The funeral that buried a fleet

In 1558 Russia gained access to the Baltic Sea for the first time. Ivan the Terrible's forces had defeated ageing Livonia and captured the city of Narva. Russia now had a deep-sea port and could trade freely with the west without intermediary hands. Trade through the town of Reval ceased. In April 1562 the Swedish king issued a proclamation prohibiting all trade with Narva. Later more precise instructions were issued: Swedish, Finnish and Estonian merchants were allowed to conduct trade with Narva. Even ships that were based in Swedish ports and paid toll charges for their cargo, were free to pass through. Sweden now took over Reval's roll as middleman in the trade with Russia. To prevent unauthorized trade the Swedes made a blockade and plundered the merchant ships (primarily Danish and German) that did not pay Swedish toll charges. The figures for the year 1562 show just how successful this hijacking operation was. The Swedes intercepted 32 merchant vessels, eleven of which were from Lübeck.

In 1563 this battle of control of trade in the Baltic Sea ended up in full blown war between Sweden on one side and a Danish-Lübeck cooperation on the other side. Military operations on land were concentrated in the south of the Scandinavian peninsula where Denmark and Sweden shared a common border. Although the Swedish Navy had a greater impact on the war's progress than the army, it took two years before it was fully ready for battle. In 1566 the Swedish fleet was guarding the Öresund entrance to the Baltic Sea, waiting for merchant ships that grouped together on the opposite side of the strait. King Fredrick of Denmark had prohibited these ships from passing until the Danish fleet had unplugged the “Swedish cork”. The Danes however failed to protect the merchant ships and many of them were intercepted by the Swedish fleet on their way into the Baltic Sea.

Later that summer the fleets met off Öland in a battle during which a Danish commander was killed. A storm was brewing. The opposing forces therefore ceased fire and went their separate ways. The Swedish fleet disappeared into the archipelago, while the remaining 39 Danish-Lübeck ships formed a funeral procession and set the course for the nearest Danish territory – Gotland. The Lübeckians had initially insisted that Danzig be their destination, where their battle-scarred ships could be repaired. But in the end the Danes had the final say: first burial, then repairs. Many sections of the sea bed around Gotland, including those around Visby, are made up of a stone ladder formations and underwater plateaus known as ledges. Anchoring in these waters is problematic as the anchors easily loose their grip on the sea bottom. There is a risk that drifting ships will dash against the side of these ledges and be damaged. This risk is of course much greater in bad weather. The Danish-Lübeck fleet had run into a storm the night before and the Danish county constable on Gotland as well as the captains on most of the ships feared that the bad weather could return. The Danish admiral ordered the fleet to stay in spite of this. The funeral ceremony was conducted and the funeral procession returned to their ships. The fleet was due to leave Gotland next morning. That night a terrible storm hit Gotland.

The cumbersome, unwieldy carvel-built ships tried to sail away from the coast, but most attempts ended in failure. That morning, Visby's locals faced a dreadful sight. A mile-long stretch of beach was covered with debris from wreck and dead bodies. Twelve Danish and three Lübeck ships had sunk, and the storm claimed between 5,000-7,000 lives. As a comparison the entire population of Stockholm at that time was 9,000.

It is incredible to think that the Baltic Sea so far has provided so little evidence of the many bloody naval battles that took place between the Swedish and the combined Danish-Lübeck fleet in these waters more than 400 years ago. Tens of carvel-built vessels sank off the coasts of Öland, Bornholm, Gotland and Rügen, but not many of them have been located.
Who knows what mysteries lie hidden beneath the waves outside the walls of Visby. The site of the Danish-Lübeck fleet's destruction has never been investigated in full. Previous research and excavations ground to a halt as there were simply not enough funds to preserve the artefacts that had already been recovered.

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