Sunken ships revealed in Sweden

By Kavitha A. Davidson - The Huffington Post
 

Unusually low water levels in the Stockholm harbor have led to the discovery of two sunken warships believed to be more than 400 years old.

The 17th-century vessels were found by marine archaeologist Jim Hansson while he was walking around Kastellholmen island with his girlfriend.

According to his account in The Local, Hansson knew he had spotted a ship because of the pattern of wooden stumps protruding from the water's surface.

"If it had only been one or two beams sticking up, I may not have noticed it," he told The Local.

"But I saw immediately that it was a shipwreck. You could clearly see the bow and the stern."

Rumors of a hidden ship have circulated for years, but the revelation of two such vessels came as a surprise to local residents, CNN iReport notes.

Hansson, who works for Stockholm's Maritime Museum, identified the boats on his personal blog, writing that he believes one to be the Grå Ulven, or "Gray Wolf," which sunk in 1670, while the other may be the Den Stora Draken, or "The Big Dragon."

Swedish newspaper Expressen reports that scientists confirmed the identity of Grå Ulven, having known of its existence in the harbor since at least 1940.

Wood samples from the second ship are being sent to the National Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen to conduct tests using dendrochronology, or tree-ring dating.

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