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American Military News
07-05-2025
- Science
- American Military News
Pics: Two shipwrecks confirmed as slave ships by archaeologists
Archaeologists from the National Museum of Denmark recently announced that two 18th-century shipwrecks off the coast of Central America were confirmed to be slave ships. According to Fox News, the remains of the two ships, known as the Fridericus Quartus and Christianus Quintus, have been located underwater off the coast of the Cahuita National Park in Costa Rica for more than 300 years. The outlet noted that the two ships were believed to have been pirate ships prior to a recent discovery. Fox News reported that David John Gregory, an archaeologist with the National Museum of Denmark, told the outlet that the ships are now believed to have been carrying between 600 and 700 African slaves and roughly 100 crew members when the ships sank. 'When the ships were abandoned on the coast of present-day Costa Rica, almost all of the enslaved were released on the forested coast except for about 20 people, who were forced onboard smaller vessels heading for the nearby Spanish town of Portobello,' Gregory said. '[Fridericus Quartus] was set on fire by its crew, while the other, Christianus Quintus, was set free from its moorings and soon after stranded on the coast.' The National Museum of Denmark announced last month that new information regarding the Fridericus Quartus and Christianus Quintus had been revealed by 'scientific analyses from an underwater excavation in 2023, when marine archaeologists from the National Museum of Denmark and the Viking Ship Museum took samples of wood from one of the wrecks and from the bricks that were part of the cargo more than 300 years ago.' READ MORE: Pics: Surprising WWII shipwreck finds revealed Gregory told Fox News that the excavation was 'minimal' and that his team surveyed approximately 21 square feet around one of the ships to 'obtain samples of the ship's timber.' According to the National Museum of Denmark, archaeologists have been able to use dendrochronological technology to determine that the wood from the ships was from the 17th century. The National Museum of Denmark explained, 'The timbers originate in the western part of the Baltic Sea, an area that encompasses the northeastern German province of Mecklenburg, as well as Schleswig-Holstein, Denmark and Scania — and that the tree was cut down sometime during the years 1690-1695.' The museum added that the 'charred and sooty' wood confirmed historical sources that claimed one of the ships had been 'set ablaze.' 'The analyses are very convincing and we no longer have any doubts that these are the wrecks of the two Danish slave ships,' Gregory said. 'The bricks are Danish and the same goes for the timbers, which are additionally charred and sooty from a fire. This fits perfectly with the historical accounts stating that one of the ships burnt.' Pictures of the remains of the two Danish slave ships have been shared on X, formerly Twitter. ⚓📜 Archaeologist uncovers chilling secrets of wrecked slave ships off Costa Rica. David John Gregory reveals new findings on Fridericus Quartus & Christianus Quintus, 2 Danish slave ships lost centuries ago. The vessels, stranded on coast, carried enslaved Africans on brutal… — GoodMorningRooster (@RoosterGM) May 6, 2025
Daily Mail
05-05-2025
- Science
- Daily Mail
Underwater 'yellow-brick road' leads divers to long-lost slave ships that sunk in the 18th century
Marine archaeologists have found a 'yellow-brick road' at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean that led them to the discovery of two long-lost Danish slave ships. According to historical records, the ships, called Fridericus Quartus and Christianus Quintus, wrecked off the coast of Central America in 1710. Fridericus Quartus was set on fire, while Christianus Quintus had its anchor rope cut and was destroyed in the surf. But for three centuries, no one knew exactly where the remains of these ships were. In Costa Rica, people had long been aware of two shipwrecks located off the coast of Cahuita National Park, but dismissed them as sunken pirate ships. That changed in 2015, when American marine archaeologists found yellow bricks from one of the wrecks, which raised new questions about their history. Researchers from the National Museum Of Denmark and the Viking Ship Museum conducted an underwater excavation of the ships in 2023, taking samples of wood from one of the wrecks, the bricks, and recovering several clay pipes. The team published their analysis of the objects on Sunday, revealing that the shipwrecks are, in fact, the missing remains of Fridericus Quartus and Christianus. Co-researcher David Gregory of the National Museum Of Denmark said: 'The analyses are very convincing and we no longer have any doubts that these are the wrecks of the two Danish slave ships. 'The bricks are Danish and the same goes for the timbers, which are additionally charred and sooty from a fire. This fits perfectly with the historical accounts stating that one of the ships burnt.' Measurements of the bricks revealed that they were the same size as the 'Flensburg' yellow bricks that were used in Denmark and the Danish colonies during the 1700s. Analysis of their clay confirmed that it came from Denmark - either from a beach called Iller Strand or a small town called Egernsund. Both places are located near the Flensburg Fjord, which was home to a large brick-producing industry in the 18th century, according to the National Museum Of Denmark. The researchers used tree-ring dating to determine where oak wood extracted from one of the wrecks came from, finding that it originates from a tree in the western part of the Baltic Sea that was cut down sometime between 1690 and 1695. The wood was also charred and sooty, which aligns with historical reports about one of the ships being set ablaze. The clay pipes offer further evidence that the ships were Danish, as they proved to be Dutch-produced pipes that were commonly found onboard Danish ships at the time. 