Lapuri find

The Lapuri wreck was discovered by sport diver Manu Törönen in 1976. It is situated at a depth of 6 m, near the Lapuri island, in the eastern part of the Gulf of Finland. Its exact age is uncertain but marine-archæological diving has revealed a construction similar to a Viking ship. It is, so far, regarded as the only Viking Age ship find made in the Gulf of Finland. The find spot suggests that the ship was on the eastern Viking route when it sunk. This, together with the fact that the wreck is very well preserved, makes it a unique find. The ship is built of oak.

The whole keel, with most of the frames, and one stem were found. In 1993, when the stone ballast was removed from the hull, part of the keelson showed to be in place. Amidships the starboard side was preserved under the bottom sediment and 6 hull planks up to the railing were uncovered. The broadest plank is c. 55 cm wide. Most of the planks are only 1.5 cm thick which indicates skilful boat-building technique. The relatively well preserved hull has made it possible to reconstruct the ship. Most of the reconstruction work has been made by marine-archæologist Harry Alopeus. The calculated length and width of the ship are 12 respectively 3 m.


Also some loose objects were found: a net sinker, two unidentified wooden objects, three grinding stones and fragments of bronze kettles. A sample of cloth for the caulking of a scarf was taken for laboratory analyses. The wool in the cloth has been identified as coming from an eastern race of sheep.

The dating of the Lapuri find has been problematic. There are three carbon-datings (C-14), which have given some vacilating and diverse results: 780+90, 980+90 and 1425+110 A.D.. However, the construction details of the ship are Viking. The stem, for example, is typical Viking. A recent attempt to make a more precise dendro-chronological dating was not successful.

An archaeological inventory of the Lapuri island, made some years ago, gave no proof of ancient settlements on, or in, the vicinity of the island. However, the inventory found some old cairns, working as seamarks, which verify that the area has long been a fairway.



Attached some recent (1998) reconstruction drawings of the hull and cross sections. These drawings are made by Harry Alopeus, drawn clean by Björn Schauman and mounted on this web site by Fredrik Koivusalo.

You can get more technical details of the Lapuri wreck from the report Aspects of the Lapuri find, written by Harry Alopeus.




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