The depths of the sea hide many secrets. One of them was recently unraveled by specialists from the Center for Underwater Research of the Russian Geographical Society. At the bottom of the Gulf of Finland, they managed to discover and explore a German merchant ship of the late 17th century, which sank in 1724 with a large cargo of contraband on board. Visitors to the exhibition “Smuggling. Three centuries under water.
The exposition presents unique finds raised from the bottom of the sea and given a second life thanks to the skill of restorers. Part of the contraband cargo, crockery, clothes and personal belongings of the crew, working and measuring tools - all these items, after three hundred years of silence, lead their unhurried story about life on the ship, about the tastes of their owners and contemporaries. Visitors will find many interesting facts about the laws of maritime trade, which did not always correspond to state laws.
Guests of the exhibition will not only get acquainted with the way of life on a European vessel of the 18th century, but will also be able to dive to the bottom of the sea with the help of audiovisual accompaniment of the exposition and plunge into the world of the fascinating profession of an underwater archaeologist.
The exhibition features an original and modern design. Its composition is designed to create in the visitor's imagination the image of a found vessel and the dynamic movement of the acquired artifacts from the depths of the sea to the surface.
"Contraband" travels to the best exhibition spaces in St. Petersburg and beyond. She began her journey at the Headquarters of the Russian Geographical Society on October 12, 2017. Artifacts were seen by more than 4 thousand Petersburgers and guests of the city.
In July 2018, an exhibition was opened at the Silver Storerooms of Oranienbaum. This is an updated, expanded collection of artifacts of the "Archangel Raphael". By the way, for the first time, along with household items and tools, a caftan and woolen trousers are exhibited, which are stored in the State Hermitage Museum after a most complex restoration. For 4 months of the exhibition, almost 10,000 people came to learn about the amazing story that Peter I himself was interested in. We will tell you where "Three centuries under water" will go next in the news on our social networks and on the website.
"Smuggling" is torn abroad too. We are negotiating with the International Maritime Museum in Hamburg. Colleagues really want to see how the cargo of German merchants with a 300-year lag, but still reaches the shores of Germany. We are planning for 2019-2020.
October 13 - IA "News» . Excavations of the German merchant ship Archangel Raphael, which sank in the Baltic at the beginning of the 18th century, began in 2014. For three seasons, a team of research divers managed to wash out more than eight meters of the internal space of the ship's hull. A total of 267 artifacts were found, some of which are presented at the exhibition. Tools, weapons boxes, wardrobe items, crockery and other things that belonged to the crew of the sunken ship were raised from the bottom of the Gulf of Finland, and then went through the necessary conservation and restoration processes.
Professionals note that the terms of conservation can reach up to six months and largely depend on the size and material from which the found item is made. It is especially difficult to preserve tissues, but this task was successfully completed. For example, among the unique artifacts are the caftan and trousers of the ship's passenger. And the tar spilled during the crash saved them from destruction. In a barrel with this “natural preservative”, the caftan was sent for restoration to the specialists of the State Hermitage Museum and was completely restored, including all 90 decorative buttons. Among the exhibits of the exhibition at the headquarters of the Russian Geographical Society, the unique hat and boots, which were also brought to perfect condition by restorers, deserve special attention.
“Underwater archeology is not only adventure, but also science and rather painstaking work,” Roman Prokhorov, an archaeologist, restorer, diver-researcher of the Central Research Center of the Russian Geographical Society, rightly noted on this occasion. - We have been “digging” this ship for the fourth year. We work for 6-7 hours every day under cold water without a break. We use a special technique that requires a lot of skills and specialties from a person. And I want to emphasize that this is the work of a whole team: you need to organize the whole process, work it out under water, process the items, then take them to the museum, where they will also be finalized and exhibited. Among other things, the highest class restorers help us a lot: the Hermitage and the All-Russian Artistic Research and Restoration Center named after I.E. Grabar.
It is known about the history of the "Archangel Raphael" that he left St. Petersburg for Lübeck in October 1724, having paid a fee for a small amount of goods. However, the ship stopped beyond the customs border line and then stayed at anchor west of Kotlin Island for more than a month, taking contraband cargo from boats. According to Andrey Lukoshkov, a historian and scientific consultant of the Center for Underwater Research of the Russian Geographical Society, the ship left with about 120 bales of skin on board, and the peasants who dived from the ice after it sank had already pulled out 350 bales, and moreover, it was said that this was only a small fraction cargo. In November, the onset of frost bound the ship with ice, as a result of which it was abandoned by the crew. According to the researchers, it was the ship of the Dutch merchant Herman Meyer, which died in late November, having a much larger cargo on board. Although the Russian authorities opened a special investigation into the crash, the investigation was not completed, probably due to the death of Emperor Peter the Great in January 1725.
