Gribshunden in perspective: a castle on the sea

The royal Danish-Norwegian flagship Gribshunden, launched in 1485, was among
the earliest northern European warships purpose-built to carry artillery. However, King Hans employed his vessel as far more than a weapons platform. The ship was his ‘floating castle’, fulfilling all the various purposes of a land redoubt. At its loss in 1495 enroute to a political summit in Kalmar, where Hans expected to be crowned king of Sweden, it was his mobile seat of government, an instrument combining hard and soft power functions. Recent excavations of Gribshunden reveal its martial aspects: artillery, small arms (including several crossbows and hand guns) and personal armour. Soft power is reflected more subtly in other artefacts: silver coins; secular artwork depicting flowers, animals and mythical beasts; and prestige provisions,
including copious amounts of exotic imported spices and a large sturgeon. Continuing excavations of the wreck are revealing the structure of the ship itself, while providing insights into the social division of space aboard this royal castle at sea. Combined with archival documents, analyses of all these artefacts deliver deep insight into the people aboard the ship and the late Mediaeval period through which they travelled.