Monster Shipwreck Mystery of the Mars

deep in the murky waters of the Baltic Sea lies a massive mysterious shipwreck one hell of a large wooden Trek it's clearly an ancient warship a sensational discovery but could it be the holy grail of wrecks lost for 450 years the largest warship of its time designed to be the death star of the ancient seas is this the ship called Mars the Magnificent that struck fear into the hearts of all who saw her scientists from all over the world joined forces to solve the riddle of this giant shipwreck and absolutely crazy Rex it's a time capsule everything is there with state-of-the-art technology we found the treasure divers and researchers piece together the untold story of the enormous wreck the epic battles she fought and the men and treasure that went down with her [Music] 1564 a man names fader Hoyer a chaplain in a city in what is now northern Germany is terrified for his home of Lubeck our standard has showed me the future and it is dark our enemies have built a shaped larger than our Cathedral this Colossus of the Seas throws cannonballs fire and death over great distances has the Lord finally abandoned us you Beck's enemies were the Swedes specifically a young king with his eyes on Empire to create that Empire eric xiv needed to control the baltic sea and its rich trade routes between him and his ambition play an ancient coalition of Baltic merchant cities like Lubeck called the Hanseatic League who jealously protected those routes and to smash the league Eric built the war machine that horrified the priests of Lubeck who would be one of the few eyewitnesses to the legendary battle to come but chaplain horrors account does little to dispel the mysteries and myths that have grown up around one of the most celebrated sea battles in history and the ship that was lost for 450 years now a remarkable expedition hopes to replace the myths and tales with facts it's a dive straight into a little-known piece of history and if this turns out to be what they're looking for it is the discovery of a lifetime it all started with a group of passionate wreck hunters led by Ricard Lundgren an internationally known technical diver they had been looking for traces of this particular battle for more than 20 years our team ready first when Rickard search began he didn't even know exactly where the battle had been fought wreck hunters have been searching for centuries between two large islands buland and Goodland a huge expanse of water then in 2011 a breakthrough a sonar image shows what it first looks like an enormous pile of wood on the seafloor one hell of a large wooden trek but to a trained eye there are clear signs that this is a wreck of exceptional proportions I'll be damned if those aren't gun Portela the site is dauntingly deep almost 250 feet down in the chilly baltic waters likely a reason why no one's discovered it until now but diving at these deaths is Rickard specialty his first glimpse of this gigantic puzzle of oak Timbers is unforgettable econia we arrives at the red landed on the halls and saw huge gun ports and I thought I've never seen anything like it dives like this are dangerous and complicated requiring hours of meticulous preparation if something goes wrong it could be fatal history records that in these same waters at least two large ships were lost in battle could this wreck be one of them and could it be the legendary giant called Mars the magnificent with the help of an ROV an underwater robot the team locates some bronze guns of spectacular size lying next to the hall and at these cold brackish depths in the Baltic there is almost no growth to cover the guns so an old-fashioned inscription with Roman numerals is clearly readable and for once this date 1564 definitely puts the unknown wreck in the right period and is a compelling clue but they'll need more proof and more help to reveal whether this is truly the ship of legend Rickard contacts one of the leading experts on Baltic Sea wrecks maritime archaeologists Johan Brown be he has his doubts the Marshalls first Mars had been found before Mars has been one of the most sought-after wrecks everyone has been looking for Mars the Magnificent so I wasn't sure it was Mars that they had found regardless of what ship it is it's an amazing wreck it has those triangular dead eyes for naval historians the wreck is a missing link few 16th century warships have ever been found and studied during that time war breaks out among the baltic countries the onset of a brutal period in European history a period of bloody and frequent conflicts that will in the end turn Europe into a continent of nations with borders much like today's the war is fuel an arms race around the Baltic Sea as the young Swedish king Eric is bent on turning a backward country on the fringe of Europe into a powerful nation in control of the profitable Baltic trade routes especially with Russia for this King Eric needs a fleet strong enough to challenge the existing order he Commission's giant warships the ultimate symbols of power for a modern monarch [Music] but his quest will not go unchallenged the city of Lube at the hub of a powerful union of coastal cities around the Baltic teams up with Denmark the country that controls the inlet to the sea Denmark and Lubeck dispatch adjoint fleet into Swedish waters to put an end to