• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

THE UNDERWATER ARCHAEOLOGICAL SEARCH PROJECT IN THE EASTERN PART OF THE GULF OF FINLAND BETWEEN 2006 AND 2009: SHIPWRECKS IN THE RUSSIAN ZONE OF THE NORD STREAM PROJECT The Underwater The Underwater Archaeological Search Project in the Eastern Part of Gulf of Finland Between 2006 and 2009: Shipwrecks in the Russian Zone of the Nord Stream Project PETR SOROKIN, AYVAR STEPANOV R PETR SOROKIN, AYVA STEPANOV The plan for the North European Gas Pipeline (NEGP) which were some distance from the coast, and which from Russia to Germany under the Baltic Sea across mostly coincide with modern shipping routes. At the the territorial waters and economic zones of Rus- same time, navigation by small and medium-size ves- sia, Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Germany was sels often continued along the traditional routes. the reason for this large-scale underwater archaeo- The busiest period of navigation in these waters logical research project that has led to the identifica- emerged after the foundation of St Petersburg in 1703, tion of new objects of the cultural heritage (Fig. 1). as most trade between Russia and Western Europe was Between 2006 and 2009, integrated underwater re- carried out through the city. In the 18th to the 20th search was carried out, including the identification and centuries, the major waterways to St Petersburg and exploratory surveys of shipwrecks along the course of Vyborg north of the island of Hogland was included in the projected pipeline in the Russian waters of the Gulf the zone of two lighthouses, Sommersky and Northern of Finland. Going from Portovaya Bay to the west of Hogland. Another way was to go south of Hogland. Maly Fiskar Island, southeast of the Bolshoy Fiskar The Northern Hogland shoal, located a few kilometres Archipelago, passing Sommers Island, to the west of from the northern tip of Hogland Island, is the place Hogland Island, the route goes beyond the territorial with the most shipwrecks of commercial and military waters of the Russian Federation into the economic ships from the 18th to the 20th centuries in the eastern zone of Finland. Its total length in Russian waters is Baltic. about 110 kilometres. Information about wrecks of commercial and military The route of the projected pipeline crosses historic vessels in these waters can be found in archive docu- water routes which connected the Baltic Sea with the ments. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the following eastern part of the Gulf of Finland. As early as the vessels were lost here: two 32-gun frigates, the Hec- Middle Ages, there were waterways from the Nordic tor (sunk in 1742) and the Archangel Michael (1760), countries to the mouth of the River Neva, the Beryo- the 66-gun battleship the Vyacheslav (1789), the gal- zovye Islands and the Gulf of Vyborg. From the Viking liot Enge Tobias (1771), the transport yacht Theodo- period (the eighth to the 11th centuries) until the late sius (1814), and the transport ship America (1856) Middle Ages (the 17th century), the route along the (Sokolov 1855, pp.20, 88; Morskoy 1856, p.32ff; So- northern coast of the gulf served as the main route for rokin 2007, p.6). voyages by Norsemen, Hanseatic merchants and other inhabitants of northern Europe to Russia. After the According to incomplete statistics on the wrecks of foundation of Vyborg in 1293, there were routes which vessels in the area, between 1841 and 1858, 14 vessels passed through the area, linking the town with Sweden. sank; and between 1856 and 1866, 12 vessels sank. Given that the existing routes developed in the basic Most of these ships were private merchant vessels, directions of traditional waterways used for navigation mostly foreign, English, Dutch, Norwegian, German, since the Middle Ages, it can be expected that wrecks Finnish and Swedish. from the Medieval period that are not mentioned in his- There is information that as late as 1856 the Swed- torical documents will be found. The time was charac- ish schooner Victor sank here, and the English vessels terised by sailing within sight of the shore, so the most Alexander, the brig Young Dixon, and the steamer likely discovery of Medieval vessels is predicted to Dzhakkal. In 1860 the Finnish schooner Ida, the Brit- be in the immediate vicinity of the northern coast and ish merchant ships Fanny and Gomsval, and the Dutch near coastal island archipelagos. Since the Late Middle ship Triton were lost there. This data can be considered Ages, international routes using large vessels formed, as an average annual figure (Sorokin 2007). 216 BALTICA 14 BALTICA ARCHAEOLOGIA Fig. 1. The plan for the North European Gas Pipeline. V RECENT UNDERWATER ARCHAEO- LOGICAL RESEARCH IN THE BALTIC SEA REGION Fig. 2. The locations of shipwrecks identified in the zone of the pipeline. 