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subaquatic archaeologists in Sweden have shape that a chest in the shipwreck of a fifteenth - one C warship hold tools to make lead shot for early handguns . The determination hints at key alteration in naval conflict at the time .
The chest is in thewreck of the Gribshunden(“Griffin hound " ) , a Danish royal " floating castle " that sink in 1495 at an anchorage ground in southerly Sweden after a fire attributed to the mishandling of gunpowder .
Maritime archaeologists Johan Rönnby (left) and Rolf Warming diving near the stern of the Gribshunden wreck. The ship sank in 1495 and was rediscovered in the 1970s.
The discovery could shed new light on the fate of the vessel , according toRolf Warming , a maritime archaeologist and doctorial student at Stockholm University . warm up conscientious objector - authored anew reporton the weapon system chest and other new breakthrough from the Gribshunden shipwreck withJohan Rönnby , a nautical archaeologist and professor at Södertörn University in Sweden . The wreck was discover by recreational divers in the 1970s , and Rönnby has studied it since 2013 .
The discovery also hint at an former development in naval war from ramming and lock in hand - to - hand fighting — the manoeuvre used since ancient times — to attacking foeman ship at a distance with gunshot , Warming said . But he stressed that it took more than a century for the maturation to become widespread .
" This is very much at the beginning of what we call the ' military revolution at sea , ' " Warming say Live Science . " The tactic and technology for that were only fill in the 2d half of the seventeenth 100 . "
The top of the “zeuglade” or ammunition-making chest is exposed on the underwater wreck. The dotted lines indicate the side walls of the chest; visible are (1) lead plates; (2) and (3) molds for shot; (4) the corroded front of the chest; (5) cylinders, possibly containers for gunpowder; and (6) a mold.
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Weapons chest
Warming and Rönnby used photogrammetry , a proficiency that involves digitally stitching together pic , to make a precise , virtual3D model of the weapons chest . The chest is still underwater at the shipwreck site in coastal islands near the Swedish township of Ronneby , but Warming hopes it will be recovered soon . conserve its message will be a protracted process , he said .
Based on what can be figure in the top layer of the thorax , it contained several other than sized molds for the ball - work lead shots used in early side arm , plate of pencil lead to be melted down for the mold , and cylinders that appear to have been cannister for gunpowder .
The researchers identified the chest as a " zeuglade , " a type of tool chest that was used to make ammunition and which contemporary illustrations show on field of honor of the time .
The Gribshunden was equipped with fortified “castles” at the bow and the stern, where soldiers were stationed to bombard enemy vessels with crossbows and firearms.
They think the bureau belong to a company of German - speaking soldier of fortune on the ship when it sank ; and a shirt of chain - postal service armor , made of plaque in the Bavarian urban center of Nuremberg in the other 1400s , was regain elsewhere on the wreck , Warming say .
The cylinder in the zeuglade are similar to those know to have hive away powder , he said . But it was n’t clear if any pulverisation they held was also used in the ship ’s many swivel guns , nor whether their mishandling led to the ardour and burst on the vessel — a possible action that was later suggested .
Diplomatic mission
The Gribshunden was the flagship of the Danish king Hans ( or John ) , who was going to the Swedish townsfolk of Kalmar when the watercraft sink . Hans and his suite were not on board at the time .
Kalmar had been the site of a fourteenth - century understanding to unite Denmark , Norway and Sweden under a individual monarch , known as the Kalmar Union . But it had fall into suspension , and in 1495 , Hans had been trying to sway Sweden to retort the union , with Hans as its ruler .
learn more about the fervency that sank the Gribshunden might help resolve lingering interrogative sentence about it , Warming said . He take down that the ship ’s diplomatical mission meant there were probably few soldier on circuit board than its full complement in times of war .
A company of German-speaking mercenaries are known to have been stationed on the Gribshunden when it sank, and the archaeologists found a shirt of chainmail armor made in Nuremberg.
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One of the chainmail rings had a “maker’s mark” that showed it had been made in Nuremberg in 1416. The entire chainmail shirt could have consisted of 150,000 brass rings.
Warming and Rönnby also found evidence of " elevated scrap platforms " build above the bow and stern of the Gribshunden . The soldiers would have used these platforms during naval battle , perhaps to pelt their enemies with crossbows and firearms .
Such platforms were the origin of the shipboard full term " fo’csle , " meaning " forecastle , " Warming said ; and the Gribshunden one of the earliest ships where these platforms had been built into the hull , rather than being add together after the ship ’s construction .
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