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The Delmenhorst
170 Plays1 year ago
A 17th century Danish warship and a record setting underwater tunnel in the Baltic Sea!
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Transcript
Introduction and Sponsor
00:00:05
Speaker
Today's episode of Killer Shipwrecks is brought to you by Terry's Turpentine offering natural solvents of unnatural quality. We're also brought to you by Choppy Streams, offering the latest technical solutions for those endless Zoom meetings.
Recap of Last Episode
00:00:44
Speaker
We're back online. Dr. Troyer, this is episode five. Last week to recap, you told the tale of the Kyrenia, which I have to say it was the source of a lot of positive emails. I don't know if you looked at our inbox. I did not. I got busy and got a new dog running around the property, kind of trying to look after this new dog. And I did not check the inbox. Good news or bad news?
00:01:08
Speaker
Good news. All good news. People love the story. People love the history. The four crew members end up being enslaved, which is super dramatic. So yeah, great story. Were there still people nosing around in the inbox trying to rope me into some sort of financial scam?
00:01:25
Speaker
That is always going to happen now. I feel like those are sort of like, you know, one of those pre-programmed things where we're going to get 10 to 15 solicitation. And I told, I told Lizzie, just go through and comb those out because even though I think I'm, I'm vigilant now and everything's under control, all it takes is one where I just, I get sucked in.
00:01:44
Speaker
I'm super nervous it's going to happen. And, you know, we do we call it the Dr. Troyer filter when I'm speaking with Lizzie without you online, only because we're trying to protect you. But super scary because I
Financial Scams Humorous Discussion
00:01:54
Speaker
know you're prone to the to the guy from Micronesia email again about us maybe going out there to dive on a wreck. Do you get some packages often? I would not open anything from Micronesia. Again, Lizzie handles are physical packages.
00:02:07
Speaker
that come into the office. And the other thing is, I think we agreed that maybe we both liked the sound of that Mediterranean ocean. So if we're going to do our first joint dive on Iraq, maybe that's where we need to go. Right. We want to be casual about it where we come up and it's sunny and warm. We don't want like dry suits, foggy day, freezing cold water. Like that's not my kind of dive.
00:02:30
Speaker
We did get some emails. People were curious why the pirates didn't want the M4As in the almonds. Like if those went down with the ship, why not bring those on board? Yeah, great question. What do you think? Well, I'm wondering how big the pirate's ship was. So I don't know if they could offload 400 M4A.
00:02:49
Speaker
Some of them may have been in recovery and trying to stay away from that. Good point, sort of sober pirates. And it could have been more of a smash and grab, you know, like let's just grab the coins. The captain's purse? Captain's purse, somebody's purse. Doesn't matter who's purse, just grab a purse.
Pirates and Almonds Curiosity
00:03:08
Speaker
Yeah.
00:03:08
Speaker
And maybe enslave these guys. Who knows? Maybe the ship starts going down during the the tussle, you know, because there was something about some spear points in the hole. And then you get the curse tablet. I did. I think the curse tablet don't even get me started with the curse. I so called. Exactly. I did get some messages from those close to me, family and friends who also had some skepticism about the curse tablets.
00:03:37
Speaker
Though I also had somebody who claimed to know something about antiquity who said that the so-called curse tablet, it wasn't just with ships, it was in public places, it was at graveyards, and it was almost on the level of graffiti, like epithets that you would hurl at somebody.
00:03:55
Speaker
Interesting. You know, the other thing that I think, and I saw one email about, but I definitely was curious about was the fact that they didn't let the future slaves bring their cutlery. You described, you know, the haunting tale of finding the sort of four sets of silverware and plates. Yeah. My point is like, guys, grab your cutlery and come on board.
Historical Reflections and Hardy Boys
00:04:14
Speaker
Again, these might not have been like rocket scientists.
