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Open Sea | Closed Sea. Local and Inter-Regional Traditions in Shipbuilding

Finding Scepter: assessing European influences in early Swedish shipbuilding and evaluating new excavation techniques

Jim Hansson
p. 41-45

Résumés

En 2017, les Musées Nationaux Suédois de la Marine et des Transports ont été chargés de surveiller les fouilles préventives à l’emplacement de l’ancien chantier naval du quai de Skeppsholmen à Stockholm. Ce chantier naval a employé un très grand nombre de travailleurs de la région au xviie siècle. Au cours de la fouille, un quai de carénage utilisé pour l’entretien et la réparation de grands navires de guerre a été découvert. Il était constitué de nombreux poteaux de grandes dimensions qui, une fois enlevés, ont laissé apparaitre de massives structures en chêne appartenant à un navire. En raison du peu de temps disponible, nous avons eu recours à une nouvelle technique de fouille et utilisé un puissant excavateur à succion initialement destiné au dégagement de racines d’arbres. Cette machine a permis, en facilitant le déblayage de l’épave, de découvrir rapidement une grande partie du flanc tribord. Un grand nombre d’échantillons de bois ont été prélevés. En parallèle, une documentation archéologique détaillée des vestiges a été réalisée. Les observations archéologiques, les analyses dendrochrono­logiques et les documents d’archive ont permis d’identifier le navire comme le Sceptre, premier navire amiral du roi Gustav II Adolf.
La longue et passionnante histoire de ce navire a ainsi pu être de nouveau évoquée. Cette opération offre un bel exemple de la façon dont l’archéologie préventive, associée à l’utilisation de nouvelles techniques, peut apporter des informations inédites et faire revivre un pan important d’une histoire oubliée.

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1When King Karl IX died in autumn 1611 he left Sweden in a difficult situation. The country was poor and the army and navy were in a bad condition. In addition, Sweden was at war with three countries simultaneously: Denmark, Poland-Lithuania and Russia. His son, Gustav II Adolf took over the crown at only 16 years of age and in these circumstances it was of course a very difficult task. Therefore, the young king decided early in his reign to equip his war machine. Together with Chancellor Axel Oxenstierna, he concentrated on setting up a system of government agencies, courts and other authorities to create a modern bureaucracy and thus strengthen Sweden. Gustav II Adolf’s half-brother, Admiral Carl Carlsson Gyllenhielm, who returned home after 12 years in Polish captivity, also had a large part in the plans of the young king. Together, they decided that more ships needed to be built to strengthen the fleet, which was considered an important part of the plans. Gyllenhielm and the young monarch tried to maintain and rebuild the fleet and make it modern and competitive.

2Almost 400 years after the king’s plans, an archaeological excavation of Skeppsholmen’s quay began in central Stockholm (fig. 1). The Swedish National Maritime and Transport Museums were commissioned to monitor the excavation in case cultural remains were revealed. We were going to dig right into the naval base and shipyard, which was the biggest workplace in the 1600s, where, among other things, famous ships such as the Kronan (the Crown) and Svärdet (the Sword) were built.

Fig. 1: Location of the Scepter in Stockholm

Fig. 1: Location of the Scepter in Stockholm

3Numerous heavy piles were found bearing inscriptions we had never seen before. The inscriptions are probably a marking system on timber that was floated to the shipyard and which only the fleet used. It consisted of numbers but also letters that almost looked like Viking Age runes. When I cross-referenced old historical maps, it appeared that we had dug straight into a careening dock that was used for the maintenance and repair of large naval ships.

4The piles were lifted and beneath were ship parts. We documented the parts and took samples for age analysis. After delibe­ration with the county administrative board, it was decided that we should try to bring out the bow and stern in order to understand the direction and size of the wreck. Because we had to work fast, I had the idea of using a powerful suction digger that I had seen being used. This was able to excavate without damaging the roots of trees during excavations. The suction digger, essentially a giant vacuum cleaner working something like an airlift does on underwater sites, helped us to remove the fill material very smoothly and quickly. With this method we managed to uncover large parts of the starboard side, the bow and the stern, which then gave us a good idea of the size and shape of the ship (fig. 2).

