Bremen cog
Marker: recorded wreck position (Date not recorded).
Key facts
| Name | Bremen cog | Wikidata label |
|---|---|---|
| Ship type | cog, preserved watercraft | Wikidata P31 instance of |
| Operator | Hanseatic League | Wikidata P137 operator |
| Nearest coast | Germany | Natural Earth (public domain) |
| Position | 53.5399, 8.5771 | Wikidata P625 coordinate location (CC0) |
About the wreck
The Bremen cog is a well-preserved wreck of a cog dated to 1380, found in 1962 in Bremen. Today, it is displayed at the German Maritime Museum in Bremerhaven as one of the main features. Three nearly identical replicas of this cog have been built: Ubena von Bremen, Hansekogge, and Roland von Bremen.
Diving & visiting
On 8 October 1962, wooden fragments of a ship were found in the Weser River during dredging operations. They turned out to be remnants of a cog that seems to have sunk during a storm flood after drifting away from a shipyard before completion. Until then, cogs had mostly been known from medieval documents and seals; there was only one earlier find in the Noordoostpolder (the Netherlands). Based on the dendrochronological analysis of the oak timber from which the cog was built, the ship was dated to about 1380 AD.
The large parts were measured, registered, and stored in water basins in a pier shed in Bremen to prevent the wood from drying and shrinking. A further search with the aid of a diving bell ship in 1965 retrieved more than 2,000 additional parts, which also were stored. It was decided to exhibit it in the planned German Maritime Museum in Bremerhaven. In 1972, the Koggehalle had been completed and the parts were reassembled under constant sprinkling. Almost the complete starboard side and a third of the port side could be reconstructed. The construction then was encased in a tank to be impregnated in polyethylene glycol for 18 years.
Location
- Recorded position: 53.5399, 8.5771 (Wikidata P625 coordinate location (CC0); may be approximate)
- Nearest coast: Germany
Wreck positions on this site are for interest only and are not for navigation. Many wrecks are war graves or legally protected: never disturb human remains or remove artefacts, and check local law before diving.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Bremen cog (revision 1327487449), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section and section(s) “The discovery”, “Salvage and reconstruction”; condensed by selecting paragraphs; citations and formatting removed. No text added. This excerpt is available under the same licence.
Wreck facts from Wikidata (CC0).
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