Historical archaeology may be characterized by an intricate relationship between, written sources and material remains. In research focusing on wrecks, this often results in descriptions of the events associated with one particular ship. These are narratives written from a historical horizon, where written sources provide the explanation to material remains. The aim of this paper is to show that a combination of material remains and written sources may be used as a departure point for a discussion on social conditions on board merchant ships in a more general sense.

The case used is the fluit Anna Maria, launched in 1694 and which foundered in Dalarö harbour in 1709. The site is ideal for such a study, as it has been surveyed archaeologically on several occasions since the 1960s at the latest in all of 2010, and partly because historical research into the written accounts have been made. Taken together the material gathered enables a unique opportunity to reconstruct and to study the everyday environment on board a large fluitship.