The Danzig cog

At Brösen, near Danzig (present Gdansk) the port was rebuilt in 1872. In the sand layers a very well preserved Medieval ship, possibly a cog was discovered. It was cut up to firewood. Such a find today would hopefully be treated differently.

The ship was 17 m long and clinker built of oak with iron rivets. The bottom was flat and the straight bow was raising at a sharp angle from the keel, typical for cogs. Based on the contemporary reports, and a geological analysis of the site, the ship is estimated to have been from the 11th to 13th century.

There was no indication of a stem rudder. This also supports the assumed dating, since stem rudders were not used before ca 1240 AD. According to Detlev Ellmers, the find can be considered a cog.

Illustration from Leipziger Illustrierte Zeitung 18 January 1873.

Related text

• The Cog, Medieval Shiptype

Links

• There is plenty of info on the web about the Hanseatic league, just search for those words or for "Hansa".

Reference

• Detlev Ellmers: Frühmittelalterliche Handelsschiffahrt in Mittel- und Nordeuropa (Wachholz Verlag, 1972 and 1984), page 303.

Per Åkesson, July 1998, rev 2004