5By allowing us to expose a large part of the wreck quickly with minimal risk of damage, the new technique was crucial in the understanding of the ship’s size and construction. To speed things up further, we took photos and made a 3D model of the wreck.

Fig. 2: Stern and starboard side of the Scepter

Fig. 2: Stern and starboard side of the Scepter

In the left-hand picture we can see the stern with the first rider. The big concrete block is like an anchor that will hold the front of the new quay. In the picture to the right, the starboard side is visible. The big pipe is the suction digger that we used.

(left-hand photograph, Annelie Karlsson, Swedish National Maritime and Transport Museums; right-hand photograph, Johan Runer)

1. Description of the wreck

6The wreck is built completely in oak. The keel is about 32-33 m long. The largest width is about 9 m. The hull is preserved up to the first wale on the starboard side. The height from the keel to the wale is about 2.2 m. Eroded frames point up a little bit above the wale in some places. The wale is about 18 cm thick. The treenails measure about 3.5 cm in diameter. The planking measures between 34 and 55 cm in width and is approximately 12-15 cm thick. The ceiling measures between 50 and 65 cm in width and about 5-6 cm thick.

7In the hull several riders were found in their original location. The function of the riders was to support heavy cannons on the deck above. The riders measure approximately 26 × 30 cm (the riders of Vasa measure approximately 37 × 46 cm) and are about 3 m long.

8No bilge stringer was found in the wreck. Bilge stringers are a powerful longitudinal timber that stabilises the hull inside. No traces of attachments were found, which means that the ship probably never had any bilge stringer. The close distances between the riders (0.75-1 m) probably had the same function and provided the hull with the stability that was needed even without bilge stringers. According to Fred Hocker (research leader at the Vasa Museum), Vasa may be one of the first vessels to be built in Sweden with a bilge stringer on top of the riders. The cookroom was found partly preserved just in front of the main mast.

9While the stern was exposed quickly and smoothly with the new technique, the ship parts were removed one by one. During the uncovering, a second layer of planking could be noted. It turned out that an approximately 5 cm-thick layer of pine planks was nailed to the original oak hull. On the original hull, several minor repairs could be noted piercing through the hull. These repairs on Scepter rendered the hull very weak and there would also be a significant risk of leakage without an outer shell. On Vasa there are carved branches in the planking that have been replaced with smaller new pieces of wood but these do not pass through the hull.

10The only draft mark was found on this outer planking. It is a cross that symbolises 10 feet. The interesting thing was that on the original hull there were no draft marks and probably never had been. It could therefore have been introduced in the 1620s.

11The wreck had been buried deliberately after being stripped, but some ceramics were found that probably belonged to the ship, in addition to some equipment associated with the artillery. An intact quoin and cannonballs were found lying against the ceiling. We also found several different artillery tools on board, which definitely belonged to the ship.

2. Scepter 1615

12Once the results of the dendrochronology analyses were available, it was clear that the wood was Swedish oak felled during the spring of 1613 and the winter of 1613/14 (Daly, in this volume). In Stockholm naval shipyard documents from the 1620s one can see that timber was normally used within two years from the time it was cut. This means that the ship should have been completed in 1615-16 or just after. The outer planking/sheathing that was found had been felled after 1623 (Daly, in this volume).

13Now the detective work to try to identify the ship began in earnest. We were quickly able to see that only four ships were built in Sweden during this period: Scepter, Riksnyckeln, Harbo Lion and Jupiter (Glete 2010).

14The last two were too small in comparison with the wreck. In 1628 Riksnyckeln sank at Viksten in the Stockholm archipelago: its wreck was discovered in the early 20th century. There was only one ship left, Scepter. The dendrochronological dating also matched the archives: it matched the initial stage but also the felling after Isbrand’s complaint one year later. The Dutch shipbuilder Isbrand Johansson was recruited to Sweden in the year 1600 and his first assignment was the first Scepter, built at Stegeborg in Östergötland, 1601-1602 (SH 1600-1604). The ship sank in 1611 (Glete 2010, p. 410).

15In October 29, 1612 Isbrand Johansson was again commissioned to build a ship that would also be named Scepter.

16The name Scepter appears on four ships during the 1600s.