00:04:17
Speaker
Can we at least take our plates? Like we're going to have to eat like I don't need like, can I get a lot more work out of me if I'm well fed. Um, but I think generally people super appreciated learning about that time period. You did a great job describing sort of what was going on in 300 BC. Like it's incredible when you think of how much time has passed. Yeah. And also it got me excited about the Hardy boys again.
00:04:41
Speaker
When we were joking about the Hardy Boys, I was one of those kids who would get sick a lot and I, you know, have a sore throat or I'd have an ear infection or whatever. And mom would say, okay, you know, Sam from school at one sick day, I could power through to Hardy Boys mysteries. And that was just like, man, I felt like I was traveling the world with my little sore throat.
00:05:03
Speaker
I think maybe my very first book report in elementary school was already
Choosing the Next Adventure
00:05:07
Speaker
boys book. Those are great books. Great books. But now where, where are you taking us? Go back to the teaser. All you said is you're trying to decide between two boats. I did decide on one. I'm champing at the bit. I mean, just, I've been excited to find out what, what ocean, what lake, what, where are we going this week?
00:05:24
Speaker
This time we're going to travel a bit. Really? What we typically like to do, because we think of these shipwrecks as time capsules, right? They're sort of taking us back to a specific period in time and so well preserved, which is just astounding.
Setting the Historical Scene of 1644
00:05:38
Speaker
So let's talk about the time period. I love it when you do this. Give me a year. It went down in the year 1644. 1644. Oh.
00:05:48
Speaker
This is earlier than, wait, wait, hold on. So this is earlier than some of your previous recs you've told me about. So this is a little earlier. Let's put it in context. 1644. Mayflower was what? 1620. So this is early, early colony days. 1644. So like there's no like NFL yet.
00:06:07
Speaker
Not very probably with those caps. Like I think it was probably, you know, got a picture of the odd, like animal caps, like instead of helmets, but I think they may have played some early version. That's unsubstantiated. 1644. Okay. So, and I barely know what's going on in America. In America, 1644 was the time of the second native American massacre.
00:06:27
Speaker
Now, again, unfortunately, when you're naming it the second implies there was a first. So this is the second time that the Native Americans murdered a bunch of colonists. Really? They killed about 500. 500 in the second massacre? Yeah. In the second massacre, which is technically a smaller percentage of the population than when the first massacre occurred in Jamestown. Well, so this is the indigenous peoples massacring the immigrants, correct? Or is
Conflicts in Europe, 1644
00:06:53
Speaker
it vice versa?
00:06:53
Speaker
No, you are technically correct. And I think some of it was rooted in some animosity over Pocahontas. For real? Did it have something to do with Pocahontas? I think so. I think there was a John Smith and a Pocahontas story in the background. Again, I didn't want to go down that rabbit hole. The other item from 1644 is what's known as
00:07:13
Speaker
the plundering time in Maryland. That's my home state, baby. Have you heard of the plundering time aptly named, which is a clue. Okay. Plundering time in Maryland. Okay. And this is 1644. Correct. And it's not a state yet. Nope. Well, of course it's not a state. No states. And is it even a colony? I mean, what is it? It is a province. It's known as a province. Yeah. But what are the plundering time?
00:07:36
Speaker
Yeah. So the plundering were basically these Protestant pirates. Here we go with the pirates. They began plundering the property of anyone who wasn't willing to swear allegiance to the English parliament, which, which mainly were Catholic. So it was really the Protestant killing all the Catholics known as the plundering time, given what they were doing. But was this on the high seas or was this on shore? This was on land. On land. Yeah. Okay. Okay. And native peoples are uninvolved in the plundering time. Correct.
00:08:04
Speaker
That was just the Protestants and the Catholics. The Native Americans were involved with what was termed the second Native American massacre. And that occurred in 1644. I think I should know better because I'm from Maryland, but it was a big Catholic contingent there, right? Before that plundering time, yes. More Catholics existed before the plundering. Wait, so is this shipwreck going to be off the coast of Maryland? That would be really exciting.
