Vasa

Vasa, 17th-century Swedish vessel, the mightiest warship of its day, that sank on its maiden voyage on August 10, 1628, with about 30 of 150 persons aboard drowning. It was raised to the surface in 1961 and is now one of Stockholm’s most famous attractions.

Construction, maiden voyage, and sinking

While the Thirty Years’ War was raging in Europe, King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden realized he needed a stronger naval presence if he were to retain his dominance in the Baltic. In 1625 he ordered four warships, two large and two medium-sized, to be built. The 226-foot- (69-meter-) long Vasa, with two gun decks, 64 bronze cannons, and a 450-man crew, was to be a mighty vessel; each broadside was capable of hurling some 550 pounds (250 kg) of shot, which was twice as much as the most powerful European ships of its day.

But the project became fraught with problems: The king was pressing for quick delivery, yet he kept interfering with the plans, demanding constant modifications; a shortage of money mid-project led to more delays; and the head of the project, Dutch shipwright Henrik Hybertsson, became ill in 1626 and had to hand over the project to his assistant Hein Jakobsson. Dutch shipwrights built ships without drawings and relied on their previous experience, so Jakobsson had difficulty completing the project after Hybertsson’s death in 1627. Carpenters from both Sweden and the Netherlands worked on the ship; however, the Swedish and Dutch foot differed by 0.63 inch (16 mm), leading to asymmetries in the ship. A stability trial of 30 men running back and forth across the deck had to be stopped because of fears the ship would sink.

After many delays Vasa was ready for its maiden voyage on a calm day with a light breeze. After sailing only 3,700 feet (1,130 meters), the sail suddenly billowed, and Vasa heeled violently to port. The ship righted itself, but at the next gust the ship leaned even further, and water poured into the open gun ports. Vasa then toppled sideways and quickly sank about 390 feet (120 meters) from land in full view of a crowd of thousands.

Gustavus Adolphus was incandescent with rage. The ship’s captain, Söfring Hansson, was immediately arrested, while the shipbuilders and the crew blamed each other. It soon became clear that it was the actual construction at fault. However, there was nobody who could be blamed for the faulty construction: The original contractor, Hybertsson, was dead, and there was the politically unpalatable fact that the king himself had personally overseen every measurement.

Modern analyses by naval architects and engineers have determined that the ship’s very design caused the disaster. After the ship was raised, calculations proved that Vasa was so unstable it would have keeled over even in a light breeze of four knots. It was top-heavy to accommodate an untenable concentration of heavy cannons on two gun decks, weighed down further by the massive sculptures on the prow with which warships of the period were customarily decorated. The ship was simply too high above the water relative to the relatively small keel size below. Even so, the ship might have survived had not Hansson kept the gun ports open, and this became a key point in the prosecution against him.

Access for the whole family!

Bundle Britannica Premium and Kids for the ultimate resource destination.

Subscribe

Raising and salvage

From 1663 to 1665 diving bells were used to salvage most of Vasa’s cannons. Beginning in 1954, naval engineer and maritime history enthusiast Anders Franzén searched for the wreck. He knew that the shipworm, a mollusk whose larvae eat wooden wrecks, was not found in the Baltic and thus Vasa was likely well-preserved. On August 25, 1956, his homemade coring device brought up a piece of wood. About 65 feet (20 meters) away, the coring device brought up another piece of wood. In September divers confirmed that the cores came from a wreck, and the only known wreck in that area was Vasa.

Franzén mobilized private and public support to raise Vasa. From 1957 to 1959 divers dug tunnels under the ship through which they passed steel cables that were then attached at each end to a pontoon. The pontoons were pumped full of water, and the cables were tightened. On August 20, 1959, the water was pumped out of the pontoons, and Vasa was pulled free of the seabed. The ship was moved to shallower water by stages, and divers worked for 18 months to prepare Vasa to be raised.

Vasa emerged from the waters of Stockholm harbor on April 24, 1961. Archaeologists excavated the mud-filled interior of the ship, which was sprayed with water to prevent it from drying out and cracking. The ship was placed on a pontoon and in November was moved into a temporary museum. From 1962 to 1979 Vasa was continuously sprayed with polyethylene glycol, which replaced the water in the wood to lend it internal support. Over the next nine years, the ship was then slowly dried out by lowering the humidity in the museum. In 1988 Vasa was moved to its permanent home.

The Vasa ship is now on display at the Vasamuseet (Vasa Museum) on Djurgården island in central Stockholm, alongside museums devoted to Viking culture and the Swedish pop group ABBA. It is one of the country’s foremost tourist attractions.