Dive into the abyss at the new VRAK Museum, Stockholm's shipwreck museum

The seabed has always fascinated people. We are afraid of what is unknown to us, and the ocean is only mysteries. What is behind this surface, these inaccessible and dreamlike depths? The abyss crystallizes a fantasy, a thirst for curiosity. It is an extraordinary playground for scientists, a conquest marked by unforeseen events, major discoveries and innovative techniques. This journey into the depths is now offered by the Vrak Museet, a new national museum on the island of Djurgården, inaugurated by the Swedish king Carl XVI Gustaf on September 23, 2021.

Entirely devoted to the maritime wrecks of the Baltic Sea, this new kind of digital cultural place offers visitors an immersive exploration thanks to new technologies: ubiquitous screens, a subtle mix of sound and light, virtual reality headsets, holograms. Let's explore the remains and treasures that lie at the bottom of the Baltic Sea, and the many boats that it has tragically swallowed up over the centuries.

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Immersion in the depths of the Baltic Sea

Up to 20,000 wrecks are said to lie in the bottom of the Baltic Sea, whose brackish water and low salinity allow ships to be well preserved. An archaeological treasure that the Baltic reveals to us in person, this sea calls out to us at the entrance of this new museum located a stone's throw from the famous Vasa Museum exhibiting the royal ship that ran aground in 1628. Through a film that gives chills from the start from the exhibition, this cold and hostile sea addresses the visitors solemnly with a bewitching voice. In a welcome message, the sea recounts the wars and conflicts, borders, trade and cultural exchanges that have shaped Scandinavia. We are at the mercy of the storms, the fury of the waves, the violent howling winds, the gigantic waves which break and strive with all their power on the hulls of the ships. In a permanent ambivalence as a source of life and death, it presents itself as one of the best preserved marine cemeteries in the world.

The journey to the abyss begins. This cinematic experience is immersive, submersive, and irresistibly draws us to the depths.

In search of mythical wrecks

We enter the first exhibition hall dedicated to the Baltic Sea and to the wreck of the "Resande Man" which ran aground in the Stockholm archipelago during a storm in November 1660. In a virtual setting of disturbing realism, we evolve at the bottom of the sea. The atmosphere is dark. Paradoxically, the abyss frightens and attracts us. Our minds are ready for this underwater adventure. Also ready to find there unusual vestiges that could arise from these dark depths. At sea, anything is possible and nothing surprises. The tone is set.

In this space, no real remains saved from the waters of the Baltic are exposed. The shipwrecks are evoked thanks to 3D reproductions of the wrecks, striking documentaries or even holograms protected by showcases. The museum's desire is to present this heritage without exhibiting maritime wrecks in order to favor their conservation by leaving them in their original environment.

On the same shipwreck site, at the bottom of the Baltic Sea, the first wreck we discover is the "Resande Man", a small warship that went to Poland for an important diplomatic mission in the 17^th century. Half of the people on board died in the dramatic sinking described by one of the survivors, Secretary Andreas Bjugg. His story chills my spine. This wreck was only found in 2012, just 50 meters deep.

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The memory of the shipwrecks that mourned Scandinavia

In a setting that replaces the spectacular with sobriety, the second floor of the museum opens onto six wrecks with tragic fates and takes us intimately behind the scenes of the shipwrecks: authentic various facts, sometimes elucidated, sublimated by a chronology of events before dramas and a realistic interpretation of stormy operations.

Among these remains, the village of Tybrind Vig dating from the Bronze Age lies at the end of a bay on the Danish coast engulfed by water. A real treasure for underwater archaeologists since there are relics dating sometimes from prehistoric times!

The merchant ship the DARSS is the second wreck diving presented, dating from the 14^th century. This protected wreck continues to reveal its secrets about life in the Middle Ages aboard a ship that plied the sea for the trading towns of Germany. The case of SOLEN is also poignant, this ship actively participated in the embargo of Danzig in Poland in 1627. Stormed by the enemy, it was sunk by its own captain and forgotten for 300 years. The VROUW MARIA, this Dutch ship which traveled the world also had a sad destiny on a stormy evening of 1771 on the way to St Petersburg. Then the story of the U479 is evoked: this German submarine mysteriously disappeared in the golf of Finland without leaving any traces. The story of the last ship is particularly poignant: it recounts the sinking of the Estonia ferry, sunk in 1994, swallowing up 852 victims with it. Photos, archival documents, personal effects found as well as videos tell about these navigation accidents by showing the incredible state of conservation of these wrecks. Silence is required, the emotion is palpable.

Putting faces on survivors of the sinking of the Estonia, disturbing emotions

A new perspective on maritime archeology

The last section of the museum plunges us into a great scientific adventure. To find these wrecks and carry out the necessary expertise, excavations and research mobilize teams of enthusiasts, scientific knowledge and multiple techniques. From survey to wire to 3D models, a look back at more than a century of techniques and discoveries by archaeologists-divers! An augmented virtual reality headset makes it possible to explore certain reconstructed wrecks. The exhibition also contains the game “Your Maritime Archeological Assignment” in which we take on the role of a maritime archaeologist.

To conclude, it is advisable to devote a few hours to the visit of this rather surprising museum by the power of the immersion that it offers to the visitors. The world of the abyss of the Baltic Sea, long inaccessible, becomes a fascinating journey through time to discover a rich maritime heritage.

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