  • Scepter, 1601/02
  • Scepter, 1615 (which this article is about)
  • Scepter, 1634.
  • Scepter, 1678 (later renamed Carolus XI).

17The construction site of the new Scepter was Biskops Arnö located on Lake Mälaren: the availability of oak decided where the shipyard was established. However, already in April 1613, Isbrand complained that the carpenters hardly had any food, and in June he wrote again to the Admiralty that there was no money for shipbuilding (RA RR 119, 24 Sept 1613).

18Once again, Isbrand wrote to the king and complained that he and the workers were not being provided for as they should. The king threatened him with the bailiff and ordered him to deliver the goods that had been commissioned immediately (RR 118, 221, 10 April 1613).

19In December, Isbrand sent another letter saying that the supply of oak was depleted and they immediately felled more oak in the area in order to continue construction on Scepter during 1614. In 1615 the ship was ready for launch.

20From Stockholm, some iron, nails and other materials were delivered to the shipyard on Biskops Arnö and it is likely that Scepter was launched in the spring or early summer of 1615. Work continued on Scepter during summer, autumn and winter and soon the ship could be brought to Stockholm in 1616. In 1617 the ship was completed with masts at the naval yard in Stockholm (SH 1615).

21In the summer of 1618, Scepter was finally ready to sail. The ship’s crew was estimated to be 370 men. Of these, 120 were sailors, 20 handled the ship’s guns and the remaining 250 men were military personnel (SH 1618-19). The first time we are certain that the ship set sail is in August 1618. In a letter to Captain Alexander Forath on the ship Hannibal, who was on his way from Stockholm to join the fleet, the Admiralty mentions that at the same time King Gustav II Adolf is on Scepter, which he had chosen as the flagship (RR vol. 130 givet av Scepter, 2/8 1618).

22Under Carl Carlsson Gyllenhielm’s command, Scepter was the king’s flagship. An eyewitness described the inside of the king’s cabin when Gustav II Adolf and Gyllenhielm sailed to Germany in the spring of 1620 on the way to secret wedding negotiations in Brandenburg: “A great cabin clad in gilded leather over a green base, green silk taffeta covering the overhead, while the smaller cabin was in double red taffeta covering the overhead and everything” (Hand 1879).

23In 1621 Gustav II Adolf decided to move against what was then called Livland (present-day Estonia and Latvia) and the first goal was to conquer Riga, since the city was an important hub for trade and therefore strategically important.

24The same year, 148 ships left Sandhamn (an island in the Stockholm archipelago) and headed for Riga. Scepter was again the king’s flagship, which meant that the king himself was on board and was in command of the fleet. The fleet almost immediately ended up in a severe storm and several vessels had to ride out the storm at sea for three days before they dared to sail to the coast. Scepter was one of these and was badly damaged but eventually managed to reach Pernau (Pärnu in Estonia). The king therefore had to travel by land to Riga. After the entire fleet had dispersed in the storm, the fleet gathered again in Dünamünde. But the fleet once again was hit by a storm in which several ships suffered extensive damage, masts were sprung and the navy was therefore forced to make new repairs before they finally sailed away. The king’s flagship soon encountered new problems. Scepter ran aground on a reef in the evening and the whole fleet again had to anchor and wait for Scepter. They managed to get her afloat the following day. Finally, the rest of the ships joined Scepter and sailed on to Riga (Lybeck 1945).

25During the 1620s, Scepter performed several missions guarding different tactical areas in the Baltic and blockading various ports. It may seem like a simple task to patrol and stand watch on the high seas, but correspondence between Carl Carlsson Gyllenhielm (by now Admiral of the Realm) and Chancellor Axel Oxenstierna gives a taste of how rough it could be onboard a patrolling warship in the 1620s.

26In the letter it is described that Scepter and Andromeda were forced to sail from Pillau to Öland with sick sailors. A Dutch krejare also sailed with sick sailors, but to Stockholm. It was so bad that it was suggested that both the ships and the sailors could not continue in service for more than two months in a row because of all the diseases that spread quickly on board. This applied to both the common sailors and the officers. There seemed to be no hostile warships, so they thought that they could sail with large parts of the fleet to Kalmar and leave a few guarding the harbour at Pillau (Oxenstierna 1900).