'The size, shape and patterns of the pipes suggest that they were produced in the period right before the ships became wrecked in 1710,' according to the researchers. Gregory led the study alongside marine archaeologist Andreas Kallmeyer Bloch, who has been working for years to determine the origins of the Costa Rica shipwrecks. Bloch said: 'It's been a long process and I've come close to giving up along the way. 'But this is undoubtedly the craziest archaeological excavation I've yet been part of. Not only because it matters greatly to the local population, but also because it's one of the most dramatic shipwrecks in the history of Denmark, and now we know exactly where it happened. 'This provides two pieces that have been missing from the history of Denmark.' Denmark banned the transatlantic slave trade in 1792, but didn't actually abolish slavery until 1847, according to the museum. This project was carried out by the museum's new research center, Njord, which plans to excavate several more Danish shipwrecks around the world.
Daily Mail
04-05-2025
- Science
- Daily Mail
Underwater yellow-brick road leads divers to astonishing discovery
Marine archaeologists have found a 'yellow-brick road' at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean that led them to the discovery of two long-lost Danish slave ships. According to historical records, these ships, called Fridericus Quartus and Christianus Quintus, wrecked off the coast of Central America in 1710. Fridericus Quartus was set on fire, while Christianus Quintus had its anchor rope cut and was destroyed in the surf. But for three centuries, no one knew exactly where the remains of these ships were. In Costa Rica, people had long been aware of two shipwrecks located off the coast of Cahuita National Park, but dismissed them as sunken pirate ships. That changed in 2015, when American marine archaeologists found yellow bricks from one of the wrecks, which raised new questions about their history. Researchers from the National Museum of Denmark and the Viking Ship Museum conducted an underwater excavation of the ships in 2023, taking samples of wood from one of the wrecks, the bricks and recovering several clay pipes. The team published their analysis of these objects on Sunday, revealing that the shipwrecks were, in fact, the missing remains of Fridericus Quartus and Christianus. 'The analyses are very convincing and we no longer have any doubts that these are the wrecks of the two Danish slave ships,' said co-researcher David Gregory of the National Museum of Denmark. 'The bricks are Danish and the same goes for the timbers, which are additionally charred and sooty from a fire. This fits perfectly with the historical accounts stating that one of the ships burnt,' he added in a statement. Measurements of the bricks revealed that they were the same size as the 'Flensburg' yellow bricks that were used in Denmark and the Danish colonies during the 1700s. Analysis of their clay confirmed that it came from Denmark — specifically either from a beach called Iller Strand or a small town called Egernsund. Both of these places are located near the Flensburg Fjord, which was home to a large brick-producing industry in the 18th century, according to the National Museum of Denmark. The researchers used tree-ring dating to determine where oak wood extracted from one of the wrecks came from, finding that it originates from a tree in the western part of the Baltic Sea that was cut down sometime between 1690 and 1695. The wood was also charred and sooty, which aligns with historical reports about one of the ships being set ablaze. The clay pipes offer further evidence that the ships were Danish, as they proved to be Dutch-produced pipes that were commonly found onboard Danish ships at the time. 'The size, shape and patterns of the pipes suggest that they were produced in the period right before the ships became wrecked in 1710,' according to the researchers. Measurements of the bricks revealed that they were the same size as the 'Flensburg' yellow bricks that were used in Denmark and the Danish colonies during the 1700s Gregory led the study alongside marine archaeologist Andreas Kallmeyer Bloch, who has been working for years to determine the origins of the Costa Rica shipwrecks. 'It's been a long process and I've come close to giving up along the way,' Bloch said in the statement. 'But this is undoubtedly the craziest archaeological excavation I've yet been part of. Not only because it matters greatly to the local population, but also because it's one of the most dramatic shipwrecks in the history of Denmark, and now we know exactly where it happened. 'This provides two pieces that have been missing from the history of Denmark,' he said. Denmark banned the transatlantic slave trade in 1792, but didn't actually abolish slavery until 1847, according to the museum. This project was carried out by the museum's new research center, Njord, which plans to excavate several more Danish shipwrecks around the world.
