The secret of a 1683 shipwreck: an exclusive shoe and rings used in the slave trade

Danish and Swedish archaeologists recovered remains of footwear and metal rings from the wreck of the Havmanden, off the coast of Gothenburg. (National Museum of Denmark) Nearly 350 years after a mutiny that left dead men, condemned men, and a ship adrift, archaeologists found a men's shoe of exceptional craftsmanship and two metal rings linked to the transatlantic trade in enslaved people among the remains of the Havmanden, a Danish ship wrecked off the coast of Gothenburg, Sweden. The discovery brings back into focus a 1683 voyage marked by violence, European colonial expansion, and the trade in human beings. Only the rear half of the sole of the footwear survives, but its details were enough to open a hypothesis: it may have belonged to Jørgen Iversen Dyppel, the first Danish governor of the Caribbean island of Saint Thomas, who died when he was thrown overboard during the rebellion. Examination of the leather sole revealed precise stitching and high-quality materials reserved for the elite of the time. The possibility is not confirmed. Researchers caution that there were other men of high standing on board. Even so, the quality of the piece offers a glimpse of a social difference that traveled even amid hunger, punishment, and the uncertainty of the open sea. The Havmanden was carrying convicts to a Danish colony in the Caribbean The Havmanden had departed from Copenhagen bound for Saint Thomas, then a colony of Denmark in the Caribbean. On board were convicts and indentured workers who were to be sent to the island to work under the auspices of the Danish West India Company. The voyage also had a planned second stage: after arriving in the Caribbean, the ship was to sail to the western coast of Africa to purchase enslaved people. That route was part of the colonial system that connected European ports, African territories, and American plantations, with enormous profits for merchants and states, and a devastating human cost. Whetstone and bricks at the site of the Havmanden shipwreck. (Edgar Wróblewski, Bohusläns Museum.) The voyage, however, broke down before reaching the middle of the Atlantic. The lack of food and water raised tensions on board. According to the historical account recorded by the National Museum of Denmark, a group of crew members and convicts took control of the frigate near the Azores and decided to change course to return toward Copenhagen. The rebellion left a trail of violence. The mutineers shot at the captain and threw several officers overboard. Among them was Dyppel, who was traveling to resume his post as governor of Saint Thomas. He died in the English Channel, while the ship ended up stranded and wrecked near the Swedish archipelago, east of Gothenburg. Those responsible for the mutiny were brought to trial when they managed to reach Copenhagen and received death sentences. The episode is considered one of the most violent mutinies in Danish maritime history. During a series of dives carried out in 2026, maritime archaeologists from the NJORD center of the National Museum of Denmark, together with specialists from the Bohusläns Museum in Sweden, inspected the wreck of the Havmanden. There appeared the fragment of a leather sole that, at first glance, could have passed for a minor object among the remains of a shipwreck. Vivi Lena Andersen, director of the Rudersdal Museums and specialist in historical footwear, stated that it was an expensive and exclusive shoe. Subsequent examination changed that impression. Vivi Lena Andersen, director of the Rudersdal Museums and specialist in historical footwear, noted that the small holes located along the edge of the sole are very even and arranged with precision. That work required fine tools and the hand of a highly skilled shoemaker. The leather, moreover, is of superior quality. For Andersen, it was "an expensive and exclusive shoe that only the elite could afford to buy," according to the statement released by the Danish museum. That conclusion raised the question of the owner. Dyppel was one of the passengers who fit that social profile. However, the identification cannot be taken for granted: the object was found in a shipwreck that suffered looting and disturbances over the centuries, and other high-ranking passengers could have worn similar footwear. One hypothesis is that the footwear may have belonged to Jørgen Iversen Dyppel, the first Danish governor of the Caribbean island of Saint Thomas, who died when he was thrown overboard during the rebellion. Andreas Kallmeyer Bloch, a maritime archaeologist at the National Museum of Denmark, pointed out that the find offers a concrete way to approach a historical process of enormous scale. The leather fragment connects the personal trajectory of a colonial official with the creation of the Danish colonies in the Caribbean and with the country's participation in the slave trade. The shoe was not the only object that caught the archaeologists' attention. The divers also recovered two manillas, metal rings that European merchants used as a means of payment in parts of West Africa during the transatlantic trade. The recovery of two metal manillas showed that the ship carried the means of payment to acquire enslaved people in West Africa. Made of copper, brass, or iron, manillas circulated especially in areas of present-day Nigeria. European merchants exchanged them for people captured and reduced to slavery. Their appearance in a Scandinavian wreck is unusual and reinforces the Havmanden's link to that trade circuit. The objects found do not prove that the ship ever arrived to purchase enslaved people: its voyage was interrupted before completing the planned itinerary. But they do show that the vessel was prepared to take part in that operation. The Danish colonial project in the Caribbean depended on a network that included the forced transport of Africans, in addition to the shipment of convicts and European workers to the islands. In the museum's statement, Bloch argued that the manillas "underscore the connection to the slave trade," an activity central to the Danish possessions in the West Indies and on the African coast. Made of copper, brass, or iron, manillas circulated especially in areas of present-day Nigeria. Denmark maintained its participation in the transatlantic slave trade for more than a century after the wreck of the Havmanden. King Christian VII banned that trade in 1792, although slavery continued in the Danish West Indies until 1848, when a rebellion by enslaved people led to their liberation. The archaeological campaign included dendrochronological analyses, a technique that allows wood to be dated through the study of tree growth rings. The results indicate that the trees used to build the vessel were felled around 1664 or shortly thereafter. The specialists also determined that the wood came from an area located between northern Germany and southern Jutland. The data helps reconstruct the material origin of a ship that, less than two decades after its construction, became trapped in a story of mutiny, colonial exploitation, and shipwreck. To preserve what still remains on the seabed, the archaeologists covered part of the remains with geotextile. The material seeks to reduce erosion and protect the traces that still lie underwater, where a leather sole and two metal rings preserved, for centuries, the memory of a voyage that never reached its destination. Photos: National Museum of Denmark