Swedish archaeologists discover long-lost 17th-century warship 'Applet'

Swedish maritime archaeologists have managed to finally locate the sister vessel of the famous Swedish shipwreck, Vasa.

The vessel named Applet was built by the same shipbuilder who made Vasa. The latter was a 64-gun warship that sank on its maiden voyage in 1628.

Applet sank off Stockholm in 1629 and its wreckage was discovered in December 2021, but experts needed to carry out a thorough investigation before they determined that it was indeed Applet.

"When we saw how similar the wreck was to Vasa, our pulses raced," said Jim Hansson, a maritime archaeologist at the Swedish Museum of Wrecks, while speaking about the astonishing discovery.

He added that the construction and the dimensions seemed "very familiar" to that of Vasa's, even though part of the ship's sides had fallen off.

"With Applet, we can add another key piece of the puzzle in the development of Swedish shipbuilding," added Hansson. The experts hope to analyse the ship's structure to understand how warship styles have evolved over the years.

The Vasa is the only almost fully intact 17th-century ship that has ever been salvaged. It has been put on display at the Vasa Museum in Stockholm, one of Sweden's most popular tourist spots.

Vasa capsized after sailing just over 1,000 metres in 1628. It was salvaged decades later in 1961, according to a report in The Guardian.

Several conspiracy theories claim that the ship was sunk on purpose after it was decommissioned. However, there is no evidence to suggest that it was done intentionally.

In 2016, marine archaeologists in Sweden found the wreckage of a 300-year-old warship close to the naval port of Karlskrona.

The vessel, known as the Blekinge, is thought to have roamed the sea in the late 17th century and had been used in battles against Denmark and Russia. The Karlskrona naval base was built in the aftermath of a war between Sweden and neighbouring Denmark – the Scanian War, which took place between 1675 and 1679.