Virtual Open-Air Museum of Wrecks of the Gulf of Gdansk is getting closer - video

The National Maritime Museum in Gdańsk is embarking on a two-year scientific research project entitled ‘Virtual Open-Air Museum of Wrecks in the Gulf of Gdańsk. Inventory of underwater archaeological heritage”.

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The project is co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage and its main objective is to prepare photogrammetric 3D documentation of wooden shipwrecks from the Gulf of Gdansk and to present their 3D models on the website called “Virtual Skansen Wrecks of the Gulf of Gdansk”. (subdomain of the NMM website).

Since 2013, the National Maritime Museum in Gdansk has been developing an innovative method of underwater documentation by creating photogrammetric 3D models of shipwrecks in the Gdansk Bay. Several thousand photograms are taken for each object, which are then assembled by a computer into a detailed 3D model. The method was previously used on land, but scientists from the National Maritime Museum are, along with Americans from the University of Texas, the world’s pioneers in transferring it under water.

So far, archaeological investigations of three wrecks have been carried out using the new documentation technique. The first object investigated with the use of the innovative method was the F53.27 “Porcelanoviec”, which is the remains of a sailing vessel over 20 metres long, built in the first half of the 19th century from spruce and pine wood, which sank after 1853. Fragments of English faience vessels and a brass snuffbox made in Sweden were discovered on the site.

The second wreck documented in 2014 using photogrammetric 3D models was the previously described and shown wreck F53.31 “Głazik”, which is the remains of a small sailing ship, several metres long, with a transom stern, built after 1831 using the overlapping method. The ship sank at Gdynia Redłowo, 2.5 km from the shore with a cargo of boulders up to 1 m in diameter. A corked stoneware soda water bottle “Selters” was recovered from the wreck. After analysing the composition of the liquid it turned out that there was gin inside, which means that it was refilled with an alcoholic drink.

In 2014, archaeological research was carried out using innovative 3D documentation methods of the wreck F53.14 lying in the area of the entrance to the port of Gdańsk. The F53.14, referred to by NMM archaeologists as the “Porter”, is a relic of a sailing vessel built of oak wood, at least 30 metres long. The vessel was probably made in the first decade of the 19th century and the wood used for its construction comes from Eastern Pomerania.

Over 140 artefacts were excavated from the wreck, including: fragments of shoes, ceramic vessels and fragments of vessels, a glass bottle, carpentry tools, a jug with a hinged string, iron pins and pins, a tin spoon scoop and fragments of clay pipes. A considerable part of the wreck is sunk in the bottom, from which elements of the sides protrude, reaching up to the height of the deck. The keel of the wreck is over 2.5 metres below the surface of the seabed. The photogrammetric 3D model of the wreck and its photo-mosaic are presented in this article. We also include a bathymetric plan of the site created on the basis of the 3D model of the wreck.

The work on all the mentioned wrecks and the “Virtual Wreck Heritage Park” project is led by underwater archaeologist Tomasz Bednarz. The members of the research team taking part in the implementation of the photogrammetric 3D documentation are: Janusz Różycki, Wojciech Joński and Zbigniew Jarocki. The team of divers and archaeologists from the National Maritime Museum has been nominated for the prestigious Travelery award of the National Geographic publishing house in the category “Scientific Discovery of the Year” for developing and implementing an innovative method of underwater documentation of shipwrecks in 3D.

The research in 2014 was carried out as part of the scientific and research project co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage “Inventory of wrecks F53.14 and F53.31 from the Gulf of Gdansk”.

Source: National Maritime Museum in Gdańsk