You can use console commands and get them back if you fly down the bottom of the ocean. Though that might be considered cheating.

If you're under attack from a serpent or otherwise have the chance, get to the mast of the ship before the boat breaks and you'll collect the nails and hide if you have inventory space. Of course you'll be left floating in the middle of the ocean yourself soon to die. but your gravestone floats.

Any cargo in your boat, whether ores or what-have-you will be left floating in a crate where the ship went down, so mark it on the map to return to pick it up if you don't have a death marker there.

Originally posted by Sokaku:

If you're under attack from a serpent or otherwise have the chance, get to the mast of the ship before the boat breaks and you'll collect the nails and hide if you have inventory space. Of course you'll be left floating in the middle of the ocean yourself soon to die. but your gravestone floats.

Any cargo in your boat, whether ores or what-have-you will be left floating in a crate where the ship went down, so mark it on the map to return to pick it up if you don't have a death marker there.

Makes sense, thanks! Except that some of my cargo definitely disappeared...can the cargo crates be blown up?

Originally posted by a.mcbob:

Originally posted by Sokaku:

If you're under attack from a serpent or otherwise have the chance, get to the mast of the ship before the boat breaks and you'll collect the nails and hide if you have inventory space. Of course you'll be left floating in the middle of the ocean yourself soon to die. but your gravestone floats.

Any cargo in your boat, whether ores or what-have-you will be left floating in a crate where the ship went down, so mark it on the map to return to pick it up if you don't have a death marker there.

Makes sense, thanks! Except that some of my cargo definitely disappeared...can the cargo crates be blown up?

Were you playing solo or co-op? Solo theres no chance the serpent would have trashed the cargo as it depspawns temporarily when your character respawns out of render range. In co-op it could be destroyed if there was at least one player alive in it's render range that maybe got to safety and watched the serpent eat some escargot. =P

I’m sorry for your loss

To the bottom of the ocean.

Originally posted by Suzaku:

To the bottom of the ocean.

Really? I've always got them back, before. Also, I just realized some of my cargo is missing after all. Is it possible for that to sink, as well?

Originally posted by a.mcbob:

Originally posted by Suzaku:

To the bottom of the ocean.

Really? I've always got them back, before. Also, I just realized some of my cargo is missing after all. Is it possible for that to sink, as well?

Yes.. anything that is heavy sinks.. it's terrible. You may have gotten them back before because the water was more shallow.

Ugh. Great.

Thanks for letting me know, at least.

Originally posted by a.mcbob:

Ugh. Great.

Thanks for letting me know, at least.

Just an FYI there is a mod.. Valheim Plus that has a lot of QOL improvements in it.. one of which is "everything floats". Just figured I'd let ya know.

gotta find the king of the zoras and buy them back

Your manual pick up range is longer then the automatic pick up range, if you know where your ship got destroyed you might still be able to recover the nails if you move your cursor around that spot

If close enough to ground, could make a diving platform as well.

This is one of those harsh realizations you acquire in the game at some point. You realize everything heavy sinks and so from then on out you actively beach and dock your ship in areas you know you'll be able to recover the materials if your ship is destroyed. I remember getting stranded when I first learned this lol. Mistlands makes the fear real again because of the lack of beaches across 90% of the biome. All it takes is sailing into that one interesting looking cove only to find out that it had an infested mine and about 6 seekers flying at your boat to lose everything.

Originally posted by a.mcbob:

My longship, with a cart onboard, got destroyed. I think I got everything else back, but I can't find the iron or bronze nails anywhere. Did something change to keep them from dropping? I'm rather short on iron at the moment, so 100 iron nails is an annoying loss.

They sunk, since made out of Metal. RIP nails