The remains of two 18th-century shipwrecks off the coast of Costa Rica, previously thought to be pirate ships, have finally been found to be Danish slave ships, a museum reported Sunday.
Investigations of timbers, cargo blocks, and clay pieces found during underwater excavations determined the identity of the two vessels, which sank in 1710 on the coral reefs of what is now Cahuita National Park in the Caribbean, the National Museum of Denmark said.
The report indicates that the remains belong to the slave ships Fridericus Quartus and Christianus Quintus, which, according to historical sources, sank off the coast of Central America in 1710, but the location of their disappearance was unknown.
Long been known to exist
The museum added that two shipwrecks had long been known to exist in Costa Rica off the waters of Cahuita National Park, near the town of Puerto Limón, although they were always believed to be corsair vessels.
But when American marine archaeologists found yellow bricks on one of the wrecks in 2015, new questions arose about the vessels’ identities. An underwater excavation was conducted in 2023, and subsequent analyses “are very convincing, and we no longer have any doubt that these are the remains of the two Danish slave ships,” said David Gregory, a marine archaeologist at the National Museum of Denmark.
“The cargo blocks are Danish, as is the wood, which is also charred and covered in soot (…) from the fire. This fits perfectly with historical accounts stating that one of the ships caught fire,” Gregory added.
Most dramatic shipwrecks
His colleague, marine archaeologist Andreas Kallmeyer Bloch, said this was the “most mind-blowing” archaeological excavation he’d ever been involved in, “not only because of its huge significance to the local population, but also because it’s one of the most dramatic shipwrecks in Danish history, and now we know exactly where it happened.”
