Conservation and Research on Vrouw Maria

Vrouw Maria was a two-masted merchant vessel on her way from Amsterdam to St. Petersburg in the autumn of the year 1771. On a stormy night in the outer archipelago of Nauvo, Vrouw Maria suffered shipwreck and, a few days later, sank. According to the entries of the Sound customs house in Denmark, she was with a cargo of sugar, dyestuff, zinc, cloths, and single items whose customs fee seems was unusually high. Vrouw Maria has a reputation of a treasure ship because her cargo consisted of art treasures bought by Russian aristocrats and Catherine the Great. Among the works of art were for example Dutch paintings from the 17th century. A part of the cargo was salvaged soon after the shipwreck, but the majority of it went down with the ship.

Research history

The Finnish Maritime Museum started field research on the wreck in the summer of 2000. Researchers, who were aided by a group of voluntary divers, documented the wreck by photographing and videotaping it.

As a result of the studies in different archives, we know about the quality of Vrouw Maria's cargo, the events of the shipwreck, the attempts to salvage the ship, and about the subsequent phases of some of the things that were salvaged. In addition to this, certain auction lists and Clara Bille's doctoral theses De tempel der kunst of het kabinet van den heer Braamcamp (Amsterdam 1961) tell us roughly what the works of art in Vrouw Maria's cargo were.

Since 2007 Russia and Finland are talking about the possibilities of excavating the wreck and retrieving the valuable Russian Cargo. The Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands was appointed to share their expertise on this matter.

Objectives
The aims of the project were:
- To produce new information about the ship, its cargo and the underwater landscape, etc. and to interpret and present this information (Finnish Maritime archaeologists)
- To increase accessibility of the wreck, e.g. by means of a virtual simulation, a blog and an exhibition publication. A seminar open to the public was held in 2012
- To produce information for managing the wreck, including evaluating the need for a Natura impact assessment, in situ protection, questions about the conditions of the wreck and the monitoring of any changes.

Results
1. The fieldwork carried out on ‘Vrouw Maria’ produced new information about the ship itself, its cargo and the landscape of the wreck site.
2. The accessibility of the information on the wreck was increased through a blog, Facebook, the Vrouw Maria virtual simulation, 3D scanning of objects raised from the wreck site, the exhibition “Lost at sea- the story of the Vrouw Maria and St. Mikael and the publication “lost at sea, Rediscovered’
3. The project also produced new information about the conservation and management of ‘Vrouw Maria’.
4. No results came from the negotiation between Finland and Russia on whether to excavate or preserve in situ. In 2015, three years after the project, this is still under discussion.