Scientists from the National Museum of Denmark just announced that two 18th-century wrecks off the coastline of Central America were confirmed to be slaves boats.
According to Fox News, the bones of the two boats, known as the Fridericus Quartus , and , Christianus Quintus, have been located under off the coastline of the Cahuita National Park in Costa Rica for more than 300 times. The outlet noted that the two boats were believed to have been pirate boats prior to a recent breakthrough.
Fox News reported that David John Gregory, an scientist with the National Museum of Denmark, told the outlet that the boats are now believed to have been carrying between 600 and 700 American slaves and about 100 staff people when the boats sank.
” When the boats were abandoned on the beach of present-day Costa Rica, almost all of the oppressed were released on the forested coast except for about 20 citizens, who were forced onsite smaller vessels heading for the local Spanish city of Portobello”, Gregory said. ” ]Fridericus Quartus ] was  , set on fire , by its crew, while the other, Christianus Quintus, was set free from its moorings and soon after stranded on the coast”.
The National Museum of Denmark announced last month that new information regarding the Fridericus Quartus , and , Christianus Quintus had been revealed by “scientific assessments from an underground construction in 2023, when marine scientists from the National Museum of Denmark and the Viking Ship Museum took examples of timber from one of the wreckage and from the tiles that were part of the goods more than 300 times ago”.
READ MORE: Pics: Surprising WWII shipwreck finds revealed
Gregory told Fox News that the excavation was “minimal” and that his team surveyed approximately 21 square feet around one of the ships to “obtain samples of the ship’s timber”.
According to the National Museum of Denmark, archaeologists have been able to use dendrochronological technology to determine that the wood from the ships was from the 17th century.
The National Museum of Denmark explained,” The timbers originate in the western part of the Baltic Sea, an area that encompasses the northeastern German province of Mecklenburg, as well as Schleswig-Holstein, Denmark and Scania — and that the tree was cut down sometime during the years 1690-1695″.
The museum added that the” charred and sooty” wood confirmed historical sources that claimed one of the ships had been” set ablaze”.
” The analyses are very convincing and we no longer have any doubts that these are the wrecks of the two Danish slave ships”, Gregory said. ” The bricks are Danish and the same goes for the timbers, which are additionally charred and sooty from a fire. This fits perfectly with the historical accounts stating that one of the ships burnt”.
Pictures of the remains of the two Danish slave ships have been shared on X, formerly Twitter.
� � Archaeologist uncovers chilling secrets of wrecked slave ships off Costa Rica. David John Gregory reveals new findings on Fridericus Quartus &, Christianus Quintus, 2 Danish slave ships lost centuries ago. The vessels, stranded on coast, carried enslaved Africans on brutal… pic. twitter.com/h1IIyBoENf— GoodMorningRooster ( @RoosterGM ) May 6, 2025
