STOCKHOLM: Swedish maritime archaeologists have discovered the long-lost sister vessel of the iconic 17th-century warship “Vasa”, which sank on its maiden voyage, the Swedish Museum of Wrecks said on Monday.

Launched in 1629, “Applet” (The Apple) was built by the same shipbuilder as the famed 69-metre (225-foot) “Vasa”, which is now on display in Stockholm after being salvaged in the 1960s.

“Our pulses raced when we saw how similar the wreck was to Vasa,” said Jim Hansson, maritime archaeologist at the museum.

The huge shipwreck was discovered in December 2021 in a strait off the island of Vaxholm just outside the capital, Stockholm, according to the museum.

Hansson said the construction and the dimensions seemed “very familiar” to them, sparking hope it could be one of Vasa’s sister ships.

While parts of the ship’s sides had fallen off, the hull was preserved up to the lower gundeck, and the parts that had fallen off showed gunports on two levels.

A more thorough survey of the wreck was carried out in the spring of 2022, which revealed ship details that had previously only been seen on the Vasa.

The museum said technical details as well as measurements and wood samples confirmed that it was “indeed Applet, Vasa’s sister ship.” In 2019, the same museum reported the discovery of two other warships in the same area.

Archaeologists at the time believed that one of them could have been Applet, but further investigations showed that those vessels instead were two medium-sized warships from 1648 — named “Apollo” and “Maria”.

“With ‘Applet’, we can add another key piece of the puzzle in the development of Swedish shipbuilding,” Hansson said, adding that this enabled researchers to study the differences between Applet and Vasa.

Published in Dawn, October 25th, 2022