Eric's grand plans in 1564 the two fleets collide in a horrendous two-day battle between the largest ships of the time this is considered the first modern naval battle a battle that shaped naval warfare for centuries a battle that resounded all over Europe to establish if this really is King Eric's admiralty ship Mars a much larger expedition gathers with scientists expert technical divers and state-of-the-art equipment Ricardian grid teams up with his old rival a historian and diver Carl Douglas they have vied for many years to be the leading explorers in the Baltic now they've joined forces to solve the Rex mystery Carl runs a large survey company and provides the needed high-tech equipment Professor Johann Braun will be a world leading expert on historical wrecks in the Baltic heads the scientific team one of them is maritime archaeologist Niklas Ericson a master of piecing together wreck puzzles his mission is to reconstruct the real ship out of the debris that is left on the wreck site working at the Rex formidable depth will be challenging so an elite team of highly experienced divers joins the expedition they'll need to breathe a special mixture of helium nitrogen and oxygen half an hour of work at this depth is equal to a full strenuous work day on land [Music] one of the few professional archaeologists qualified for this work is German Florian Huber yes it is really fantastic to take part in this project it's one of the most unique maritime archaeological projects in the world and we're working here with professionals topside and underwater this is amazing in all respects at 250 feet below the surface the water is cold and dark many dangers await the divers tight spaces and rough edges and the wooden beams can snag two divers vital equipment or rip a critical air tube but every inch of the entire wreck site must be photographed measured and documented not just from the outside but also the inside that's the really dangerous area definitely not the place to get stuck with low air supply another possible clue to the Rex identity its size Mars is supposed to be the largest ship of its time but unfortunately there are no reliable contemporary images or descriptions for Nicholas Erickson the only historical evidence is more legend than fact there is a period Chronicle from Lubeck stating that Mars was ten feet longer than the Cathedral but that's basically just speculation to measure its exact size the team will place a special type of echo sounder right on the wreck develop for offshore drilling this is the first time it'll be used for maritime archaeology [Music] okay I'll blow you on a signal if it works is hoped the echosounder will save weeks or even months of documentation work the echosounder imagery and photographs from the divers will together give a detailed and exact depiction of the wreck site the divers will now be our eyes on the seafloor there's a continuous communication back and forth about what kind of information we need to piece the ship together among the Mars legends there is also a treasure story there should have been two hundred thousand Silver's Swedish dollars and two thousand gold coins onboard excitement mounts when wreak arts dive buddy fleed thatx gold reports that he has made a chance discovery combined with the rare guns this last piece of evidence will identify the wreck with 100% certainty a silver coin minted in 1563 I think this is before yeah the same year that Mars was built it bears the portrait of King Erik xiv leaving no doubt that this is a coin from Erik's Treasury this is pretty cool we're the first one to void this coin in a long time a silver coin from Mars this is his ship his spirit looms over this vessel with the guns carrying his coat of arms and a coin with his image there can be no other ship of this size built in this way with all these Gunners this is Mars on the reverse side of the coin the Royal emblem and the Kings motto God gives to whomever he chooses so far the high point of the expedition this new discovery is also sensational enough for Sweden's current king carl gustav to join the expedition ship he wants to be one of the first to see the portrait of his 16th century predecessor on this rare 450 year-old coin [Music] Eric xiv had a new idea about how to fight at sea up to this time battles were mainly fought through boarding and fighting on deck from now on he decided to let the guns do the job from a distance on Steam he ordered his new ship to have more cannons on board than any other ship before Eric's vision that large stable ships could carry more artillery would change the rules of engagement at sea there would be less hand-to-hand battles the enemy could be defeated from a safe distance the war for which Mars was build him and in which it sank was the first in really in history to be decided by gunnery and so in that sense it's breaking very new ground this recurring idea of the great ship that embodies the Kings prestige that embodies the the power of the nation at the same time that it tries to concentrate as much firepower into one platform that's really what a whole chain of events that Mars set off in the 1560s King Erik xiv is obsessed with the idea of creating an empire the key to realizing his ambition is the largest fleet in the world with Mars as the Admirals flagship with five decks to just four gunnery