530-year-old Shipwreck Surveyed

An investigation of the 530-year-old shipwreck Gribshunden outside Ronneby, Sweden was performed with the help of subsea survey specialist MMT, who provided both participation participated in and sponsored the mission.

MMT and MARIS (the Maritime Archaeological Research Institute) at Södertörn University evaluated different techniques to map archaeological remains of Gribshunden, one of the projects among others such as wreck investigations in the Baltic Sea on Mars, Lost Landscapes and Traveling Man.

MMT’s former survey vessel Triad mapped the wreck site of Gribshunden with multibeam echo sounders and we used a Blue View 3D sonar scanner on a stand next to the wreckage. This method provides a high resolution 3D model and an excellent overview of the wreck and surrounding area, MMT said. Photographic material is now gathered to build photogrammetry of the wreck site, and the data will be processed by MMT and the different techniques will be combined to create an accurate and high resolution image of the wreck site.

The commercial version of this kind of survey, using the still imagery for photogrammetry, is introduced with the new Survey ROV – Surveyor Interceptor (SROV). MMT has developed this high speed Survey ROV together with Norwegian partners Reach Subsea. The combination of the SROV and the photogrammetry delivers amazing results in commercial contexts.

All data collected on Gribshunden will serve as a foundation for planning future excavations.

Used this year was research vessel Svanen, a 10-meter-long catamaran equipped with the mapping technology and expertise from MMT, and financed by the main owner of MMT, Carl Douglas, to support coastal archeology and technology development.

The regional museums Blekinge museum and Kalmar läns museum are local partners in the Gribshunden excavations.