The Osmund wreck has been looted before, and two ceramic vessels have vanished. Objects on shipwrecks are key pieces of the puzzle in a maritime archaeologist’s interpretation of the wrecks. These objects can tell us about the people who lived on board, the cargo the ship was carrying, and where the ship was headed.
Mikael Fredholm, a maritime archaeologist at the museum, is in charge of creating the management and protection plan for the Osmund wreck.
“The ceramic vessels were partly used to date the wreck,” Fredholm says. “We could see by the vessel that the ship was from the 16th century even before we took wood samples. So it’s a shame when objects that can tell us so much about the wreck are no longer there.”