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Gribshunden or Griffen (English language: "Griffin-Hound" or "Griffin"), also known by several variant names including Gribshund, Gripshunden, Gripshund, Griff, and Griffone, was a Denmark warship, the flagship of Hans (John), King of Denmark (r. 1481–1513).Lars Einarsson and Björn Wallbom, "FORTSATTA MARINARKEOLOGISKA UNDERSÖKNINGAR av ett fartygsvrak beläget vid St. Ekö Ronneby kommun, Blekinge län (Kalmar läns museum UV/marinarkeologi 2002)Johan Rönnby, Niklas Eriksson, Ingvar Sjöblom, Joakim Holmlund, Mikael Björk. (2015) Blekinge Museum Rapport 2015:21 Gribshunden (1495) Skeppsvrak vid Stora Ekön, Ronneby, Blekinge Marinarkeologisk undersökning 2013–2015 (MARIS Södertörns högskola/Blekinge museum) Gribshunden sank in 1495 after an explosion while in the Baltic Sea off the coast of Ronneby in southeastern Sweden; the ship is one of the best-preserved shipwreck yet discovered from the late medieval period.
The ship was used frequently by Hans during its ten-year lifespan. Archival documents show the king sailed on the ship to Norway in 1486 and 1490, and to Gotland in 1487. He sent the vessel to England with a delegation to negotiate with Henry VII. In summer 1495, on the ship's final voyage, Hans set sail from Copenhagen for Kalmar, Sweden, for a summit with the Swedish Council. Accompanying Hans was a fleet carrying the Danish and Norwegian Councils, consisting of the high nobility and senior clergymen, and their retinues. This diplomatic effort was necessary because the Swedish leader, Sten Sture the Elder, resisted Hans' efforts to bring Sweden back into the Kalmar Union. As the premier ship of the Danish fleet, Gribshunden and the people and material it carried were symbols of military, economic, cultural, and social power. The vessel was an important aspect of Hans' strategy to convince the Swedes to re-unify with Denmark and Norway.
According to historical accounts, Gribshunden suffered an explosion, burned, and sank at anchor in the natural harbor near the town of Ronneby, Sweden in June 1495 while en route to Kalmar. These accounts include the nearly contemporaneous Swedish language Sturekrönikan ( The Sture Chronicle) and two later German language sources: Reimar Koch's Lübeck Chronicle and Caspar Weinreich's Danzig Chronicle. Hans himself was ashore at the time of the loss and escaped physical injury. However, teenage expedition member Tyge Krabbe remembered twenty years after the event that some of the supposed 150 people on board died in the calamity. Krabbe's account, like the others, must be read critically and not accepted as objective truth. For instance, Krabbe's memory placed the shipwreck in 1494, not 1495; and archaeological investigations have revealed no evidence of fire on the ship. Hans and the fleet continued to Kalmar after the loss of the flagship, but Sten Sture delayed his arrival in Kalmar throughout the summer, finally appearing in August only after Hans and the Danish-Norwegian delegation had departed. The Kalmar Union was re-established more than two years later, after Hans' army defeated Sten Sture's forces at the 1497 Battle of Rotebro.
In the 1970s, the local diving club discovered the wreck at a depth of , in the Baltic Sea north of Stora Ekön, an island in the Blekinge archipelago off the coast of Ronneby, Sweden. In 2000 the regional authority in Blekinge county learned that the wreck could be a medieval warship, and mandated archaeological investigations. From 2001 until 2012 archaeologist Lars Einarsson of the Kalmar County Museum conducted a series of activities at the site. In 2002, Swedish naval historian Ingvar Sjöblom tentatively identified the ship as Gribshunden. Subsequent dendrochronology analysis of the ship's showed that they came from felled in the Ardennes forest along the River Meuse watershed in the winter of 1482–1483, confirming a late medieval date for the wreck.
Archaeological and historical research indicates Gribshunden was purpose-built as a warship, an example of the first generation of vessels designed to carry gunpowder weapons. The combination of artillery and ships specifically intended to carry these weapons was an essential enabling technology for European domination of the globe after 1492. Gribshunden represents a fusion of Northern European clinker or lapstrake shipbuilding practices with Mediterranean and southern European flush-planked traditions; atop the carvel-built hull is a lightly constructed superstructure of lapstrake planks on frames. Gribshunden is the oldest carvel hull found in Nordic countries waters, and marks the transition to the adoption of much larger ships after the late medieval period. Surveys of the wreck indicate the ship had a keel length of 25.5 m (93.5 ft) and an estimated overall ship length of , with a maximum beam of approximately .Brendan Foley, Rapport 2022:11 Gribshunden Forskningsundersökning av skeppsvrak vid Stora Ekön, RAÄ Ronneby 728 Marinarkeologisk undersökning, 2021Mikael Björk and Brendan Foley, "Rapport 2023:4 Gribshunden Marinarkeologisk forskningsundersökning av skeppsvrak vid Stora Ekön L1978:2168/ RAÄ Ronneby 728 (Blekinge Museum, 2022). Gribshunden perhaps was designed similarly to the vessels used on voyages of exploration in the late 15th and early 16th centuries, and therefore archaeological investigation of this site may provide insights into the ships commanded by Christopher Columbus, Vasco da Gama, and others.
Gribshunden's artillery marks an early phase of guns at sea, consisting entirely of light anti-personnel guns not intended for sinking ships. In the decades that followed, larger and more powerful guns came into use on warships such as Mary Rose, the flagship of Henry VIII. Unlike Mary Rose, Gribshunden never engaged in combat actions during its long career, but its crew did fire the artillery. In 2021 archaeologists discovered the oldest known linstock in the excavation trench, which held the burning fuse used to ignite the artillery's powder charge. Charring on the linstock indicates it had been in use by a gunner.
The 2021 excavation revealed remains of eight , dozens of crossbow bolts, and one handgonne (early handheld firearm). These finds join the crossbow and handgonne stock recovered in 2019, and several crossbow bolts recovered in 2006 and 2019.Brendan Foley, "Gribshunden Forskningsundersökning av skeppsvrak vid Stora Ekön, RAÄ Ronneby 728 Rapport 2022:11 Marinarkeologisk undersökning, 2021, Blekinge MuseumLars Einarsson and Matthew Gainsford (2007). Rapport om 2006 års marinarkeologiska undersökningar av Skeppsvraket vid St. Ekö Saxemara, Ronneby kommun – Blekinge län (Kalmar Läns Museum Marinarkeologisk rapport)
High status artifacts include a purse of silver coins, two extraordinary identical pressure-printed works of art on birch bark, a tankard milled from alder wood and emblazoned with a crown-like symbol, fine leather shoes, and exotic spices and foodstuffs including clove, ginger, saffron, pepper, and almonds.
A of the American science show NOVA profiles the 2019 underwater archeological investigation of Gribshunden.
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