00:08:29
Speaker
Nothing to do with it.
Naval Battle Strategies
00:08:31
Speaker
Damn it. I'm just setting the context. We're talking 1600s. We're talking 20 years after the Mayflower and a ship was discovered a few years ago from that exact year. So it's pretty astounding. But now let's move to a different part of the world. Let's move to Europe. Are you kidding me?
00:08:48
Speaker
We're going to Europe. Give me a second. I just freaking crossed the Atlantic. Okay. Just give me a second. Okay. So now you are in Europe in 1644. So, you know, what's going on in America, right? We got the colonies. We got the native Americans. We got the plundering in Europe. Something's going on with a King in England. I'm sure there's always something going on with a King in England.
00:09:08
Speaker
There's all kinds of things going on. And then at some point, I don't know if it's then, they get coffee and chocolate in Europe and they go nuts with it. But okay, keep going. I think that's the historian in here. Apparently, that's when double ledger bookkeeping starts. Before that, everybody was drinking alcohol and nothing was getting done. And then once the caffeine
00:09:29
Speaker
gets into town, the accountants get really good, everybody gets organized. That's when your Protestant work ethic really starts to kick in. Have there been studies? Is that a correlation that has been documented scientifically? Oh, for sure. Wow. That's incredible. It makes perfect sense. Okay, well, let's get off that path. Now we're in Europe, it's 1644, and believe it or not, the Swedes and the Dutch are fighting with Denmark and Norway. The Swedes
00:09:57
Speaker
and the Dutch are fighting with Denmark and
Sound Dues Battle
00:10:00
Speaker
Norway. Okay. And think about the fact that like now, I mean, I love my Dutch friends. Great people. I, you know, I like the country. I like the jersey they wear at the World Cup, but like back then they were off, you know, world force. Looking back, you're like, guys, you're Scandinavian. Like, come on, what are you fighting about?
00:10:18
Speaker
No one can tell these countries apart. Yeah, but that's the thing. It's always the country next to you always has some beef with you. Yes. So you know that the Swedes don't like the Norwegians or the Norwegians don't like the Finns or you know that. But it's like Wisconsin, like everyone like Minnesota. It's like, guys, come on, you're good guys. Get over it. So anyways, the Swedes were always threatened by this Denmark-Norway alliance.
00:10:43
Speaker
And so those guys completely sort of encircled Sweden. So there was always this tension. And then to add insult to injury, the Danes introduced what they called the Sound Dues. And the Sound Dues were basically a toll. So as ships moved back and forth between Sweden and Denmark, the Danes were charging a toll. So they basically set up the little toll booth. Yes. But it's on the ocean.
00:11:08
Speaker
It's on the ocean. It's a floating toll booth. Unsure if they sell snacks, but the bottom line is you got to pay the toll. And the Swedes are like, yeah, I don't have correct change. Like, do you take this? Do you take our Swedish coins? Like, you know, how do we do this? Super annoying. Like, can I please change the money? But what's your exchange rate? Like this is inconvenient. My kids are in the back seat.
00:11:30
Speaker
So that is really what happened. And so the tensions building, blah, blah, blah. 1644, the King of Sweden, you know, basically says like, well, hold on a second. We got these main bodies of water, right? We got the North sea. That's, that's to the West of Denmark. And then you got the Baltic sea, uh, to the East. So both of them are inlets to the Atlantic ocean. The Swedes are like, hold on based on my calculations. I think we've got more forces than them. So, Hey, Mr. Field Marshal Torstenson.
00:11:58
Speaker
Wait. So the, the king of Sweden, he just did a quick review. We have a much bigger force than you guys have. I'm not a mathematician, but we have 80 ships. They have 40. Can we win? Like, I don't think it required computers, but I think he was able to ascertain that he had more men, right? He had like 11,000 and the other guys had half that. Just a great use of great use of the word ascertain. That's just not a word that gets used as much as it should completely agree. Yeah.
