Russians unearth more interesting artifacts from wreck of 160-year-old steamer

In May we informed our readers that at the bottom of the beautiful Lake Ladoga, near the island of Valaam, Russian divers had found the magnificent wreck of the steamer Valamon Loustari, 160 years old. The exploration, survey and documentation of the wreck allowed to confirm its identity, but also was the culmination of work carried out since 2017. Since then, more diving groups from different parts of Russia have started to come to the wreck to admire the magnificent wreck and add their contribution to its exploration.

With the blessing of Bishop Pankrata, abbot of the Valam Monastery, divers from St Petersburg excavated one of the most impressive objects found on the wreck – a forged steel anchor weighing three hundred kilograms. The artefact was towed to a bay near the monastery and handed over to representatives of the sanctuary.

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The crossing, which usually takes less than half an hour, this time took as long as two. The speed of movement was very slow, about 5 km/h. In the end, however, it was possible and with the help of a tractor the anchor was pulled out onto a pier in a cove near the monastery. Now that it has been preserved and protected, it will become a wonderful exhibit in the Walaam monastery museum.

It is interesting to mention that the anchor is not the only find of the divers from the St. Petersburg club. They also found and excavated 4 bottles containing… 80-year-old milk! The bottles themselves were in a wooden box and sealed tightly. Although visually they were not bad, nobody dared to taste the liquid they contained.

The milk will first go to a laboratory, where it will be analysed carefully to make sure what we are dealing with, and then it will end up at the monastery farm, where it will be kept in a fridge as an exhibit and displayed for visitors to the monastery.

From the information we have, we know that the team of the diving club “Divo” from Orlo, plans to continue exploring the waters of Lake Ladoga near the monastery. The divers want to return here already in August 2020.

Walamon Loustari, is the wreck of a historic Finnish steamer. The ship was sunk in 1940 during the Winter War, in which the armies of the USSR and Finland clashed. The 30 metre long steamer was built in Sweden in 1862 and had a capacity of 132 GRT. It sailed the Baltic as a transport ship. At first it was named Gusraf af Klint, and then in 1889 it came into the hands of the Finnish owner and was renamed Kjell. You can read more about the vessel and the story of her discovery in our article of 13 May 2020.

^{Source: Valamo}