The National Cultural Heritage Administration says that the find is a valuable one, reports Latvian Radio.
It is not easy to get to the ancient find. It is located in a semi-flooded area about 100 meters to the right of two large wind turbines. The wreck is about 10 meters long and 4 meters wide, with lots of wooden ribs and boards fastened with both large wooden pegs and nails.
It can be seen that the lower part of the ship's hull has been under water for a long time, as the planks are covered with barnacles. It also looks very well preserved and impressively intact.
During the holidays, the wreck was noticed by local residents. Maritime-related museums in Riga, Jūrmala and Ventspils contacted by Latvian Radio had not even heard about the historical find, and only said that a washed-up wreck quickly deteriorates once exposed. The Talsi District Council also learned about the shipwreck only from Latvian Radio. The same is true of the National Cultural Heritage Administration, which was the only one that agreed to comment on the images it was shown.
Kaspars Markus Molls, a specialist in the Department of Archeology and History of the National Cultural Heritage Administration, concluded: "The find is definitely valuable. You would think that it was probably a sailing ship. But it also has a relatively flat bottom. A closer examination would be needed to say anything more. Taking into account that forged metal nails were used in the construction of the ship, as well as bars, which is typical of the shipbuilding tradition of the 18th and 19th centuries. There are notches on the outside of the beams, which is typical of the clinker construction or overpass construction technique, which was used in the 18th century in the Baltic Sea and also in other places in the Northern European region," says the specialist.
From photographs it is not possible to conclude for what purpose the ship was used with any certainty. "Perhaps, upon closer inspection, we could find evidence of construction that could indicate some functions. But, judging by the photographs, the details are also quite eroded... Of course, we need to measure more precisely to understand," said the specialist.
"The National Cultural Heritage Administration's shipwreck register lists about 400 shipwrecks in Latvian territorial waters, but this is more or less in the mapped parts of the coast and waterways. Consequently, wherever mapping or research has not been carried out, we have no information about what is there. Judging by analogies with neighboring countries, there are approximately 1,300 wrecks known in Estonia, so we can count on a similar number here as well," said Molls.
The Cultural Heritage Administration promises to survey the parts of the ship that washed up at Mērsrags within the next few days and then decide on its fate. One of the main problems is that there is no place to store such large wrecks. Latvia lacks a dedicated maritime museum, as recently reported by LSM. So it looks likely that the wreck could be re-buried or sunk, as happened in a similar case last year.