00:12:26
Speaker
So the Swedish Field Marshal Torstensson, which is, you know, very Swedish name. Well said. He's ordered to just go after Denmark. How about just like, we won't pay the toll. Like, why do you got to go to war? They were going to go for broke. I see. And now Denmark, Norway, completely unaware. Oh.
00:12:43
Speaker
Very unprepared. They didn't consider that this was going to happen. They should have thought of this before they came up with the whole Sound News program. They weren't doing the math on the spot. No. But they had two countries. You'd think somebody there would have been ready. Like, you know, Sweden's a pain in our butt, Sweden might act. I think they thought the Swedes were cool. The Swedes are cool. I got to say, I'm a big ice hockey fan. Yes, you are. And when the Swedes first started playing professionally in North America,
00:13:13
Speaker
They were known as sort of the finesse guys, the super skill guys, and maybe not as rough or tough. But what we've come to learn is there are some tough ass Swedish players, Peter Forsberg being like the prototype. Okay. But anyway, so, but when does Sweden link up with the Dutch and say, Hey, will you partner with us?
00:13:32
Speaker
They had been with the Dutch for a while. They had been fighting with the Dutch for a while. And again, don't stretch my
Shipwreck of the Delmenhorst
00:13:39
Speaker
knowledge base because it's very limited to this shipwreck. It's 10 times more than I know. So Denmark, Norway, completely unaware. They were guided by their King Christian IV. He had already lost an eye in a battle earlier.
00:13:51
Speaker
No way, really? They're king in one eye. Yeah, he was woefully unprepared. Bad symbolism, bad omen. It's like, yeah, we might not be prepared. Like, our king has no depth perception. Maybe we should get somebody else.
00:14:04
Speaker
He's got a bad eye. Coming in from the left, the guy is going to have no clue. So the battles were pretty intense. At first, the Denmark Norway guys did pretty well. They won a battle in July. So, you know, early blood, draw first blood, you know, okay. Unfortunately, the rematch occurred later that year in October. Had to go on the road this time. October 13th, 1644.
00:14:28
Speaker
Jesus, we know the date. The Swedish and the Dutch, they sailed out with 42 ships. Oh, man. Into what is known as Felmenbelt. I don't know if you appreciated my accent. I thought it was fantastic. That's a German word. Does it mean like the toll lane? No, it just happens to be where the battle took place. So it happened at Felmenbelt and the Swedish had 42 ships. The Denmark guys had 17. So not great.
00:14:58
Speaker
Wait, but did the Denmark guys have any of their pals from Norway chipping in? That's in connection with Norway. Norway is contributing part of the 17 boy. Yeah. So woefully under prepared, but they actually started out pretty good. Okay. Okay. They got some good shots in. They're very accurate. And then it quickly became catastrophic.
00:15:20
Speaker
where out of the 17 Dana ships, only two got away. The others were either conquered or sunk or conquered and sunk.
00:15:29
Speaker
So horrible battle. And I am not a meteorologist. I'm not a cartographer yet. Taking online courses. But it just sounds like a cold ocean to go down in. Brutal. And it's October. You know, it's gray. Oh, I imagine it's a little foggy. It's there's definitely a bite in the air. Maybe it's the worst. Some storm clouds. Oh,
00:15:54
Speaker
Wow, wait, all but all but two of the Denmark side went down. Yeah. Unfortunately, all but two were sunk in the last hours of the battle. There was one ship called the Delmenhurst.
00:16:10
Speaker
And that's not German, but that's the only accident I can do. The crew of the Delmen host, they decided to ground the ship because what they were hoping was that the huge cannon battery that's on the shore was going to protect them. Okay. So the Delmen host, they're all like, look, we're just, we're fine. The cannon is going to protect us. But then the Swedes decided to send a brand or into the Danish warship.
