Naval Wrecks of Karlskrona

The city of Karlskrona was founded in the 1680s as a naval base and naval shipyard in south Sweden.

During the late 17th and early 18th centuries, several decommissioned warships were stripped, filled with stone, and sunk around the city. The massive old hulls were often used for moles or land expansion. Eventually, many of them were covered by landfill.

During construction works in the city during the 20th century, at least 56 such ship hulls have been found, usually during construction work on land. Some have been excavated. 30 of those ships have been identified. Some excavated objects are on display in the naval base area, which, however, is not open to the public. Besides the wrecks on this list, several similar wrecks have been sunk around the islands surrounding Karlskrona.

After 300 years, Karlskrona is today Sweden's largest naval base.

30 identified wrecks in Karlskrona:

Name

Guns

Com-
missioned

Discom-
missioned

Participated
in campaigns

Note

Underwater wrecks outside the city:

Besides these wrecks sunk in the central parts of the city, other warships were sunk at Djupasund between Tjurkö and Sturkö islands. Thus creating a barrier south of the city, blocking one of the natural entrances. This continued until the 19th century. One of those ships is the 60-gun Vasa, built in 1778 and sunk in 1836. This wreck cemetery is now a popular site among scuba divers.

Reference:

Günter Lanitzki: Versunken in der Ostsee (Koehlers Verlag, 1993)