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Diving on the St Mikael has been conducted on several occasions over four decades. Over the years, the wreck has been measured and drawn, and more than 600 objects or parts of objects have been retrieved from it.
Museum authorities learned about the wreck found at Borstö at the end of the 1950s. The wreck was discovered by chance by local fishermen, whose net anchor line got entangled with one of the masts. Through their amazing location ability, the fishermen took note of the site of the wreck. Later, they asked navy divers who visited Borstö to inspect the site. The divers found an exceptionally intact wreck and retrieved one glass bottle from it. However, the sunken civilian vessel was not thought to be of particular interest, so the wreck continued its quiet existence for a couple of years more.
The first diving expeditions to the St Mikael, referred to as the "Borstö I" at that time, were arranged in the early 1960s. The predecessor of the Finnish National Board of Antiquities granted a research permit to Gösta Bojner, a Swedish wreck enthusiast, whose team dived to the wreck on a few summers.
Bojner and his team recovered dozens of precious items from the wreck, including the golden pocket watches and snuff boxes which earned the Borstö wreck its reputation as a treasure ship. However, most of the cargo carried on the ship consisted of ordinary articles. Later research has revealed that the ship was carrying dried fish, Turkish yarn, granulated sugar and tobacco, among other things.
The identity of the wreck was not yet known in the 1960s, but the vessel type suggested that it was Dutch. Information on the Borstö wreck spread rapidly among the few diving enthusiasts in Finland; the legend of the St Mikael was born.
The predecessor of the present Maritime Museum of Finland arranged the subsequent diving expeditions on the Borstö wreck in the early 1970s under the leadership of Chr. H. Ericsson. The objective was to study the vessel type, to date the wreck and to establish its origin. The aids used included an underwater television camera, which was modern technology in the 1970s. Depth, darkness and cold had no impact on the observations made by the camera unlike those made by divers. In many cases, divers were able to see things on the monitor in the support ship which they did not notice at all while under water.
The parallel use of camera recordings and measurement results facilitated the work of the research team greatly, but the research work still did not provide an answer as to the name of the ship or its port of departure or destination. No apparent reason for the shipwreck was established, either. It was only known that the wreck approximately 24 metres in length and 7 metres in width was a Dutch-type three-mast galliot dating from the early 18th century. The objects retrieved from the wreck had led to the conclusion that the vessel had likely sunk in the mid-18th century. The mystery of the unknown wreck was finally solved when the objects found were matched with archive information. One more expedition was still arranged at the Borstö I, since the name of the sunken ship was only discovered later at the Amsterdam central archives.
In line with an economic boom in Finland in the 1980s, plans for lifting the St Mikael through sponsored funds were drawn up. The intention was to lift the famous wreck, which had been referred to as the Vasa ship of Finland for more than 20 years, and to put it on display in a specifically-designed conservation museum in Helsinki.
In order to enable detailed lifting plans, diving expeditions were arranged on the St Mikael under the leadership of Leo Jolkkonen, who was a professional diver. Engineering consultants made strength calculations on the basis of data compiled by the divers, the wreck was studied in more detail and more objects were retrieved from it. A sailor's chest brought to the surface contained one of the most valuable items found on the St Mikael: a mariner's cross-staff made of wood, used for navigation. Only a dozen or so of such staffs have been found in wrecks globally. Horse carriage wheels, which proved to be important clues to the identity of the ship, were also lifted and taken to the laboratory of the Maritime Museum for conservation. As the economic downswing commenced, however, the lifting plans were abandoned.
The most recent field research period (1997 to 1998) was launched when the porcelain dishes brought from the wreck turned out to be valuable collector's items manufactured by the Meissen porcelain factory. In order to recover any other dishes still visible in the wreck, the Maritime Museum of Finland decided on a salvage project on the St Mikael.
The objective of the salvage project carried out in September 1997 under Curator Anna Nurmio was to locate and lift all visible valuable items and ones which could be detected without excavation; most of such items were assumed to be of Meissen porcelain. The objective was that the lifting method chosen would not bring any additional dishes into sight.