00:16:34
Speaker
What is a brander? Okay. I almost feel like I just, I cued you up for that. Yeah. So a brander is a burning ship. Think like the Kamikaze. Oh, and they sent the burning ship directly into the Danish warship, which was called the Dom and host.
00:16:51
Speaker
I caught fire and that was it. I just logistically back in 1644, how do they already know how to like both simultaneously set a ship on fire, but also direct it into, you know, make impact on the target ship? Like how does that all work? Incredible. And are there a couple of guys that have to like, uh, you know, steer it to the last minute and then dive off into the water before they burn up? Maybe. So that technique, that's called a brander.
00:17:17
Speaker
That's called a brander. They sent a brander. And so the brander hit the ship and it caught fire. And that was the end of it. That brander thing sounds like something that's been passed on from generations of hardcore Viking wars, you know? Yes. Feels very cinematic. Yeah. Like when you picture like the big flames and then it hits the other show, it's very cinematic. But yet that is what happened. They have the actual ship.
Discovery of the Delmenhorst
00:17:41
Speaker
Yeah.
00:17:41
Speaker
A couple of things that I'm not telling you yet, which I will tell you on the other side of our break this week. We need to hear from our good friends at choppy streams. You know, these guys are super clever and they're doing well, right? We saw a news story. They actually got some more financing. Yes. I didn't know if there would be ripples from all these tech layoffs or from the crypto collapse in China. Something happens to a butterfly in Denmark. I don't know.
00:18:07
Speaker
You know, it is one of those things like you throw a pebble and the rings, someone's getting a hurricane and we don't even know about it yet. It's convoluted. All right. Let's go and hear from choppy streams. Can't wait. Ever want to get out of those long, boring video meetings? Hell yes. Well, activate choppy streams from your browser and experience instant choppiness in your video stream. All you have to do is apologize and sign off. Choppy streams. All right. It's good to hear from them, you know, but what I want to tell you about is the Delman House.
00:18:37
Speaker
Okay. And the battle of the Falman belt. I feel like you're just showing off now with the pronunciation. I feel like that's probably half of the preparation you did. Yeah, I did. I actually downloaded a couple of samples. It reminds me of the old TV commercial for Berlitz or for some language instruction company where it's like the new guy in the dispatch center for the maydays that come in from the ocean and you hear the crackly like, mayday, mayday.
00:19:06
Speaker
we're thinking. And the new guy's like, okay, what are you, what are you thinking about?
00:19:15
Speaker
I'm thinking, what are you thinking about? That's great. Well, that's what I'm saying. The guys. Yeah. He doesn't understand. No, I know. I thought that that was only like a Monty Python or Benny Hill. No, for real. So it was a good commercial. The word that you just pronounced was that because you you've busted a few different foreign words here. Was that the ship that that got branded or no. So the ship sunk, which was the last of the ships that they discovered is called the Delman horse. I see.
00:19:44
Speaker
And the Delmenhorst, which fought in the Battle of the Fairman Belt. And again, that's just the name of the area. And right now, incidentally, they are building the world's longest undersea tunnel in the Fairman Belt Strait, which connects Germany to Denmark. Are you kidding me? I'm not kidding you. You know, think of like the tunnel. I was thinking more of like the play place at McDonald's, like where, you know, the kids scramble through
00:20:09
Speaker
It's a little like that, less burgers, although maybe because the burger originated in Germany. You could not pay me enough to go on an underwater tunnel down in whatever this is, the North Atlantic or the Baltic or whatever. Brutal. But that is what led to the discovery of the ship. Oh. They were surveying and getting ready to build this thing. And they're like, whoa, what's that? And it turned out to be the Delmenhurst from 1644 that they have not been able to locate. So they hadn't, they had not been aware of exactly where that boat was.
00:20:39
Speaker
No, which is shocking because A, it wasn't that far off the coast. B, it was in 11 feet of water. What 11 feet? We could snorkel. I'm sanctioned for that. My Apple Watch does that like all day long. That's 11 feet. Definitely gonna have to be like a like a late July. Like I don't know when the temperatures would be swimmable.
