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Now, those paintings rested at the bottom of the Baltic Sea. “As these pictures are very sensitive to injury and need care,” Panin wrote, he was sending an officer, Major Thier, to co-ordinate a search with the Swedes. “I do not doubt that you will do your utmost as this matter concerns her Majesty the Empress personally,” Panin told the Swedish royal chancellor.

Thier’s trip to Finland was in vain. Winter was fast approaching, and little could be done. The Swedes sent a number of expeditions out to the archipelago to search for the wreck. Boats towed grappling irons to try and snag the hulk, but the vast area and deep seas made it an impossible task. An obstruction at 30 fathoms was repeatedly snagged by searchers, but it proved to be a rock. The Swedes and Russians abandoned their efforts to find Vrouw Maria, and the ship, despite the rumors of riches aboard, was in time forgotten.

VROUW MARIA AND A PRECIOUS CARGO

We’re anchored above a small wooden shipwreck that Finnish researchers believe is Vrouw Maria. The story of the tiny Dutch ship with her secret cargo of precious paintings resurfaced in 1982, when Christian Ahlstro m, Finland’s leading shipwreck researcher and historian, discovered the tale while working through Swedish diplomatic records. Ahlstro m spent years meticulously reconstructing the tale of Vouw Maria, and his discoveries encouraged diver and researcher Rauno Koivusaari to start searching for the wreck in 1998. In June 1999, while towing a side-scan sonar behind his ship Teredo, Koivusaari finally located the intact wreck of a small wooden ship near Jurmo Island.

Under Finnish law, all such finds are the property of the state. Koivusaari reported the discovery to the Maritime Museum of Finland, which acts on behalf of the National Board of Antiquities. The museum conducted a two-week survey of the exterior of the wreck in the summer of 2000. Lying in a deep hole surrounded by rocks, the wreck was missing its rudder and the deck hatches were open. Reaching inside the main cargo hatch, archeologists carefully recovered three clay tobacco pipes, a metal ingot and small round lead seal. A clay bottle lying on the deck was also mapped and recovered.

Back in the laboratory of the maritime museum, analysis of the artifacts showed the researchers that they were on the right track. The pipes were Dutch, and one of them had a maker’s mark that indicated the pipe was made by Jan Souffreau of Gouda, Holland, whose factory was in business from 1732 to 1782. The ingot was zinc, and Vrouw Maria was known to have been carrying nearly forty “ship pounds” of that metal. The lead seal, probably from twine that wrapped a bale of cloth, was marked “Leyden,” from the Dutch town of the same name. The clay bottle, no older than the 1760s, held mineral water from the German town of Trier.

But more work was needed. The museum assembled a team under the direction of senior curator and archeologist Saalamaria Tikkanen, who invited The Sea Hunters to participate in the first detailed look both inside and outside the wreck.

We’re aboard the research vessel Teredo, heading for the site of the wreck of Vrouw Maria with an expert team of Finns who are volunteering their time, and archeologists Matias Laitenen and Minna Koivikko. I’m here with The Sea Hunters to join the expedition and to film the work of the Finnish team as part of our television series. We’re all excited by the uniqueness of the wreck of Vrouw Maria and her story, and by the fact that, despite its importance, the story is not well known outside Scandinavia. That’s about to change. Our producer and team leader, John Davis, helps Mike Fletcher suit up for his dive. Mike’s son Warren and my daughter Beth both haul gear and work to prepare for Mike’s 140-foot plunge into darkness. We rig Mike’s helmet, lights and underwater video camera.

As we watch a small color monitor on Teredo’s bridge, it’s almost as though we’re there when Mike jumps off the ship and