During the salvage operation, 15 Meissen objects belonging to three different services were lifted. These included dishes of the polychromatic Deutsche Blumen service with Alt-Ozier relief as well as parts of a coffee/tea service of Strohblumenmuster and so-called Böttger porcelain. The Böttger porcelain in particular brought the St Mikael international fame.
In 1998, field work was pursued during two periods through sponsorship and led by Anna Nurmio.
During the spring, when the waters were clear, an anchorage system enabling multiple point mooring for the support ships was installed on the seabed. This system is of vital importance in the protection of the St Mikael and diving safety. The diving site also served as supplementary training in naval archaeology for a course of professional divers, arranged by the Western Uusimaa Vocational Adult Education Centre. The anchor weight system was designed by Ville Koskela, professional navigating officer who has also been trained as a professional diver.
In the autumn, the waters again became clearer, and the team returned to the St Mikael to launch the condition monitoring system and to lift the remaining visible porcelain dishes. As a result of some 1 ½ weeks of work, an amazing sample of the finest Meissen porcelain was added to the collections of the Maritime Museum of Finland. More than 100 objects were retrieved on this occasion, including parts of various coffee and banquet services and skilfully fabricated figurines, used as decoration in festive settings.
As a result of the field work carried out, a condition monitoring system based on fixed measuring points was established for the St Mikael, providing data on the inclination of the masts and on deformations in the hull. In the future, condition monitoring of the St Mikael is the most important issue so that this exceptionally intact wreck can be preserved.
The wreck of the St Mikael was discovered off the island of Borstö in the 1950s, but it remained unidentified for almost two decades. As a result of persistent research work, Doctor Christian Ahlström identified the vessel by compiling archive data from several countries and matching this with the objects found in the wreck. To solve the mystery, Doctor Ahlström conducted extensive research work both in Finland and abroad in countries such as Sweden, Denmark, Holland and France.
Doctor Ahlström's work was like looking for a needle in a haystack. Since the Borstö I was thought to be a Dutch ship, it was assumed that it must have passed the Danish Straits and hence also the customs point at the Sound. Customs records indicated that approximately 5,000 vessels passed the Sound annually in the mid-18th century, half of which were en route to the east. There was no certainty about the year of sinking, and if the margin was for instance plus/minus 5 years, i.e. between 1745 and 1755, some 25,000 ships would have sailed to the east through the Danish Straits.
An auction record from 1748 discovered in Turku facilitated the dating. The record referred to merchandise originating from a shipwreck which had occurred in the outer archipelago at Nauvo a year before. The year perfectly matched the golden watches and snuff boxes found in the Borstö I, since the manufacturing years marked on these were 1745 to 1747.
However, all that glitters is not gold. In this particular case, a horse carriage finally solved the riddle. In January 1971, Doctor Ahlström came across a letter in Copenhagen, granting exemption from customs duties to a two-wheel horse carriage referred to as a carriole, packed in three crates. The carriole was exempt from customs duties, because it had been sent to St Petersburg to the court of Elisabeth Petrovna (1709-1762), Empress of Russia. In those days, no customs duties were levied on royal private property.
The records in Copenhagen also revealed the name of the captain of the ship carrying the carriage: Carl Pouls Amiel. Captain Amiel appears to have been Dutch but his ship was Russian. This was contrary to expectations but not very surprising. In the 18th century, Russia resorted to European expertise also in the development of its merchant fleet. Doctor Ahlström's research further disclosed that Captain Amiel had arrived in Amsterdam from St Petersburg in July 1747 on a vessel called the St Mikael. In the autumn, he intended to return to St Petersburg. In mid-October, the St Mikael is known to have been at the Sound, from where its voyage continued towards the southern coast of Finland and the final destination. However, the St Mikael never got beyond Borstö.
© Anna Nurmio-Lahdenmäki 2000