Standalone short: the East Indiaman Götheborg, home after 30 months, wrecked 900 metres from anchor right by Nya Älvsborg in 1745 — and the 'dead water' mystery. Leif + Margareta.
Thirty months at sea. China and back. And then, nine hundred metres from her own anchorage — in sight of home — the richest ship in Sweden simply ran onto the rocks and sank. Right here, beside Nya Älvsborg.
The 12th of September, 1745. The East Indiaman Götheborg, homeward with a fortune in tea and porcelain, struck the Hunnebådan reef just west of the fortress and went down. The weather was mild, the wind fair, and an experienced pilot stood on her deck. It should not have happened.
So what sank her? The best guess is something sailors fear and rarely see: dead water. A hidden layer of river-fresh water lying over the salt, that can grip a hull and drag it off course. That flood-year, the Göta älv was pouring out hard. The blamed pilot was rowed, that very day, to a cell in Nya Älvsborg.
The wreck lay forgotten until 1984, when divers found her again — and from that dig grew the full-size sailing replica that took the Götheborg back to China in our own time. Through it all, the fortress has stood watch over the spot where she went down.