A new exhibit coming to Wilmington brings a sunken ship back to life to tell of how it met its demise.
The Battle of Buchan Ness is a new installment at the Copeland Maritime Center that details how the original Kalmar Nyckel was sunk in 1652 during battle.
The Battle of Buchan Ness was the first official engagement of the First Anglo-Dutch War, a conflict concerned with fishing rights, global trading empires and control of the seas around the British Isles.
The original Kalmar Nyckel fought for the Dutch against an English fleet off the coast of Scotland on July 22, 1652. After an impressive career under the Swedish flag, the ship was serving the Dutch and protecting the valuable herring fleet when she was sunk by the English, according to Sam Heed, senior historian and director of education at the Kalmar Nyckel Foundation.
The ship first launched in Amsterdam in 1627 and ended its career that mid-summer day with the same people who had built it, according to Sea History, a publication of the National Maritime Historical Society.
The remains of the sunken ship lie somewhere in the North Sea off the east coast of Scotland, near Buchan Ness, according to Heed.
The permanent exhibit opens Saturday, April 1, from noon to 4 p.m. Interpretive guides and face painting will be offered, as well as hands-on fun including cannon loading, sail handling, scavenger hunts and LEGO ship building.
Limited tours of the Kalmar Nyckel ship will be offered from 1 to 2:30 p.m.
The exhibit also will feature a newly commissioned oil painting of the battle that sank the ship by renowned marine artist Patrick O’Brien, who was chosen in an international search.
Kalmar Nyckel, The Tall Ship of Delaware, is a full-scale replica of the flagship from the 1638 expedition that founded the colony of new Sweden. Since 1997, it has served as a floating classroom that offers a variety of recreational and educational experiences on sea and on land.
Free admission and parking. Kalmar Nyckel Foundation, 1124 East 7th St., Wilmington;www.kalmarnyckel.org/
