Thea href="https://www.kalmarnyckel.org/dy.asp?p=9" target="_blank" Kalmar Nyckel /aunderway on the Chesapeake Bay.br/The original emKalmar Nyckel /emwas one of Americarsquo;s pioneering colonial ships, a emMayflower/em of the Delaware Valley, yet her remarkable story has never been widely told.br/ br/ The original emKalmar Nyckel/em served as Governor Peter Minuitrsquo;s flagship for the 1638 expedition that founded the colony of New Sweden, establishing the first permanent European settlement in the Delaware Valley, Fort Christina, in present-day Wilmington, Delaware. She would make a total of four roundtrip crossings of the Atlantic, more than any other documented ship of the American colonial era.