Argo

Aligrundet Pietarsaari

The wreck is presumably a schooner called the Argo from Lillesand, Norway. The ship hit a rock in a north-west storm at Gammalgrundet on 19 October 1869 and sank in ten minutes near Högpaskarn. The wreck has thereafter drifted away from where it sank and broken up into parts. The ship was carrying tar and pitch from Oulu to Bremen in Germany. Tar and parts of tar barrels have been found in the area of the sinking. The Argo’s Captain Anders Kristensen and the entire crew were rescued and safely reached the Mässkär pilot station.

The diving club Bothnia Navalis organised a diving camp in the area in July 1989, aiming to explore and draw parts of the wreck. The list of their finds from the wreck includes parts of the wreck, a water pump, nails, a grindstone, parts of a telescope, a clay pipe, and fragments of glass and porcelain. There may still be some remnants of the sailing boat off the coast of Pietarsaari, near the island of Aligrundet.