Course of duty:

Solen is seventeenth century wooden Swedish warship - galleon, built for the Royal Swedish Navy. Solen was bought by the Swedes in the Netherlands, then rebuilt into a warship and armed in Alvsborgu.

During the Polish-Swedish war Solen attending in Swedish forces blocking the Gulf of Gdansk. The captain of the ship was Alexander Foratt. Solen also participated in the Battle of Oliwa in 28 November 1627. Then the ship was mistakenly taken for the flagship and it was attacked by the Polish smaller galleon Wodnik. During the unarmed combat and the shelling of small arms, among others died Captain Foratt. When the battle taken unexpected turn for the Swedes, the Swedish skipper blew up Solen. The ship sunk, but the 46 crew members survived.

The history of finding the wreck:

In 20 October 1969, while work on the construction of the North Port of Gdansk, workers found a sailing ship wreck, which was identified with high probability as the "Solen" and marked as W-6. The part of the groundswell survived, but it is devoid of the bow. The wreck lay at a depth of 16 meters, at distance of 3 nautical miles on northeast of the entrance to the port of Gdansk, in position 54°28' north latitude and 18°42' east longitude. During the pioneering in Poland exploration work, Solen was taken up by the Central Maritime Museum in Gdansk.

In 1969 the eleven cannon barrels was brought out from the wreck, from which eight were cast in Sweden (with the Waza’s coat of arms), two were Polish and one Russian. Over the next year more than 6 000 items were recovered. Divers found nine cannons, cannonballs, ceramics, coins and many others utilitarian things. Because the wreck lay at the entrance to the port, on 10 September 1980 Solen was moved to another location in the region of Gdynia Orłowo. Exhibits taken from the Solen are in the Central Maritime Museum in Gdansk.

Dimensions:

Weight: 300 t

Drive:

Sailing ship, galleon

Armament:

38 cannons.

Depth:

Minimum depth of the wreck: 13 m

Depth at the bottom: 16 m