On November 24, 1944, a tragedy occurred that shook both Gotland and Sweden. The passenger ship S/S Hansa was torpedoed off the coast of Gotland by a Soviet submarine and sank within a minute. Only two of the 86 people on board survived. The exhibition S/S Hansa – Memory of a Shipwreck highlights the people and the ship from a dark chapter in Swedish history.
The wreck of the Gotland ferry S/S Hansa still rests 100 meters below the surface of the Baltic Sea. But the memories of the disaster—when the ship was split in two by a Soviet torpedo—remain very much alive.
It was the morning of November 24, 1944, just before six o’clock.
The 86 passengers and crew had just over two and a half hours left of their nine-hour journey between Nynäshamn and Visby. It was foggy, dark, and cold with rough seas. Some had chosen not to travel, something that ultimately saved their lives. Perhaps a few passengers had already woken in their cabins. Others may have been unable to sleep because of the heavy seas, and several crew members were already at work.
When the ship was about 40 kilometers off the Gotland coast, near Stenkyrkehuk, the ship’s clock stopped at 05:57. The Gotland ferry had been struck by a Soviet torpedo. Within a minute, the ship sank to the bottom.
Men, women, and children fought for their lives in the freezing water, but only two of the 86 people on board survived.
Captain Arne Mohlin and Officer Arne Thuresson were discovered on a life raft nearly eight hours later in a chaos of wreckage. They tried to stay warm with oilcloth coats, acid blankets and by eating what was in the life raft's emergency box. That same evening at 7:00 PM, the minesweeper Landsort arrived in Visby with the two survivors. When the crew was asked if there were any more survivors, the answer was short: "There are no more..."
About the Exhibition
The wreck of S/S Hansa was discovered in 1988 and lies 100 meters deep in the Baltic Sea, 44 kilometers north of Visby. The loaned objects from the ship are being displayed together for the first time, making this exhibition unique and shedding new light on one of Sweden’s greatest maritime disasters in modern history.
Through stories and photographs, visitors are brought closer to those who lost their lives in the depths of the sea, the survivors, and the families left behind. The exhibition also highlights the aftermath of the disaster and the working methods of the Hansa Commission in 1940s Sweden. Parallels to present-day concerns about security in the Baltic Sea and Gotland’s strategic importance are clear.
The exhibition is based on many years of thorough research by Gotlanders Lars Almgård Kruthof and Jakob Ringbom. Both have personal connections to the Hansa disaster, and their book S/S Hansa – Memory of a Shipwreck was published in March 2024. During the work on the book, a collaboration was initiated with the VOTO foundation, Voice of the Ocean, which has been dedicated to exploring and documenting the underwater world for over 30 years.
The exhibition is a project by Gotlands Museum in collaboration with authors Jakob Ringbom and Lars Almgård Kruthof, Rederi AB Gotland, and the Voice of the Ocean Foundation, with loans from private individuals, Visby Cathedral, and the Swedish National Maritime Museum.
Exhibition design: Rymdkomposition.
Graphic design: KNAK.
Original concept: Gotlands Museum.
The exhibition has been made possible through a generous contribution from Friends of the Maritime Museum (Sjöhistoriskas Vänner).