Almost three centuries later, specialists from the Center for Underwater Research became interested in several cases found in the Russian State Archives of the Navy. According to them, it turned out that in the times of Peter the Great, a ship with the name either "Archangel Gabriel" or "Archangel Raphael" was crushed by ice in the Baltic waters. Thanks to the materials, it was possible to establish the alleged area of death and find the remains of a wooden vessel. There were no external signs by which it would be possible to identify the found vessel. Therefore, a radiocarbon analysis of the wood was carried out, which showed the estimated time of cutting down the ship. Taking into account the time for drying the wood, it could well have been the Archangel Raphael, well-known in the German archives, built in Lübeck in 1693. The second confirmation was the discovery on the ship of a dish with the image of the biblical Archangel Raphael and the numbers "1696".
“What we are now opening here is a kind of quintessence of our work,” Sergey Fokin, executive director of the CPI RGS, emphasized at the opening of the exhibition. - Any of our activities is aimed at increasing the total knowledge, which without a specific addressee does not make much sense. And today we want to bring some of the very specific knowledge of history, underwater archeology, which is still a young science and is in its infancy. However, close attention is being paid to it, and it is not for nothing that a separate section on the preservation of underwater cultural heritage will be held within the walls of the upcoming International Cultural Forum within the walls of the Russian Geographical Society, and this exhibition is its integral part. Here are the fruits of three seasons of expeditions, work is still ongoing and does not stop. Unfortunately, we can not show all the exhibits, but only those that have gone through a complete process of conservation and restoration,” Fokin noted.
Exhibition “Smuggling. Three centuries under water" will last at the headquarters of the Russian Geographical Society until January 31. After that, all the exhibits will be transferred to the Museum of the History of Kronstadt.
The secret revealed
Part of the contraband cargo, crockery, clothes and personal belongings of the crew, working and measuring tools - all these items were presented at the exhibition “Smuggling. Three centuries under water”, held yesterday in St. Petersburg in the great hall of the Headquarters of the Russian Geographical Society. After three hundred years of silence, they lead their unhurried story about life on the ship and about their owners and contemporaries.
The Baltic Sea kept this secret for three centuries, and finally allowed underwater archaeologists to look into the past. Specialists of the Center for Underwater Research of the Russian Geographical Society discovered a ship at the bottom of the Gulf of Finland back in 2002. It all started with a found brick. From the mark on it, it became clear: the found ship was built at a German factory in Lübeck at the end of the 17th century. It turned out that this was the “Archangel Raphael”, which was sensational in the time of Peter the Great.
- The ship left St. Petersburg in October, and in early December it was found chained and crushed in the ice of the Gulf of Finland. Soon after the discovery, there were suggestions that he was engaged in smuggling, - says Andrei Lukoshkov, director of research at the National Center for Underwater Research of the Russian Geographical Society.
Thank you criminals
As it turned out later, it was so. Having gone beyond the line of the customs border, the enterprising captain Jan Schmidt anchored. For 40 days, the ship's holds were filled with smuggled goods, which were brought on boats.
But Russian nature prevented the team from carrying out their plan. Ice rose in the bay, first capturing the ship, and then crushing its sides. Fleeing as best they could, the crew members threw not only the goods, but also personal belongings.
The department of smuggling and personally Peter the Great took up the investigation of this story. Only his unexpected death suspended the investigation. And only after almost three centuries the secret became clear. Today, leaving aside the assessment of the moral character of the smugglers of the 18th century, underwater archaeologists do not find words to thank them.
“Of course, such a find is a great success for us, and we should be grateful to these thieves,” Andrei Lukoshkov laughs.
rare luck
Thanks must be said to the Gulf of Finland. Its muddy slightly salty water prevented the sun's rays from reaching the ship and became an excellent preservative for it. In addition, there are almost no undercurrents in this part of the bay. All these factors made it possible to keep the ship and things almost intact. The exhibition presents personal belongings, dishes, a weapon box, shoes and clothes.
We found a mitten with two thumbs on both sides. Perhaps it was necessary to put it on in a hurry, or maybe for something else, - says research diver Igor Galayda.
But the main exhibit is an expensive European caftan from the early 18th century. Luckily, it has been preserved almost in its original state. During the crash, it was flooded with tar from a fallen barrel. This allowed him to lie under water for 300 years and not lose a single button.
Behind three seasons of expeditions and more than a hundred recovered artifacts. Many are still under restoration, and some have been transferred to the Hermitage for storage. But diving work on the Archangel Raphael has not yet been completed. In the near future, specialists from Germany will join them - for them, the find is of incredible interest. This is not surprising - none of the sunken German ships is in such good condition. And in general, if you imagine how many secrets the Baltic Sea has accumulated in the entire history of navigation and take into account that only a few become obvious, you can imagine the joy of researchers who discovered such an interesting find.
