Danish slave ships wreckage found off coast of Costa Rica, museum confirms

From CBS

Two 18th-century shipwrecks off the coast of Costa Rica, previously thought to have been pirate ships, have been confirmed to be two Danish slave ships, a museum said Sunday.

“Investigations of ship timbers, bricks from the cargo and clay pipes found during underwater excavations” had determined the identity of two vessels shipwrecked in 1710, Denmark’s National Museum said in a statement.

Marine archaeologists identified the slave ships Fridericus Quartus and Christianus Quintus, which, according to historical sources, were wrecked off the coast of Central America in 1710, said the museum. The museum also released images of Andreas Kallmeyer Bloch and David Gregory digging underwater and excavating bricks and wood from the wreckage.

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The museum added that in Costa Rica, it had long been known that two wrecks were located in the waters of the Cahuita National Park.

“For many years, however, they were thought to be pirate ships. But when American marine archaeologists in 2015 found yellow bricks in one of the wrecks, new questions emerged about the history of the ships,” the museum said.

An underwater excavation was carried out in 2023. It was part of the National Museum’s new research center, Njord, which the museum said is planning to excavate several Danish shipwrecks abroad.

CBS has more details.

Learn about the Middle Passage, where Africans were forcibly shipped across the ocean.

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