she is the crowning glory of Eric's fleet the war is now on its way to Eric in May 1564 a combined fleet from Lubeck and denmark sails toward the Swedish coast the two large fleets meet northwest of the island of oolong this is where the interest of the warring sides collide power over the Baltic Sea is at stake Derek's new tactics were actually written down in a document discovered by historian in Vallejo Broome it is a direct order from the king to Admiral Yakko Begay commander of the Swedish Navy this is the instructions sent to Jakob a game on May 18 1560 for just a couple of weeks before the battle where Mars goes under the Kings orders to his Admiral our direct and brutal attack the enemy ships as fiercely as possible sync them with gun shots and break them to pieces less than two weeks later the enemies meet [Applause] Slater Hoyer the chaplain from Lubeck is on board the opposing Admirals ship when the Swedish fleet arrives the ship they called Mars Mark Ellis cast a sombre shadow over our whole fleet and from inside this evil shadow came cannonballs and flames as if the gates of hell had opened before us contemporary reports on both sides record that King Eric's new tactics were successful and one of Lee Beck's largest ships the long bark was reportedly sunk by a gunshot if Sun this is the first recorded example of a ship being sunk by artillery in a naval battle a tipping point in the history of naval warfare but there are those today who doubt that Eric's artillery really could have done the job at the wreck site the scientists want a closer look at the artillery that played such an important part in this historic battle it's time to salvage a couple of those remarkably well-preserved cannons there are more than a hundred to choose from but to study how realistic king Eric's new tactics were they need to examine the largest guns this huge bronze cannon must weigh about two tons the ship's crane is only certified to lift one tonne so in the end they decide to bring up one of the large guns that is broken in half [Music] after four hundred and fifty years on the bottom of the sea King Eric's cannon sees daylight again the question remains could a gun like this really sink a ship among historians it's a hotly debated issue but some explosive experimental archaeology may settle the dispute the artillery experiment begins back on dry land and Fred Hawker works with a team casting a replica of a four hundred fifty year old bronze cannon for me the most important questions as a researcher are what's the guns performance we want to measure when we fire it not just how far the ball goes and how close to the target it hits we also want to look at how much noise does it make what kind of pressure does it create how heavy is it how hard is it to move or to aim how quickly can you load it and aim it and then to look at the effect it has at the other end and how much damage does a gun like this do for the target carpenters are busy building a full-scale replica of a ship's side Oh was the traditional material for the hulls of wooden warships because of its strength and resilience against the forces of the sea but also to stand up to enemy fire the gun replica is mounted on a carriage similar to those that were on the gun decks of a large sailing ship the target ship's side is placed at various distances from 50 to over a hundred yards high-speed cameras will record the impact of the gunshots on the oak Timbers no one knows if the guns of the Mars warship were tested in any way before they were put into action but it turns out the key Eric's strategy is correct you can sink a ship even with a single cannon shot if it hits near the waterline what we have here is we've got a weapon that will make a hole in the we can demonstrate that his philosophy he was ahead of his time in that regard and that he saw are the ships that he built were pointing towards a future that was still fifty years away it's May 31st 1560 for King Eric wakes up to the good news of how successful the Swedish fleets first strike has been Morris has proved to be exactly what he hoped for he is convinced that he will win the battle and gain control of the Baltic Sea but for his enemies there is too much at stake to give up the fight yeah little bit mathy someone teasing Rubik made enormous efforts to win this in order to regain access to trade with Russia enormous military and financial efforts Alcala makes you understand how vital this campaign was for the merchants Rubik Admiral Friedrich Knievel is keenly aware that the rest of Europe is following his risky mission he has no other option than to continue the fight against the colossal warship the battle resumes early in the morning the expedition work has entered an intensive phase this is like advanced historical CSI on a very cold case the wreck site is chaotic charred oak Timbers some of the guns cracked from heat everything bears witness to an exceptionally brutal battle with a violent ending but what really happened to King Eric's proud man-of-war the divers spend long and exhausting days trying to cover as much as possible of the wreck cited the water temperature at the bottom is 39 degrees Fahrenheit and there is no sunlight even so they succeed in taking more than 400 still images of the wreck per day the images will be stitched together creating an overview