00:21:01
Speaker
Very cold, very cold in like the North Sea, like that whole area. But so let me just tell you, in this final battle, which again, they didn't have the remnants of until just recently, just in the last few years, the Delmenhurst, it caught fire. And when the cannon smoke subsided, the commander of the Danish Navy had died. So the commander of the entire Danish Navy was lost in this battle. And it literally changed everything in that area. Like Sweden became the dominant player and that was it for Denmark. Whoa.
00:21:29
Speaker
All of a sudden, Sweden has full domination. Unrestricted access to the North Sea. They're not paying tolls to anybody now. They're like, you know what? How about you guys pay tolls to us? Why don't we do that? Yeah, let's change it up a little bit. Yeah, it seems like now we have more ships than you guys do. Let's do the math, guys. Why don't you pay us tolls? It's easy peasy. So anyways, in the Furman belt, that is the strait that connects what's called the Bay of Kiel with the Bay of Mecklenburg.
00:21:57
Speaker
in the western part of the Baltic Sea, it's between the German island of Felman, and the Danish island of Lallen. I actually I know I always say this, but this is true. I got some people buried there to Danish in Denmark. Yeah, way up there. Yeah, that's a dream to go to that graveyard.
00:22:15
Speaker
But let me just tell you that as they discovered this wreck from the battle of Frelman belt, they quickly realized, and these are like Viking ship museum experts, like people that know all about this stuff. They said that this was a very exciting wreck. And what they said was that the Delmanhurst, which is the ship that went down, one of the reasons that it was special is one of the very first ships to be built after a drawing. So it wasn't like a scale model. Someone drew the sort of like, you know, outline of this ship and it was built based on a drawing and it was one of the very
00:22:44
Speaker
early ones to be built on a drone. It's hilarious to realize that that wasn't always the case because you can just imagine the first time they're like, okay, that's insane. Now we're going to go build it just because you drew that on that piece of paper. There's a flying car. I just drew it. Let's go build it. This was one of the first or the very first built from a drone. They do say one of the first.
00:23:04
Speaker
So we don't want to mislead our
Preservation of the Wreck
00:23:06
Speaker
listeners. It is not designated as the very first, but it is definitely among the very first. Now, but are we, but we're not trying to, um, trying to cite all these years later, uh, some sort of design defect or some, um, mistake on the part of the draftsman. No, it was that brand new ship, but they said it was an oval shape ship and it was about seven by 31 meters.
00:23:30
Speaker
7 by 31. Okay, hold on. Doing the calculation, 7 by 31. So 31- It's roughly 21 feet by 90 feet, roughly, right? Because there are three feet in a meter or something along those lines. But 31 meters, wouldn't that be like 90 feet? 90. That's what I'm saying, like 21 by 90, something like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay.
00:23:47
Speaker
Yeah. But anyways, so this this oval ship and they found the ballast stone and they saw between the stones, the ship's frame and the thumb clad planks. And so then they describe going down when the divers first went down. Okay. Well, it's 11 feet down. So it's not like a long trip down, but go ahead.
00:24:06
Speaker
But this is what they do for a living. So they have to play it up. They got to make it dramatic. They can't say we waited out and, you know, bent over and looked, you know, put on my goggles. So anyways, at the very first dive, which sounds a lot more exotic, I guess, 11 feet of water, put on some waders and whatever. We're all good.
00:24:24
Speaker
So anyways, at the very first dive, the sun was shining through the water and they say it caused dozens of melted pieces of bronze cannon to sparkle like gold between charred debris. That's the quote. Wow. So the bronze cannons immediately let them know that it was a warship, right? Cause they found different as cannonballs. You have a knack for picking out the cinematic detail.