217 The remains of two ships, a Finnish gunboat that sank All of the vessels identified were recommended for in- in the last war, and a Soviet auxiliary ship (supposed clusion in the list of cultural heritage objects. At this to be the tugboat Shauliai), which was lost during its stage in the study, the precise determination of wrecks transfer from Tallinn in 1941, were examined by the on the basis of written documents is difficult, given the St Petersburg Archaeological Expedition of the Insti- large number of shipwrecks in the area and the insuf- tute for the History of Material Culture of the Russian ficient knowledge of the vessels themselves, as well as Academy of Sciences, and the Northwest Institute of the full range of archival information on the ships lost Heritage in 2005 in the Northern Bay area (Suurkyuly- in that area. At the same time, we can say that medi- The Underwater The Underwater Archaeological Search Project in the Eastern Part of Gulf of Finland Between 2006 and 2009: Shipwrecks in the Russian Zone of the Nord Stream Project an-lahti) of Hogland Island (Sorokin 2005). um-size commercial vessels belonging to several north European states prevail. This is consistent with histori- Work on finding wrecks along the Russian section of cal data, according to which the main cargo transport the North European Gas Pipeline between 2006 and R across the Baltic Sea between Western Europe and 2009 was carried out by the Nord Stream company, us- Russia was carried out in the 18th and 19th centuries PETR SOROKIN, AYVA STEPANOV ing side-scan sonar and a remotely operated underwa- by West European, mostly British and Dutch, vessels. ter vehicle (ROV) with a television camera. In 2008 and 2009, most of the work was completed (Fig. 2). Given that most of the shipwrecks found lie at a con- The total number of detected objects is 18. Three of siderable depth and are well preserved, the preserva- the vessels have been dated to the 18th century, two tion of all the vessels found along the site of discovery to the 18th or 19th centuries, four to the 19th century, during the construction work along the pipeline is rec- three to the 19th or 20th century, and four to the 20th ommended. To guarantee their conservation, the pro- century. The dating of two other vessels is difficult. jected pipeline route should be constructed no closer Previously identified were two cargo ships, one Dutch than 100 metres from the identified sites. In the event from the18th century, and the other English from the of a reduction of this distance, it is necessary to de- 19th century, and also two Soviet torpedo boats, lost in velop a special project for the preservation of objects the Sommers area during the Second World War. They of the cultural heritage. In the event of the salvaging all received conventional names in accordance with of ships, or parts of them, their full conservation and a previously established system based on the near- delivery to state museum care should be ensured. est geographical point. Given the proximity of some of them to the route of the projected gas pipeline, in 2009 there was further monitoring work on a number References of objects. In the course of this work, on the southern Manuscripts section of the line, close to Hogland, four sites were examined, including the discovery as a result of a sonar SOROKIN, P.E., 2005. Nauchnyj otchet o provedenii pod- scan at the base of the eastern slope of Hogland bank vodnykh arkheologicheskikh isledovaniy v akvatorii Fin- of a previously unknown, sunken cargo ship from the skogo zaliva v 2005 g. Arkhiv I.A. RAN. 19th century, probably English, called ‘Hogland 14’. SOROKIN, P.E., 2007. Expertnoe zaklyuchenie ob istoriko- kul’turnoy zennosti vyyavlennykh podvodnykh ob’ektov Glass, ceramics and crockery, and pipes were retrieved po trasse Nord Stream (SEG) v predelakh territorial’nykh from the ship (Fig. 3, see Plate VII). Another ship sur- vod I isklyuchitel’noy ekonomicheskoy zony Rossii. St. veyed by the divers was the merchant ship ‘Hogland Peterburg. 11’. Judging by the construction and cargo, it can be STEPANOV, A.V., 2009. Otchet o proizvodstve archeolog- identified as Dutch, from the last quarter of the 18th icheskikh razvedok v akvatorii Fiskogo zaliva v rayone ostrovov Sommers, Gogland v Kingisepskom rayone Len- century. Also found were glass, ceramic and porcelain ingradskoy oblasti v 2009 g. Arkhiv Instituta archeologii tableware, pipes and copper coins of Dutch and Rus- RAN. sian origin (Fig. 4, see Plate VIII). Based on the shape Literature and design features, this vessel can be defined as a gal- liot. The third cargo ship inspected, ‘Hogland 13’, with BOGATYRYOV, S.V., 1994. Poteri boevykh I katerov VMF a large Admiralty anchor, dates from the first half of SSSR v period Velikoy Otechestvennoy voyny.

Load more

  3

Copy Link