Miami Herald
29-04-2025
- Science
- Miami Herald
Ships carrying enslaved people wrecked amid revolts in 1700s. Now they're found
Centuries after Danish ships carrying enslaved people from West Africa disappeared in the Caribbean, the charred and destroyed remains have been identified for the first time. In 2023, researchers and archaeologists from the National Museum of Denmark and the Viking Ship Museum put on their dive gear and visited two known shipwreck sites off Cahuita National Park in Costa Rica, according to an April 27 news release from the National Museum published in Ritzaus Bureau. 'For many years, however, they were thought to be pirate ships,' researchers said. 'But when American marine archaeologists in 2015 found yellow bricks in one of the wrecks, new questions emerged about the history of the ships.' Hoping to find answers, the archaeologists brought samples of the bricks and wood to the surface to determine where it originated, according to the release. The researchers used dendrochronology, or the study of tree rings, to determine the wood for one wreck came from the western region of the Baltic Sea, which included a region of Germany and Denmark, according to the release. Dating of the wood showed it was cut down between 1690 and 1695, researchers said, and it was 'charred and sooty.' When they analyzed the bricks, they found the brick matched Flensburg bricks produced in Denmark and the Danish colonies, and the clay used to make them was collected in Denmark, researchers said. The bricks were dated to the 18th century. Among the wreckage, the divers also found Dutch-produced pipes with sizes and patterns suggesting they were made at the beginning of the 18th century, according to the release. At this point, there was no doubt where the ships originated: Denmark. But, how did they make their way to the Costa Rican coast? And how had their journeys come to such violent ends? 'According to historical sources, the two Danish slave ships Fridericus Quartus and Christianus Quintus were shipwrecked off the coast of Central America in 1710,' researchers said. 'Fridericus Quartus was set ablaze, while Christianus Quintus had its anchor rope cut, following which the ship was wrecked in the surf. Until now, it has not been clear exactly where the ships were lost.' The ships are considered part of darkest chapters of Danish history, according to an April 28 Facebook post from the Viking Ship Museum. The two ships were blown hundreds of miles off course as they traveled across the Atlantic from West Africa as part of the trade of enslaved people, according to the museum. In the spring of 1710, the ships finally saw land, but the environment on board was dangerously tense, the museum said. The crew and 600-700 enslaved people had resorted to eating only turtles caught off the ship by the end of the journey, and after the surviving West Africans were dropped on shore, there was a mutiny, according to the museum. The anchors of one ship were cut, allowing it to crash into the coral reef and sink, and the second ship was set ablaze, eventually also reaching the seafloor. Some members of the crew had boarded English vessels, eventually making their way back to Denmark and writing about their previous voyage, but none of the sailors wrote where the ships met their end, the museum said. A video about the expedition was shared by the National Museum of Denmark on April 28. Cahuita National Park is on the southeastern coast of Costa Rica along the Caribbean Sea. Facebook Translate was used to translate the post from the Viking Ship Museum.