of the entire wreck the final composite will include every detail on the seafloor cannons coins timbers and iron as they survey the divers chance upon more concrete evidence of how this war was fought a large gunshot lodged in the ship's hull it is a stone cannonball about four inches in diameter shot from one of the ships from Denmark or you back but scientists do not think that Mars was sunk by gunfire alone the wreck site is littered with debris that points to another cause every part salvaged from the wreck is badly burned and but even the charred Timbers helped Nicholas Erikson assemble the puzzle and fit them back where they belong thanks to this information and what we're going to salvage tomorrow we'll be able to reconstruct the whole Hall above the waterline she's quite charred all of the timber so there's clear evidence of a fire it's obvious that Mars was a flame when she sank but did the fire sink her day two of the bathroom heartened by the first day success some 700 Swedes are now packed together on board Mars waiting for the battle to resume the men are young some in their early teens many with little training the Swedish Navy doesn't have the best reputation for seamanship and in the morning the battle conditions have changed there is a strong northerly wind and the Swedish fleet is scattered the wind has driven some ships miles away from the Admiralty ship Mars strategy during naval warfare is to wait until the fleet is gathered but this time the commander of Mars Yakko Begay decides to engage the enemy almost alone what now awaits the crew is utter hell with nowhere to run aboard a salvaged later ship the Vasa Fred Hawker imagines the scene it was crowded dark and noisy down here in battle each one of these gun ports had a cannon at it that weighed a ton and a half with a crew of eight men sweating in the dark hauling it up into battery firing it loading and cleaning it loading it aiming it trying to time the fire to the roll of the ship so they could hit the target with the gun that wasn't all that accurate and didn't have all of that much penetrating power compared to what we think of today in addition to being a working space in battle this is also the primary living accommodation for the crew those same eight men who served the gun lived in the space next to it between that gun and the next one they ate their meals there they slept on the deck they kept their few possessions there maybe in a chest or a bag or a barrel but they lived completely differently from the ship's officers ship's officers had their own cabin the Admiral stayed in the great cabin which was fitted out like a room in the palace it was a space that could show off the power and glory of the country [Applause] at the battle Mars artillery is of no use as the wind has turned in favor of the opposition Admiral cannibals ship their angle and another Lubich ship managed to hook onto the giant Mars they begin boarding her and engaging in hand-to-hand combat a catastrophe for the Swedes now there was nothing to stop our brave Admiral tenable from claiming victory the soldiers from their angle poured onto Mars in order to bring her home as a great trophy to the city of Newburgh but instead of giving up in defeat Mars ended her evil life by taking hundreds of men with her to the bottom of the sea [Applause] but what sent a massive warship to the bottom searching for answers the divers continue their work days scouring the wreck for more clues the chaos of timbers at the wreck site still won't give up the secrets of Mars last moments [Music] but help comes from an unexpected direction the last critical clue won't come from these chilly deaths the Lubeck city archives contain records dating back centuries during a recent restoration historians uncovered a lost document hidden among the many binders it's the official report of the ferocious battle of giants written by Lou bik's Admiral Knievel himself at long last the final moments of Mars the Magnificent are revealed for June in the year 1516 fools agency if elusive the losses were enormous the market also episode so far six Mars the Magnificent is said to have had a crew of six hundred out of which about 500 drowned or were killed in the clash and from their angle to the Admiral ship there were a number of soldiers and crew who lost their lives be clear though that is pretty clearly stated in this report the two as indecent Billy thought of Cofield according to cannibals document Mars was boarded by soldiers from Lubeck and the enemy flag was hoisted on Eric's admiralty ship during the fighting a number of red-hot bullets and fire bombs went off on Mars one of which hit a wrought iron gun the explosion caused fire to break out a fire that quickly spread to masts and rigging when it reached the gunpowder stores Mars exploded and went under for the team diving on the massive ship it's more than just a wreck site it's a graveyard doesn't ridiculous it is of course horrible to think of what happened during the last hours on the ship even when you dive on her it's impossible to imagine the fact that 800 maybe 1,000 people died Admiral cannibals document written just days after the event confirms what actually happened to Mars the magnificent and why the wreck is so chaotic what he doesn't say a word about is the significance of the battle whether he realizes