Russarön luoteispuolen hylky

Drop on the operator's line into green Baltic water that resolves the standing mizzenmast first — a tilted timber pointing back toward the surface from a 29-30 metre seabed. The line carries you down past the mast to a roughly 22-metre carvel-built hull with its bow heading northwest. Move along the high port side and the dive's signature comes into view: five anchors arranged around the wreck, two flanking the bow, one on the starboard rail, two more out in the debris field of rigging and timbers. The foremast has collapsed across the starboard deck and the bow timber is broken; the gunwale is largely intact.

The Bartels 2023 dating is the headline. In 2023, Dutch ceramicist Michiel Bartels analysed photographs of three vessels lifted from the wreck in 2010 — a porcelain teacup, an English mug and a Chinese teapot — and narrowed the sinking window to 1760-1775, decades before Finland separated from Sweden. That refinement makes this the Russarö-area wreck with the strongest identity: a recognisable two-masted merchant of the late Sweden-era Baltic trade. Brackish Baltic salinity, around 5-7 ppt, has no shipworm, which is why a 1760s wooden hull and standing mizzenmast still read as a ship 250 years on.

This dive lives or dies on two regulatory layers. First, the explicit Defence Forces dive permit from the Gulf of Finland Maritime Defence Area — stricter than other Hanko wrecks and arranged by the operator before the trip. Second, the rolling Russarö firing notice on maavoimat.fi, which can close the dive on the morning. Antiquities Act compliance is categorical: no entry into the open hull, no touching, no recovery. Drysuit certification with a tested undersuit is the binding skill at 29-30 m in 5-12 °C bottom temperatures; EAN32 extends NDL meaningfully. Carry compass, primary SMB and torch; deploy the SMB on ascent because the navigation channel south of the wreck adds surface boat traffic. Plan it as its own day, not as a third tank after Hauensuoli or the north-side barge.