Behind the Song: Wreck of the Adriatic

Some songs arrive quietly, like a wave slipping over the shore — soft, haunting, inevitable. That’s exactly how Wreck of the Adriatic came to life.

It started with a headline that caught my eye: “18th-century shipwreck found near Dubrovnik.” I couldn’t help but click. They’d uncovered the remains of a wooden merchant ship, hidden just three feet below the waves off the Croatian coast — forgotten for centuries until a modern construction project stirred the sands.

There was something eerily beautiful about it. A vessel that once carried trade goods, sailors' songs, and the ambitions of a bygone world — lost to the tides, only to whisper back to us centuries later.

That story stuck with me. I picked up my acoustic guitar, set the tempo low at 85 BPM, and let the melody drift in — delicate, mournful, a little ghostly. I wanted the song to feel like you were walking along the Adriatic shore, hearing the echoes of that forgotten ship beneath the waves.

I layered in soft percussion and a fiddle line that weeps like the wind through Dubrovnik’s old harbor. The vocals? I kept them ethereal, almost distant — as if the sea itself were singing.

The lyrics tell the tale:

"Beneath the waves, where shadows sleep,
A wooden ghost lies cold and deep…"

It’s part history, part folklore — imagining the sailors, the silk, the salt air… and the silence that swallowed them whole.

Recording this one felt different. It wasn’t just another track — it was like building a small tribute to lives lost, stories forgotten, and how the sea never really gives up its secrets.

Wreck of the Adriatic is out now — a quiet indie folk song for dreamers, history lovers, and anyone who's ever stared at the ocean and wondered what sleeps beneath.

🎶 Listen here: https://tinyurl.com/WreckoftheAdriatic

Thanks for letting me share this little musical ghost story with you.

— Adam Sweet