The research approach is called the life cycle perspective. The researchers produce information on everything from the wood the ships were made of to their final storage in, for example, museums. The interdisciplinary research program will produce complete life stories for the ships of the navy, a fleet that existed between the 15th and 19th centuries.

Some of the ships are used as filling material under quays. One of the ships, the Vasa, is exhibited in its entirety. There are also a number of objects from them in museums.

The historians produce facts about how the ships were built and used in war and peace. They make use of archives and other written sources. Marine archaeologists examine the wrecks on the seabed and their remains such as filling material. Among other things, they work with diving, photography with the help of robots and 3D technology. Finally, ethnologists and cultural heritage researchers examine how ships, or objects from them, are used in museums and other contexts.

- The life cycle perspective shows that the different approaches are needed. That is the scientific argument that the program needs to be interdisciplinary, says Leos Müller, professor of history and program manager.

Unique research situation

By working together with different kinds of sources and materials, the researchers produce an overall picture of a largely hidden cultural treasure.

When the research program ends, there should be a database with full descriptions of up to 750 ships, large and small, from the navy. A lot of the information is also to be published in book form.

The Swedish archives are extensive and wrecks are well preserved in the Baltic Sea, where there are no shipworms and the bottoms and waters are favorable.

- We have unique conditions to carry out this research. There is so much preserved, both written material in archives and material on the seabed. The material situation is unique for both archaeologists and historians, says Leos Müller.

The role and function of museums

In addition to historical and archaeological research, the program's researchers must investigate how the ships have been transformed into cultural heritage objects in museums or parts of them are used as, for example, interior decoration materials.

- It is, for example, about the role and function of museums. What are the consequences of forgetting parts of history that we do not remember through our museums? says Simon Ekström, professor of ethnology and responsible for the program's cultural heritage part.

What we choose to preserve and highlight has consequences for both our memory and the writing of history. It is an example of how an interdisciplinary investigation of a relatively small field of research – the remains of the Swedish navy – leads to a larger societal, cultural and historical context.

Innovative methods and working methods

The collaboration between researchers from different fields also means that new methods are tested which may be important for later research. Written historical sources are used together with, for example, natural science methods for determining the age of wood and 3D visualizations of wrecks in order to provide an overall picture of the ships.

- The very combination of different materials in the project means a methodological renewal. So does the combination of research topics and their different methods, says Leos Müller.

Another aim of the research program is to strengthen the interdisciplinary environment that has been built up at the project's home institution, the Center for Maritime Studies, CEMAS.

- I also think that the program will be important with regard to the third task. We will produce publications and other material that will be of interest to many people. Not only for those who are interested in wrecks, but also in cultural heritage issues and the relationship between forgetting and memory, says Simon Ekström.

About the research program

The Forgotten Fleet. Sweden's "blue" cultural heritage c. 1450–1850 is a research program that runs 2020–2026.

It is carried out at the Center for Maritime Studies, CEMAS, in collaboration with the State Maritime and Transport History Museums, SMTM, and the National Museum of Finland.

The goal is to map, document and research the ships from the Swedish navy.

The program combines four research perspectives: history, marine archaeology, cultural heritage studies and ethnology. Eleven researchers are working on various sub-projects in addition to the database with the ships. They deal, among other things, with ship architecture, black oak from wrecks, bronze cannons, warfare at sea and how the ships and things from them are used as cultural heritage objects in museums.

TEXT: Michael Nyhaga
PHOTO: Jim Hansson, Wreck/SMTM