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Centuries - one-time shipwrecks off the sea-coast of Costa Rica , long think to have been the property of pirates , are actually Danish ships that take part in the 18th - hundred transatlantic slave trade , new research reveals .
The two shipwreck posture in the shallow waters off the coast of Cahuita National Park in southerly Costa Rica and have been known about for decade . But a chance find of unique yellow bricks near one of the wreck , followed by a more in - depth investigating of the ship ' contents and Grant Wood , enabled maritime archaeologists from Denmark to support that the wreck were actually eighteenth - century Danish striver ships .
Andreas Kallmeyer Bloch, a marine archeologist at the National Museum of Denmark, examines one of the shipwrecks in Costa Rica.
These shipwreck are now thought to be the remains of the Fridericus Quartus and Christianus Quintus , which vanish off the coast of Central America in 1710 , and until now , had never been found .
" It ’s been a tenacious procedure and I ’ve fare tight to giving up along the way , but this is doubtlessly the craziest archaeological excavation I ’ve yet been part of,“Andreas Kallmeyer Bloch , a marine archeologist and museum curator at the National Museum of Denmark , articulate in a statement . " Not only because it count greatly to the local universe , but also because it ’s one of the most dramatic shipwrecks in the story of Denmark , and now we eff exactly where it happened . "
The Fridericus Quartus and Christianus Quintus were large ship used bythe Danish West India Company , which operate Denmark ’s transatlantic slave trade between West Africa , the Danish West Indies ( include the innovative - day island of St. Thomas , St. Jan and St. Croix ) , and Denmark . Though smaller in scale compare to the British , Gallic or Portuguese imperium , Denmark was an alive participant in the transatlantic slave deal from the mid-1600s until the other 1800s , harmonize to theDigital Encyclopedia of European History . More than120,000 enslaved Africanswere transport by the Danish West India Company alone .
David Gregory, a marine archaeologist and research professor at the National Museum of Denmark, looks at yellow bricks by the shipwrecks in Costa Rica.
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According to the National Museum of Denmark , historical rootage posit that both of the ship slide down in 1710 . Asthe Fridericus Quartuswas preparing to leave Ghana , the enslaved people broke out of their shackles and rebelled . But the rebellion failed and the ship ’s crewcut off their leader ’s handsand then decollate him . To protect against further fermentation , the Christianus Quintus accompany the Fridericus Quartus , bring the total act of people on both ships to 800 . But they got lost on their path to the Dutch settlement of St. Thomas and were running low on intellectual nourishment . The crew endanger mutiny , demanding the enslaved people be released so the crew could divide the ship ’s stay on intellectual nourishment among themselves .
The chieftain agreed , and around 600 enslaved citizenry ended up onthe shores of Costa Rica , after which the Fridericus Quartus is think to have caught fire . The Christianus Quintus , meanwhile , had its linchpin rope cut and was promptly bankrupt to pieces by the waves . However , the exact website of the wrecks stay unknown .
David Gregory and Andreas Kallmeyer Bloch, marine archaeologists at the National Museum of Denmark, hold an excavated ship timber from one of the shipwrecks in Costa Rica.
Yellow bricks
The two wrecks off the coast of Costa Rica had long been known to locals , and were simulate to be pirate ship due to their break - up state , paint a picture that theymay have sunkafter battling one another . However , this assumption was challenged in 2015 after archeologist constitute yellow bricks in one of the ship ’s remains .
The Lucius Clay from this white-livered brick was analyzed , moderate to its designation as a Flensburg brick . These brick were used almost alone in Denmark and its colony , and were only made in very particular places in Denmark .
Now , after a subsequent underwater archeological site in 2023 , the National Museum of Denmark has now revealed their finding .
" The analysis are very convincing and we no longer have any doubts that these are the shipwreck of the two Danish hard worker ships,“David Gregory , a marine archaeologist and research prof at the National Museum of Denmark , tell in the statement .
During the despatch , marine archaeologists from the National Museum of Denmark and the Viking Ship Museum plunk to the shipwrecks and necessitate samples of wood , bricks and several clay pipes that they discovered .
Scientists perform dendrochronological analyses , also known as tree - ring geological dating , on the wood sample from the ships , which showed that they were made from oak tree forest that had originated in the western Baltic , specifically northeastern Germany , Denmark or Sweden . Additionally , the Natalie Wood was confirmed to have been from a tree that was cut down between 1690 and 1695 , and showed signal of being burn before the ship sank , consistent with historic reports of the ship having caught flaming .
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The brick samples were also analysed , which show that they were indeed Flensburg bricks and had been fabricate in either Iller Strand or Egernsund , both hubs of 18th - hundred brick product situated near Flensburg Fjord .
to boot , the clay pipes were identified as having been produce by the Dutch just before 1710 , when the Fridericus Quartus and Christianus Quintus go down . These pipes were often used by Danish leghorn , and were also not generally used for more than five years .
" The brick are Danish and the same go for the tone , which are to boot charred and sooty from a fire , " Gregory said . " This fit perfectly with the historical accounts stating that one of the ships burnt . "
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