Sunken ships in the Baltic sea

In 2002, a group of Russian archaeologists launched a project called Secrets of Sunken Ships (Russian version: Тайны затонувших кораблей). They write:

Today our aim is the search, exploration, fixation and state registration of the whole complex of the objects reflecting the history of Northern Europe for minimum 1,400 years. But it is possible that in course of the operations and appearance of more and more discoveries our investigations will turn into the largest exposition and research project in the sphere of history which is capable of providing the scientists and society with a huge volume of new information.

Now, the web-site features a brief review of the history of Russian presence on the Baltic Sea, description of the programs of the project, catalogue and map of identified objects (buildings, necropoles, stone labyrinthes, bombs, tanks, airplanes and, of course, ships and boats). Russian version has also a video-archive, list of national and international laws on the underwater explorations, list of known and still not rescued treasures and some other sections which will eventually appear in the English version, too.

In this year, the expedition of the project found 9 ships in the Gulf of Finland. Among the most interesting finds are a Dutch XVIII century cargo ship, a Finnish patrol ship, sunken in 1944 and, the best of all, Russian 20 cannon sloop-of-war Svir', sistership of the famous Mirny, a ship of the famous expedition of Bellinsgauzen and Lazarev, the discoverers of the Antarctica. Svir' sank in autumn 1824, when she went home from topographical works in the Gulf of Finland. Sudden storm threw the ship onto the stones. The crew was rescued, but what happened to the ship remained unknown until this year.