it or not a new type of naval warfare began during that first violent day it would be a change that would resonate down through history [Music] after the battle the combined Danish Lubeck fleet heads for the nearest Hansa city this be on the island of Gotland to celebrate the triumph the Swedish Admiral Jakob a gay taken prisoner before Mars blew up is now transported to a small island near Visby he is treated to food and wine as befits a nobleman but he is also humiliated Jakob Bhagat is forced to give a toast to the King of Denmark tarnish and he will end up spending seven years in a Danish prison though Denmark and Lubeck have won the first battle the war for control of the Baltic has just begun the loss of Mars is a catastrophe when it happens but it doesn't affect the outcome of the seven-year war it is a long and cruel war that really ends without a clear victory but it is also the beginning of a long long period of war that extends through the whole 17th century and into the 18th when Sweden is practically at war all the time and a period when new fleets and new large ships are built to sail the baltic sea so Mars in the seven-year war are just the opening act of this long war time that we often call our great power error the victory over Mars causes wild celebration and when the heroes of the epic battle returned to their home city Admiral cannibal and his men know that their deeds will be remembered as one of the great moments in naval history [Music] but one person is missing at the party Admiral cannibals chaplain Slater Hoyer is severely ill and will die shortly after the battle in one of his last writings he warns that Mars was just the opening salvo in the Lord's year of 1564 we have once again been saved by the firmness of our faith but I fear that our celebrations are in vain there's worse to come for my brethren and the children of our fine City as a memento to the citizens never to forget this event I've ordered an epitaph of the monster ship we defeated to be placed in my church [Music] the painting in the Lubeck church is the only image of King Eric's admiralty ship from the time [Music] Fator Hoyer's image of King Eric's super weapon may be from the period but it is lacking in detail to say the least so two last mysteries remain how big was Mars the Magnificent and what did she really look like on the mars wreck site ascertaining the ship's exact size becomes a priority in a complex maneuver the echosounder is placed right on the Mars Hall from there it will measure the entire wreck with centimeter precision outside and inside [Music] the operation is closely monitored from the ship's control center via a robot on an umbilical cord one diver has a delicate task of turning the echosounder upside down and squeezing it into one of the gun ports this is high-tech archaeology with a bit of high-tech diving [Music] the Mars rec offers a unique chance for researchers to study a crucial transition period in the history of naval warfare this is the richest collection of timber from any ship of this era enough to keep scientists busy for years trying to understand how those ships were built and rigged modern technology can now for the first time transform the splinters and the charred oak planking into a 3d image of the wreck site there are some Timbers here still standing up they must be from the lower gundeck the 3d imagery can be made into precise copies so that we can get a sense of what lies on the seafloor but most of what we see on this photo mosaic made up of more than 600 photos will stay 250 feet below the surface for the more than 800 souls who lost their lives on this shipwreck their remains will stay here to preserved among the scattered timbers and cannons the dive team and cutting-edge technology can now solve one of the last mysteries of Mars how big was the warship the precise length will be extremely difficult to establish since the bow of the ship was blown off but what can be measured shows the ship was nearly 200 feet long confirming it to be a true monster for its time but beyond its size Mars massive and powerful armament set a new standard for warship building that reverberates to this day as for her builder erekt xiv of sweden his dreams of greatness went down like his magnificent ship he began to go insane not long after Mars sank and was deposed and imprisoned in 1568 it's believed he died in prison of arsenic poisoning [Music] four hundred and fifty years after Eric's prize ship sank Niklas Ericsson is still finishing the whole puzzle every detail every plank found on the wreck site everything that has been documented and measured works towards understanding what Mars looked like [Music] what comes out four and a half centuries later shows the colossal warship as she could have been while the scientists work to recreate Mars on dry land the underwater archaeology is over and the great ship will be left where she lies to salvage the ship and bring it to the surface would be enormous ly costly and potentially damaging to the wreck and this is a sacred space the men who went down with her will remain undisturbed in their silent tomb keeping the last secrets of Mars the magnificent to themselves you

Channel: Tekneautik

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Id: Ulh4PbF8J0U

Length: 44min 0sec (2640 seconds)

Published: Sat May 09 2020