Centuries-Old Sailing Vessels Found Near Russian Island in the Baltic (VIDEO)

Underwater explorers from Russia discovered several shipwrecks dating back to the 18th – 19th centuries as well as a World War II vessel in the Baltic Sea

The discovery was made by specialists from the Underwater Research Center of the Russian Geographical Society during their expedition of the waters surrounding Gogland, a Russian island located in the Gulf of Finland in the eastern Baltic Sea.

"We are happy to share our results: of the nine areas around the island, we have already examined five and found several sunken ships: two vessels belonging to the Petrine era [1682 —1725, the years of reign of Peter the Great] and one ship of the World War II times, as well as four other object, which we are currently identifying," the organization reported on its official website.

In addition, a group of underwater archaeologists conducted a full inspection of the Russian frigate Oleg, which sank in 1869. Divers reached the officers' cabin and a well-preserved ship church. Now, Underwater Research Center specialists are developing a technique for recovering its religious artifacts.

Another group of researchers conducted a sonar survey of the waters near the islands of Gogland and Bolshoi Tyuters to find warships and vessels lost in the end of August 1941 during the Soviet evacuation of Tallinn [a Soviet operation to evacuate Baltic Fleet ships, Red Army units and pro-Soviet civilians during the German invasion; over 12,000 were killed and 62 vessels sunk after striking mines and due to heavy German shelling and aerial bombardment].

Experts examined the sunken World War II tugboat they found and detected four more ‘seafloor anomalies,' which will be identified in the nearest future. After they finish search and identification of the discoveries, divers plan to continue their work on the preservation of cultural heritage objects surrounding the island of Gogland.