Two new Danish slave ships dating back to the 1700s have been identified in the waters off Costa Rica.
The ships had long been thought to be pirate ships. However, this was brought into question in 2015 when yellow bricks were found at one of the sites by US marine archaeologists.
Research divers from Denmark’s National Museum went out and excavated the wrecks that lay at a depth of 4m/12ft. The divers collected various samples for analysis, including timbers, bricks from the cargo hold and several clay pipes. Despite this work being carried out in 2023, the findings have only now been published, showing that these were, in fact, Danish slave ships.
According to the findings, the ships left Copenhagen in December 1708. However, they met their fate in the waters off Costa Rica in 1710 as a result of navigational errors.
Commenting on the finding, the head of the Njord maritime research centre at the National Museum, Professor David Gregory, stated:
“The analyses are very convincing and we no longer have any doubts that these are the wrecks of the two Danish slave ships. The bricks are Danish and the same goes for the timbers, which are additionally charred and sooty from a fire. This fits perfectly with the historical accounts stating that one of the ships burnt.”
While fellow museum marine archaeologist Andreas Kallmeyer Bloch, who worked on the expedition with Gregory, added:
“It’s been a long process and I’ve come close to giving up along the way, but this is undoubtedly the craziest archaeological excavation I‘ve yet been part of. Not only because it matters greatly to the local population, but also because it’s one of the most dramatic shipwrecks in the history of Denmark, and now we know exactly where it happened. This provides two pieces that have been missing from the history of Denmark.”
