer have any doubts that these are the wrecks of the two Danish slave ships,” David Gregorya marine archaeologist and research study teacher at the National Museum of Denmark, stated in the declaration.
Throughout the exploration, marine archaeologists from the National Museum of Denmark and the Viking Ship Museum dove to the shipwrecks and took samples of wood, bricks and numerous clay pipelines that they found.
David Gregory and Andreas Kallmeyer Bloch, marine archaeologists at the National Museum of Denmark, hold an excavated ship wood from among the shipwrecks in Costa Rica. (Image credit: John Fhær Engedal Nissen/The National Museum of Denmark)
Researchers carried out dendrochronological analyses, likewise referred to as tree-ring dating, on the wood samples from the ships, which revealed that they were made from oak lumber that had actually come from the western Baltic, particularly northeastern Germany, Denmark or Sweden. In addition, the wood was verified to have actually been from a tree that was reduced in between 1690 and 1695, and revealed indications of being burned before the ship sank, constant with historic reports of the ships having actually ignited.
The brick samples were likewise evaluated, which revealed that they were undoubtedly Flensburg bricks and had actually been made in either Iller Strand or Egernsund, both centers of 18th-century brick production located near Flensburg Fjord.
In addition, the clay pipelines were determined as having actually been produced by the Dutch prior to 1710, when the Fridericus Quartus and Christianus Quintus sank. These pipelines were frequently utilized by Danish sailors, and were likewise not typically utilized for more than 5 years.
“The bricks are Danish and the same goes for the timbers, which are additionally charred and sooty from a fire,” Gregory stated. “This fits perfectly with the historical accounts stating that one of the ships burnt.”
Jess Thomson is an independent reporter. She formerly worked as a science press reporter for Newsweek, and has actually likewise composed for publications consisting of VICE, The Guardian, The Cut, and Inverse. Jess holds a Biological Sciences degree from the University of Oxford, where she specialised in animal habits and ecology.
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