A 700-year-old ship that once forged an economic empire has been found 5ft beneath the streets of a European capital.
Discovered during construction work in Tallinn, Estonia, the 80ft-long vessel is thought to be a 13th-century Hanseatic cog.
The ship was the workhorse of the Hanseatic League, a merchant alliance spanning seven modern nations, which at the peak of its powers even waged war to protect its members’ interests.
Surviving examples of these ships are rare, with the most famous example being the Bremen Cog discovered in Germany in 1962.
However, the newly discovered wreck is said to be in even better condition than its cousin found 50 years ago.
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Archaeologist Mihkel Tammet said: “The ship is 24 metres long and nine metres wide. The boards are intact up to three meters from the bottom of the ship.
“It is built using massive oak logs and planks. The ship has overlapping planking, sealed with animal hair and tar.
“We have found wool material used for packing, we have also found some tools and fragments of medieval leather shoes. Excavations are ongoing and we hope to find more.”
A dendrochronology test on the wood has dated the wreck to 1298 – 82 years older than the Bremen Cog.
The ship was found 1.5m underground at a site near Tallinn harbour, close to the former mouth of the Härjapea River – a waterway that no longer exists.
Another historic wreck had been found 50m away in 2008, so when construction began on a new office building, Tammet was called upon to supervise in case of further discoveries.
He explained that the whole area had once been underwater.
“This area was still under the sea in the 18th century,” he said. “800 years ago we had almost two metres of water here.
“There were probably shallower underwater sand ridges which were hard to map because they changed their shape and location because of ice drifts and storms.
“Our ship was found on one of these ridges under the sediments. It sank close to the Härjapea river mouth.”
Upon seeing the wreck, Tammet called in Ragnar Nurk, an archaeologist with the Tallinn city government. Nurk said the cog would be now taken to a new home.
“The wreck will be removed from its current position to allow the construction work to continue,” he said.
“There are two main options currently: it will go to the maritime museum or to the wreck preservation area in Tallinn Bay near Naissaar Island.
“Unfortunately the size and restricted conditions of construction do not let us to move the ship away in one part.”
At its peak, the Hanseatic League boasted among its members guilds and towns from Russia to the Netherlands, while also having satellite outposts in several English cities.
As it grew, it established a virtual monopoly over maritime trade in the Baltic – and the cog was its ship of choice.
It had more cargo space than its predecessor, a flat bottom for accessing shallow waters, and a simple sail setup that needed fewer men to operate – making it an economic means of shipping.
They ranged in size from 15 to 25 metres, putting the newly-discovered wreck near the bigger end of the spectrum.
The league eventually got so powerful that it even went to war with Denmark to protect its interests, sacking Copenhagen and inflicting a humiliating peace treaty on King Valdemar IV.
A representative of the company EHC Lootsi OÜ confirmed that the ship was found on their land but provided no further comment.
However it’s predicted that the cog’s discovery will delay completion of their new office building by two months, according to Estonian media.
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