A naval ship has been found in southern Sweden some 400 years after it went missing, Swedish Television reported on Wednesday.

The Blekinge naval ship was the first to set sail from the Karlskrona naval base in southern Sweden in 1,682 and is considered to have marked the launch of Karlskrona's famed shipbuilding history.

With its 70 canons and 450-strong crew, Blekinge was used in the bombing of Copenhagen and King Karl the Twelfth's landing in Denmark in 1,700. Later, the ship fell into oblivion.

Last year, the Blekinge county in southern Sweden got hold of old maps of Karlskrona where the ship was clearly marked out.

Diving expeditions were carried out and it was confirmed that an old shipwreck was indeed buried in thick layers of sediment at the bottom of the sea.

Now, all evidence seem to point to it being the Blekinge warship and it seems it was deliberately sunk, with the intention of using it as a blockhouse.

The ship will likely not be salvaged, however.

"We don't quite know how much remains of the ship, but there is a theory that one deck is intact, " said marine biologist Petra Strakendal.

source: Xinhua