27For most of the 1630s, there is no known information about the role Scepter played in the fleet. In 1638 and 1639, on the other hand, expenditure on nails and other materials was registered to the Scepter (now mentioned in the archives as the Old Scepter), which indicates that the ship was probably included as an active part in the naval fleet. We can then follow the ship in the archives until 1640 when 100 small nails for the Old Scepter are reported in the navy’s daily expense book (Amiralitetskollegiets accounts 1638-40).

28Thereafter, the once proud and powerful flagship falls into oblivion.

3. Discussion and interpretation

29Identification would not have been possible without the new digging technique. If we had not had the possibility of exposing the wreck as much as we did, we would not know the size of the ship or seen the profile and so many construction details, such as the absence of the bilge stringer and the outer planking/sheathing.

30The identification of Scepter was made with the support of archaeological observations and the dendrochronological samples that matched letters in the archives. The fact that it was discarded around 1640 also supports the identification, since the shipyard was moved to Skeppsholmen in 1640 and they started building new facilities directly, such as a careening dock.

31Based on the 3D model that was established during documentation, it was possible to subsequently analyse and ­document the hull. Scepter’s technical details are very interesting. We have no other archaeological finds before Vasa to compare with (fig. 3). The 3D model could be sliced and in this way a hull profile could be drawn. The profile and reconstruction of the ship provided exciting results (fig. 4).

Fig. 3: 3D model of all that was excavated of the Scepter

Fig. 3: 3D model of all that was excavated of the Scepter

(3D model Jim Hansson, Swedish National Maritime and Transport Museums)

Fig. 4: Comparison between the Scepter and Vasa, cross section

Fig. 4: Comparison between the Scepter and Vasa, cross section

The similarities are striking. The dark red area is what is left of the Scepter.

(illustration, Jim Hansson, Swedish National Maritime and Transport Museums)

32It turns out that Scepter’s hull profile is almost identical to Vasa’s. This is perhaps not so strange since Dutch shipbuilders built both ships, but given Vasa’s history and all the theories about her construction and the cause of the sinking, it is exciting to see how similar they are (see Fred Hocker 2018). Scepter shows that the Dutch method was used at least ten years earlier than Vasa. It is very interesting that Isbrand Johansson is one of the first Dutch shipbuilders to start building warships in Sweden. Perhaps there are some national influences in Scepter’s construction, but at present this is very difficult to determine, as there are no other good archaeolo­gical finds documented around the period when Scepter was built.

33Scepter had only one gun deck and was therefore much lower than Vasa. The length of the keel was estimated at about 32 m and can be compared to Vasa’s 38 m. With the hull profile combined with the length of the keel, we get a ship that is slightly smaller than Vasa but one of the largest ships of its time in the fleet.

34How Scepter would have looked beyond what is left of her is, of course, unclear. If you look at a print from the 1610s, the transom may have had more rake than Vasa’s but probably Scepter was built in this way too (fig. 5).

35Imagine finding Gustav II Adolf’s forgotten flagship in a quay that one has walked over hundreds of times! That it was also used as a foundation for a careening dock after it was discarded, you can say it was a kind of early organised recycling. Svärdet, for example, went hard on a reef in 1675 and had to return to Skeppsholmen for significant repairs. Was it at the careening dock above Scepter that it was repaired? Not impossible at all.

36The discovery of Scepter makes a significant contribution to revealing an even better picture of early Dutch shipbuilding in Sweden. Since we do not have any good references to compare Vasa with, this is a very important find. And, I am reasonably sure that Scepter is not the only forgotten warship with amazing stories to discover.

Fig. 5: Comparison between the Scepter and Vasa, longitudinal profile

Fig. 5: Comparison between the Scepter and Vasa, longitudinal profile

This reconstruction is based on a ship depicted in a copperplate print from Copenhagen dated to 1611.

(layout, Alexander Rauscher; illustration Jim Hansson, Swedish National Maritime and Transport Museums)

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Bibliographie

Swedish National Archives

Amiralitetskollegiets räkenskaper (Admirality accounts) 1638-40 under utgiften till byggnation och utredning till Gamle Sceptor 1638 och 1639 samt Anders Svenssons, dagsverkesskrivare, uppbörds- och utgiftsbok, för anno 1640.