00:24:48
Speaker
It's unbelievable. They got musket bullets. You did it with the captain who had his hat off and his head bowed in prayer. Captain Herndon, two towns named after him. Yeah. In fact, I then later discovered one of my favorite, uh, hockey teams, the Washington Capitals has a player from Herndon, Virginia. No way. Joe Snively. Yeah. Herndon, Virginia. Yeah.
00:25:10
Speaker
Okay, let's go back to these people in the 11-foot depths of water. Okay, so they find the cannonballs, but they also find tokens of daily life on the ship. So they find what's called a calculation coin, which is this flat coin. And again, if Lizzie can post a photo, super cool to look at. It's a flat coin that was used as some sort of simple way to calculate. I love coins. I need to know more about that. What's it called, a calculation coin?
00:25:40
Speaker
It's called a calculation coin. I wonder what those go for on eBay. And so then they also obviously found traces of the fire from the branding ship. I wonder if there was any evidence of the branding ship or if that thing kind of burned up. I think that just burned up. Yeah, they could see the glint of the cannon as the sun sunlight reflected off of it.
00:26:01
Speaker
So they decide that it's too delicate to move. It's too entrenched in the seabed. So they decide to digitize it the best that they can.
Historical Impact & Next Episode Teaser
00:26:11
Speaker
They took 30,000 digital images. So their original idea is to develop this 3D model and project it in this sort of photographic model at this museum, the Viking ship museum. And it debuted, I believe in 2021. Oh, that's cool.
00:26:26
Speaker
You know, when you said that it was too much, it was too difficult to take up. I, you know, I was about to kind of cast aspersions myself and say, like, sounds like some people got lazy, but now that you're talking about the scope of the digital project, they're thinking about huge and that's, they weren't lazy. No, in fact, it costs them a lot of time and money because they took these very expensive pieces of equipment down into the water, not super deep. So it's like someone's holding it. Not like we got to develop some, you know, electronic contraption.
00:26:54
Speaker
Yeah, again, it has to be waterproof, but they take all these amazing digital images, 30,000, so that they can create a real replica in 3D. They know it had 28 guns. They can go to the Viking Ship Museum and see it now. We can see the replica.
00:27:11
Speaker
Yeah. And are we talking about like a little scale model or are we talking about a replica that's the life size? Yeah. It's like a life size. Oh. And so the rest of the wreck, they're just leaving there. Like that's just going to be there. They're going to let it just live with the sand. I mean, until you and I go there and just do, we go rogue and see what we can pull up. You know, just the two of us, it's 11 feet down. Like you just do the thing where you like hold your breath. And then when you come up, you just blow out the water through the snorkel. We got this.
00:27:40
Speaker
Um, the cannon would be tough to bring up. That's probably outside of exercise exercise. I mean, you know how cold we're going to be? It's like two minutes in, we're going to have burned more calories than we did in the prior year, but you got to admit it's only 11 feet. Well, then my other thing is like, what's with the underwater tunnel when the water's only 11 feet deep, like just wanting to build a fricking bridge.
00:28:06
Speaker
Right. Good point. Well, I don't know what the 11 feet, that's just where the ship was, right? That's right. They purposely grounded the ship. And so they put it on a sandbar, thinking that cannon was going to protect them. Such a strategic error. They think they're going to get the cover fire and they're just sitting there waiting. What's that burning ship coming towards us?
00:28:24
Speaker
Yeah. Oh, I smell it guys. The can and then they're like, no, no, no. It's coming from that side of the ship. And then you just turn and there's a flaming, like from a, like from a Michael Bay movie, you know, just a flaming wreck coming right at you. You don't believe that. So what would do that? And that it would work. Like you think it would, like, it would go out on the way there. Like, Oh shoot. It went out. And it sounds like that really set the Swedes up for time of kind of ruling the maritime roost.
00:28:51
Speaker
Literally, it changed everything in that region. Yeah. And I wonder if the Dutch were just kind of the money behind all that, you know, just because they were wealthy. Again, I don't do that level of research because I try to stick to the shipwreck. Did you check our analytics? Did you see we got a couple readers in Japan? We got a couple, or not readers, a couple listeners in Japan and a couple listeners in Spain. And I have a good friend who's half, I have a few good friends who are half Norwegian.
