A once-common type of Dutch trading vessel which has only been known from models or pictures, has been found in nearly 300 feet of water in the Baltic Sea. The ship, The Swan, was found while Finnish divers were searching for sites of World War II wrecks.
The ship will be the subject of a documentary later this summer, called Fluit, after the ship type, known for a nearly round hull below a narrow deck. It was a Dutch advantage in the Baltic trade, because it was faster and larger than most ships. In the 17th century, as many as 3000 fluits were used in the trade.
During work on the documentary, the wreck was explored further, turning up, among other things, an elaborately carved transom with an image of a swan and the year 1636 carved into it; maritime archaologists are using the information to find more about the ship, which they believe was built in the Netherlands, although later on, some fluits were built in the Baltic countries.
