The Vasa - a 17th Century Swedish Warship

First of all, apologies for the lack of posts during these summer months! Between graduation, family visits and sorting out stuff for the coming year there is a distinct lack of free time at the moment, but it shall get better!

Last Saturday (10^th August) it was exactly 385 years since the sinking of the Swedish warship ‘Vasa’. The Vasa has always been one of my personal favourite historical ships; the ship didn’t have a long history, as it sank on its maiden voyage after travelling only 1300 m from the harbour in 1628, but she has provided us with some amazing insights into the life in 17^th Sweden as some of the artefacts recovered from the ship as well as the ship herself were in very good condition.

The sinking of the Vasa. Source: http://www.vasamuseet.se/en/The-Ship/The-sinking/

The building of the Vasa began in 1626 on the orders from the Swedish king himself. Gustaf II Adolf, the King of Sweden at the time, was fighting several wars and was in the need of more warships. The Vasa was built to amaze everyone who saw her, and with 64 guns and a crew of 450 men she truly was a powerful war machine, built to turn the wars into Sweden’s favour. She was also a very beautiful ship with many carved ornaments and sculptures, painted in colourful colours.

Overview of the construction the Vasa. Source: http://lovingstockholm.wordpress.com/tag/visit-vasa/

Unfortunately, the shipwrights had been a bit over ambitious when building the ship, which doomed her to sink on her maiden voyage. On 10^th August 1628 the Vasa set sail from the Stockholm harbour. Many had come down to watch the ship proudly sail out of the harbour, and many of the crew had brought their families onboard for the first length of the journey. As soon as the ship had sailed out of the lee of the port, sails were raised to allow the wind to carry her for the rest of the journey. Suddenly when the wind got hold of the ship, the Vasa started heeling to the portside and the water started rushing in through the lower gunports that had been left open after firing the salute when leaving port. As the situation was hopeless the crew abandoned the ship, clinging onto the masts or other debris that was floating on the surface, waiting to be rescued. It is thought that around 30 people out the 150 people onboard at the time of the sinking were killed in the event.

After the sinking of the Vasa, an inquest was carried out to determine why the ship sank and whose fault it may have been. From eyewitness accounts it could be determined that the ship sank due to instability in the construction. The day before the ship was due to set sail, Vice Admiral Klas Fleming had carried out an exercise to test the stability of the ship, where 30 men would run across the deck and back ten times causing the ship to heel to either side. However, this exercise had to be stopped after the third time as the ship was in the risk of heeling over. The Swedish King also held part of the blame as he had approved the dimensions of the ship prior to the start of construction. Naturally the master shipwright, Henrik Hybertson, would carry some of the blame as he, although being an experienced shipwright, had carried out the building of the ship. Finally, the blame could have been laid on the captain of the Vasa, Captain Söfring Hansson, as he was aware of the instability in the construction and should have closed the lower gunports and also redistributed the weight of the ship or even suggested to reconstruct the Vasa prior to its maiden voyage.

On the 25^th August 1956, Anders Franzen rediscovered the ship’s location after the information of the location of the ship had been lost through time. This was the start of a major project that on this date is still ongoing. On the 24^th April 1961, the hull of the ship broke the surface in front of the world media after 333 years on the bottom of the sea. The major conservation project of preserving the ship and the artefacts started soon after. Nothing of its like had ever been done before, so a lot of the work carried out were experiments with unknown consequences. The ship was sprayed with polyethylene glycol (PEG), which functions as a replacement of the water in the wood, creating a wax-like surface that preserves the wood in its original shape. Same technology was used during the preservation work of King Henry VIII’s warship the Mary Rose.

The remains of the Vasa, as currently displayed in the Vasa Museum, Stockholm, Sweden. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasa_(ship)

95% of the original wood from the hull of the Vasa has been successfully preserved. In addition, ca. 45 000 other finds have been preserved and archived. The collection of finds can be found in an internet database that has been made available to the general public.

The Vasa Museum. Source: http://www.photoglobe.info/blhl_stockholm/stockholm_20050724_004.html. 

More information about this magnificent ship can be found on the Vasa Museum’s website: http://www.vasamuseet.se/en/. If you happen to be in Stockholm (Sweden), or will be going for a visit, I really hope you plan to visit the Vasa Museum in the future. I visited the museum in 2011 and was absolutely blown away by their amazing exhibits and of course the ship herself. I really can’t recommend this museum enough!

L

Source: http://www.vasamuseet.se/en/The-Ship/