00:29:21
Speaker
Yeah. Hello, Scandinavia. This is a Scandinavian episode. Although they're not going to be stoked because they're on the losing side of it. This doesn't look good for them. Yeah. But again, until that cool October day, they were ruling the roost. The Danish Navy was number one for a really long time. Let's not forget that. They just, you know, unfortunately met their man. Yeah. And I feel like they were just kind of rested on their laurels and they were like, we're the Danish Navy. We got this. Right. These Swedes? I'm not worried about the Swedes guys. Look at these guys.
00:29:50
Speaker
They're super nice. Yeah. Pay the tolls. And by the way, one of your ships is on fire, like get it under control, you know, and then suddenly you realize like, Oh no, we're getting our lunch handed to us right here by the Swedes.
00:30:03
Speaker
Why don't we control the Baltic anymore? I don't understand. We have the Delman horse, like what's going on, terrible ending, but amazing that again, you discover this artifact from 1644 and still in decent shape, decent shape that you can see the cannonballs and where the ship came to rest. That's from the Mayflower times. Like that's pretty incredible. That's insane. Makes me want to look up a little bit of the, um,
00:30:26
Speaker
military history among those three countries. Honestly, I had no idea that those countries in particular were at war at the time America was being colonized. I wonder if you compared like, okay, what are the countries that are best at boat building in that era? Obviously, the Dutch and Spanish and Portuguese or whatever, but yeah, these cultures that had the Viking history, they've been building boats.
00:30:54
Speaker
Forever. From the get-go. And you're right. Each area sort of has their own definitive style of ship. Yeah. And it sounds like whatever, you know, the Swedes were doing at that point, they had kind of locked it in. Totally. And it may also just be, you know, it also has to do with like strategy and decision-making and, you know, maybe having a king with one eye wasn't the greatest idea.
00:31:19
Speaker
Not the best. I bet you the King of Sweden probably had both eyes, his conjecture, but. Right. I heard he had great eyesight. It's amazing to me, all this detail we have about this battle from 1644, like we know the date in October or it went down. October 13th. And we know like what the thinking was for grounding the ship and then what happened, you know.
00:31:42
Speaker
they find the ship. That's what's so crazy is they're finding the sort of artifact of the historical narrative. It's incredible. Unbelievable. Dr. Troyer, have you considered what type of shipwreck you are going to feature on the next episode? Not just what type. I know the shipwreck.
00:32:00
Speaker
And how willing are you to tease or at least peak our interest? I am very willing. For people who are discovering us for the first time this season may have built up certain expectations about what kind of ships we each like to do. I will be blowing those expectations out of the water
00:32:21
Speaker
This one's outside my comfort zone in a couple of ways. It's a time period. I haven't investigated a lot. I'm not sure if I've ever done a wreck in this time period, nor at this depth. It's a different depth from where I usually go. So it'll be new. I hope you'll be patient with me. It's, um, you know, it's not my bread and butter. It's not ancient Rome. It's not, you know, Caligula all that.
00:32:43
Speaker
Interesting. So this is outside your comfort zone. I'm going to have to do extra research. You did such a good job on this one. I feel like I'm going to have to up my game. I know. Yeah. You have a broad area of expertise. So I'm very curious where this can go. All right. Well hats off to the people who died that day. Sounds awful.
00:33:01
Speaker
But also hats off to the intrepid researchers who did such a careful job claiming it, at least digitally, and giving a chance for the rest of us to actually see what this thing looked like. Can't wait to do the thing I always do as soon as we sign off. I jump online. I start looking at images. Yeah, super exciting. Great pictures, obviously. 1644. Great work. Fantastic.
00:33:27
Speaker
Thank you, doctor. All right. I'm going to play our outdoor music and we will see you next week.