The ''Swiks'' (or ''Swix'') was a three-masted

schooner A schooner () is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than the mainmast. A common variant, the topsail schoon ...

from

Åland Åland ( fi, Ahvenanmaa: ; ; ) is an Federacy, autonomous and Demilitarized zone, demilitarised region of Finland since 1920 by a decision of the League of Nations. It is the smallest region of Finland by area and population, with a size of 1 ...

that sank in the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from ...

, off the island of

Öland Öland (, ; ; sometimes written ''Øland'' in other Scandinavian languages, and often ''Oland'' internationally; la, Oelandia) is the second-largest Swedish island and the smallest of the traditional provinces of Sweden. Öland has an area ...

, Sweden, on 21 December 1926.

History

''Swiks'' was built in Upesgriva (between Ventspils and

Riga Riga (; lv, Rīga , liv, Rīgõ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the Ba ...

; see

Mērsrags Mērsrags (german: Markgrafen) is a small harbor town in Talsi Municipality in the Courland region of Latvia, located on the west coast of the Gulf of Riga, beside Lake Engure and surrounded by extensive woodlands. The total area of the former M ...

), Latvia in 1902, by K. Karkle for Indrik S. Puhlin from Riga. Puhlins nickname was "''Svikis''" ("super durable"); hence probably the ship's name. Puhlin operated the ship until 1912, when it was taken over by a partnership with J.E. Johansson as the principal owner and after 1916 with J.M. Andersson; she was based in

Vårdö Vårdö is an island municipality of Åland, an autonomous territory of Finland. The municipality has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The population density is of land. The municipality is unilingually Swedish. ...

. She was then sold to Arthur Lundqvist in 1924.

Characteristics

She was made from pine and oak fastened with galvanized iron bolts, and measured in length with a beam of . She had a net tonnage of 227 tons and the payload of 135 ''virke''.

Wreck

The ship, with a crew of seven, was sailing from

Flensburg Flensburg (; Danish, Low Saxon: ''Flensborg''; North Frisian: ''Flansborj''; South Jutlandic: ''Flensborre'') is an independent town (''kreisfreie Stadt'') in the north of the German state of Schleswig-Holstein. Flensburg is the centre of the ...

, Germany to her homeport,

Mariehamn Mariehamn ( , ; fi, Maarianhamina ; la, Portus Mariae) is the capital city, capital of Åland, an autonomous territory under Finland, Finnish sovereignty. Mariehamn is the seat of the Government of Åland, Government and Parliament of Åland, ...

, with only ballast on board. A snowstorm forced the ship to try to round north of Öland, to seek shelter in

Kalmar Kalmar (, , ) is a city in the southeast of Sweden, situated by the Baltic Sea. It had 36,392 inhabitants in 2010 and is the seat of Kalmar Municipality. It is also the capital of Kalmar County, which comprises 12 municipalities with a total of ...

, but the rounding attempt failed and the ship got stuck in the sand dunes below the water (Änggärdsudden) near the beach of

Trollskogen Trollskogen ("enchanted forest" or "troll's forest") is a windswept, grazed pine forest and nature reserve in the northeast corner of the Baltic Sea, Baltic island Öland, Sweden (Böda socken, Borgholm Municipality). The forest is on a promontor ...

. The crew abandoned ship and got to land in a lifeboat, walking through the forest of Trollskogen before reaching Grankullavik, where they were cared for a week. One crew member had gotten blood poisoning from a rusty nail and was cared for in hospital. The wreck of the ''Swiks'' lay off the beach until a winter storm in the 1950s threw her up on the beach, where she broke in two. Some farmers from Böda bought it hoping to be able to salvage the wood and iron, but this proved too costly. In 1977 one of the sides was still intact.

References

External links

Photo of men aboard ''Swiks''
in collection of

Maritime Museum (Stockholm) The Maritime Museum ( sv, Sjöhistoriska museet) in Stockholm, Sweden is a museum for naval history, merchant shipping and shipbuilding. Located in the Gärdet section of the inner-city district Östermalm, the museum offers a panoramic view of the ...

{{1926 shipwrecks 1902 ships Ships built in Russia Tall ships of Finland Merchant ships of Finland Transport in Åland Maritime incidents in 1926 Shipwrecks in the Baltic Sea Shipwrecks of Sweden