RR vol. 118 bild 221 den 10/4 1613, till Olof Svensson, för Isbrandh skeppsbyggare.

RR vol. 119 bild 279 den 24/9 1613.

RR vol. 130 givet av Scepter den 2/8 1618, till Alexander Forath, huru han i sjön förhålla skall.

SH (Ship yard accounts) 1600-1604, RR vol.1600.

SH 1615 i Materialredogörelsen redovisas en leverans på 7 skp 11 lb Stång- och Bultjärn som levererats från Arnö skeppsbyggning vilket tyder på att arbetet vid Arnö avslutas under året.

SH 1618-19 Stater och anordningar. Förslag på sjöfolk, arklifolk och krigsfolk på H.K.Majts skepp.

References

Glete J.
2010 “Swedish naval administration, 1521-1721: resource flows and organisational capabilities”, Leiden, Brill.

Hand J. (ed.)
1879 “Historiska handlingar. D. 8. Nr 3, Johan Hands dagbok under k. Gustaf II Adolfs resa till Tyskland 1620”, Stockholm, Samf.

Hocker, F.
2018 “Vasa and the origins of professional naval procurement in Sweden”. Särtryck ur Tidskrift i Sjöväsendet N:r 1 / 2018. Sidorna 15-30. Kungl. Örlogsmannasällskapet Sveriges Marina Akademi.

Lybeck O. (ed.)
1945 “Svenska flottans historia: örlogsflottan i ord och bild från dess grundläggning under Gustav Vasa fram till våra dagar”. Bd 3 [1815-1945], Malmö, Allhem.

Oxenstierna A.
1900 “Rikskansleren Axel Oxenstiernas skrifter och brefvexling Afd. 1. Bd 3 Bref 1625-1627”, Stockholm, Utg.

Randall L.
1997 “Hertig Johans eldrör- ett stycke funnen historia från belägringen av Riga 1621”, Forum navale 52, p. 17-33.

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Table des illustrations

Titre Fig. 1: Location of the Scepter in Stockholm
URL http://journals.openedition.org/archaeonautica/docannexe/image/864/img-1.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 582k
Titre Fig. 2: Stern and starboard side of the Scepter
Légende In the left-hand picture we can see the stern with the first rider. The big concrete block is like an anchor that will hold the front of the new quay. In the picture to the right, the starboard side is visible. The big pipe is the suction digger that we used.
Crédits (left-hand photograph, Annelie Karlsson, Swedish National Maritime and Transport Museums; right-hand photograph, Johan Runer)
URL http://journals.openedition.org/archaeonautica/docannexe/image/864/img-2.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 648k
Titre Fig. 3: 3D model of all that was excavated of the Scepter
Crédits (3D model Jim Hansson, Swedish National Maritime and Transport Museums)
URL http://journals.openedition.org/archaeonautica/docannexe/image/864/img-3.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 1,0M
Titre Fig. 4: Comparison between the Scepter and Vasa, cross section
Légende The similarities are striking. The dark red area is what is left of the Scepter.
Crédits (illustration, Jim Hansson, Swedish National Maritime and Transport Museums)
URL http://journals.openedition.org/archaeonautica/docannexe/image/864/img-4.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 92k
Titre Fig. 5: Comparison between the Scepter and Vasa, longitudinal profile
Légende This reconstruction is based on a ship depicted in a copperplate print from Copenhagen dated to 1611.
Crédits (layout, Alexander Rauscher; illustration Jim Hansson, Swedish National Maritime and Transport Museums)
URL http://journals.openedition.org/archaeonautica/docannexe/image/864/img-5.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 555k
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Jim Hansson, « Finding Scepter: assessing European influences in early Swedish shipbuilding and evaluating new excavation techniques »Archaeonautica, 21 | 2021, 41-45.

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Jim Hansson, « Finding Scepter: assessing European influences in early Swedish shipbuilding and evaluating new excavation techniques »Archaeonautica [En ligne], 21 | 2021, mis en ligne le 01 juillet 2022, consulté le 15 mars 2025. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/archaeonautica/864 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/archaeonautica.864

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Jim Hansson

Swedish national maritime and transport museums

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