''Mars'', also known as ''Makalös'' ("peerless; astounding"), traditionally referred to as ''Jutehataren'' (" The Jute Hater"), was a Swedish

warship A warship or combatant ship is a naval ship that is used for naval warfare. Usually they belong to the navy branch of the armed forces of a nation, though they have also been operated by individuals, cooperatives and corporations. As well as b ...

that was built between 1561 and 1563. She was the leading ship of King Eric XIV of Sweden's fleet and one of the largest warships of the time. In 1564, during the

Northern Seven Years' War The Northern Seven Years' War (also known as the ''Nordic Seven Years' War'', the ''First Northern War,'' the ''Seven Years' War of the North'' or the ''Seven Years War in Scandinavia'') was fought between the Kingdom of Sweden (1523–1611), K ...

, she caught fire and exploded during the First battle of Öland in the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by the countries of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and the North European Plain, North and Central European Plain regions. It is the ...

Background

Eric XIV of Sweden succeeded Gustav Vasa in 1560. He needed to consolidate the still-disputed independence of Sweden that had been achieved by his father, but was ambitious to build upon that. A strong navy could give Sweden the opportunity to tax foreign ships, so helping the economy. The keel of ''Mars'' was laid in 1561 and she was complete by the autumn of 1563, by which time the

had broken out. ''Mars'' was built during a time when both ship construction methods and naval tactics were undergoing change and development. Carvel construction had arrived in northern European waters during the previous century, but this was not a single-step process and techniques were still being developed, as the archaeology of the wreck of ''Mars'' shows. The naval tactics of the time were moving from a focus on boarding to greater emphasis on stand-off gunnery to defeat the enemy. Again, this was a slow transition, ultimately producing the line of battle that became standard from . At the time that Mars was built, the major maritime power of Europe (the Dutch) favoured close-range

melee A melee ( or ) is a confused hand-to-hand combat, hand-to-hand fight among several people. The English term ''melee'' originated circa 1648 from the French word ' (), derived from the Old French ''mesler'', from which '':wikt:medley, medley'' and ...

actions, with individual ships picking an opponent of roughly their own size.

Battle of Öland: sinking

The First battle of Öland took place over two days, starting on the 30th May 1564. The first day went well for the Swedish fleet. They sank one Lübeckian ship and badly damaged the Danish flagship ''Fortuna''. Both sides withdrew for the night to rest after the action, but when they re-engaged in the morning, the Swedish fleet had become dispersed due to bad weather overnight. Without the close support of the rest of the fleet, ''Mars'' was attacked by several enemy ships and some incendiaries set her alight. Admiral Jacob Bagge, the Swedish commander, ordered her colours to be struck. ''Mars'' was boarded by some 300 Lübeckianseager to claim their share of the prize, but the fire reached the magazine and she blew up in a massive explosion. Eye-witnesses described the foremast being projected into the air "like a cross-bow bolt". She sank very quickly.

Wreck

The wreck of ''Mars'' settled to the sea bed at a depth of north-east of Öland. At this depth and with the exact location unknown, the highly valuable bronze guns were out of reach of any historic salvage attempt. After the explosion, the ship's hull was broken into three main pieces at the surface and these sank to the bottom independently. With the forward part of the hull mostly destroyed, these major fragments were the port side, the starboard side and the lower part of the hull. The wreck site was located by the company Ocean Discovery in 2011 after a long-term search with sidescan sonar. It was clear that the wreck of a large wooden vessel had been found, with many cast bronze cannon. The initial archaeological investigation was carried out by a collaboration of the Maritime Archaeological Research Institute (MARIS) at Södertörn University, MMT (a company that carries out marine surveys, mostly for the oil and gas industry), Ocean Discovery (the company that located the site) and the TV production company Deep Sea Productions. The depth required divers to used mixed gas and rebreather techniques. As well as extensive visits by divers, some of the archaeological investigation was carried out by photography from ROVs, with multibeam sonars and a bottom-based acoustic scanning technique (called " Blueview").

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