Last year it became known that a surprising find was made during the archaeological survey for the construction of the Fehmarn Belt tunnel, which is to connect the German island of Fehmarn with the Danish island of Lolland. According to the archaeologists of the Roskilde Museum, it could probably be the Danish warship Delmenhorst.
Multibeam sonar located the ship’s distinctive outline on the sea floor (x)
The Delmenhorst had 28- guns and was under the command of captain H. Knudsen. She was part of the Battle of Fehmarn in 1644, which was a battle during the final phase of the Thirty Years’ War.
Print of the Battle of the Sea in October 1644 (x)
In 1643, Sweden had attacked Denmark in an attempt to break the Danish might in the Baltic region. Several battles were fought, including the Battle of Fehmarn on 13 October 1644, where the combined Denmark- Norway fleet lost to the combined Swedish-Dutch fleet and thus lost its power in the Baltic. In the process, several ships were carpentered and three were sunk. Two of these ships were already found in 2012 and now presumably also the last one, the Delmenhorst.
The remains with ballast stones (x)
The wreck itself lies at a depth of 3.5 m, only 150 m from the south coast of Lolland. It is 7x31m long, which speaks for a warship in terms of size. However, what is more conclusive for the Delmenhorst is that several bronze canon parts have been found showing massive fire damage and she was sunk by the Swedish Fireship Lilla Delfin during the battle.
The shipwreck shows traces of a very violent fire. Among other things, archaeologists have found pieces of bronze cannons. The photo shows a so-called ‘grape’, the back end of a bronze cannon. The many holes in the bronze surface are clear signs of high heat. And a piece of the oak frame (x)
The archaeologists took over 30,000 photos and took some of the finds back to Roskilde, but the rest of the wreck will remain on site and be covered by sand.
A construction drawing of the warship (galleon) Fides, which is thought to be roughly the same type and size as the Delmenhorst. (x)
The Delmenhorst will then be resurrected as a 3D model based on the photos and become part of the exhibition.
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