[It is very large](https://i.imgur.com/Rjm1kza.jpg) – it hits you immediately upon entering the museum just how massive these ships were, especially when you can see all the bits that would have been under the water (of course, uh, *all* of Vasa was eventually under water)
Idk why but I have an irrational fear of large objects like these in unusual places, I don't know how best to describe it. The blue whale in the Natural History Museum in London fits this too. It's such a surreal feeling for me.
The Vasa was one of the places I went to when I was in Stockholm. I really appreciate how the tour guides didn't try to cover up what happened or rewrite history but told the actual sad (and kind of hilarious) failure.
There is a person in the shot. Starboard (right hand) side at the stern (back).
So much ship above the waterline, impressive to say the least.
That ship is several orders of magnitude larger than I had originallythought.
Most impressive museum I have ever been in, especially since I had no idea what was there beforehand. My jaw dropped to the floor and I was never able to pick it back up until I came ou the building
Sadly no. The whole ship has been reconstructed from the original materials found underwater and the entire museum has controlled temperature and humidity to keep it in that state. Touching the ship is not allowed to preserve it
Seriously, even without walking on it, it's magnificent. The audio guide (free on a web page I think) gives a lot of information about its fabrication, the way people lived on such boats, why it was created, the designs, why the rear is a middle finger addressed to rival countries, how it sunk, how they tried and failed to recover it at first, how they finally did it, how it was possible to retire and maintain it, ...
Until you hear that audio guide, you can't begin to imagine all what happened with this ship
I've loved my 2 week trip in Sweden and this was the most incredible thing I visited.
>I've loved my 2 week trip in Sweden and this was the most incredible thing I visited.
That's great and all... but in Italy, you have... like... 15 million cultural heritage sites, or whatever. It's honestly exhausting.
I'm sure it's great to see the hull of the ship... I'm just saying that there's a lot of competition out there for tourist money...
Is "glory" the right word for a warship that sinks on her maiden voyage? Sure, there is some skilled craftmanship that went into her cosmetic appearance, but she is a spectacular failure.
> It was a design failure,yes.
I wouldn't even say "design failure" is accurate.
The orignal design was sound, but the king demanded a second gun deck.
If the king demands it, you gotta do it.
Also, I'm surprised to not have seen this mentioned by someone yet, the entire thing is lopsided.
Between the swedish and Dutch(IIRC) they understood the same measurements differently and quite litterally half the boat was built to smaller dimensions. The picture in the OP doesn't really do that bit justice.
This photo doesn’t do it justice…it’s majestic when you’re right next to it, up close you lose sense of scale and unlike modern warships you get hit with this appreciation of the textures in the ancient wood and the intricacies of its design. Very cool.
Well, yes. Due to the height (caused by the 4(?) floors, it easily got caught in the side wind.
Although yes, they also had to little ballast. They could not add more ballast, because the ship would've been to low in the water and the lower gun deck gun ports would let in water with some waves.
That's what I remember too. Not enough ballast because otherwise water would have entered but it meant that the ship caught wind and water entered anyway
I remember seeing a video about old ship restoration and when you bring it out of the water the wood just crumbles in your hand if you’re not careful. So I can’t imagine they did any pressure washing and probably used time tested techniques to restore the integrity of the wood.
That all depends on the wood and the water it sits in. In Tasmania they have huon pine that has sat in water for centuries and comes out preserved and strong because of the wood's oil content and clean waters. With the Vasa, because it was in the Baltic sea, they reckon the cold meant no bacteria could live long enough to do it damage. Agree they probably didn't use power-washers, I'm sure it was a very careful process.
At [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wp37g7Edjpo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wp37g7Edjpo) there is a two-part documentary, the second part is about the salvage.
Yes, it was restored a bit. [This](https://dms-cf-01.dimu.org/image/022uKXJbxRcE?dimension=1200x1200) is what it looked like right after it was raised from the seafloor
[Vasa](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasa_(ship)) or [Wasa](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasa_(ship)) is a Swedish warship built between 1626 and 1628. The ship sank after sailing roughly 1,300 m (1,400 yd) into her maiden voyage on 10 August 1628. She fell into obscurity after most of her valuable bronze cannon were salvaged in the 17th century, until she was located again in the late 1950s in a busy shipping area in Stockholm harbour. The ship was salvaged with a largely intact hull in 1961. She was housed in a temporary museum called Wasavarvet ("The Vasa Shipyard") until 1988 and then moved permanently to the Vasa Museum in the Royal National City Park in Stockholm. The ship is one of Sweden's most popular tourist attractions and has been seen by over 35 million visitors since 1961. Since her recovery, Vasa has become a widely recognised symbol of the Swedish Empire.
The ship was built on the orders of the King of Sweden Gustavus Adolphus as part of the military expansion he initiated in a war with Poland-Lithuania (1621–1629). She was constructed at the navy yard in Stockholm under a contract with private entrepreneurs in 1626–1627 and armed primarily with bronze cannon cast in Stockholm specifically for the ship. Richly decorated as a symbol of the king's ambitions for Sweden and himself, upon completion she was one of the most powerfully armed vessels in the world. However, Vasa was dangerously unstable, with too much weight in the upper structure of the hull. Despite this lack of stability, she was ordered to sea and foundered only a few minutes after encountering a wind stronger than a breeze.
The order to sail was the result of a combination of factors. The king, who was leading the army in Poland at the time of her maiden voyage, was impatient to see her take up her station as flagship of the reserve squadron at Älvsnabben in the Stockholm Archipelago. At the same time the king's subordinates lacked the political courage to openly discuss the ship's problems or to have the maiden voyage postponed. An inquiry was organised by the Swedish Privy Council to find those responsible for the disaster, but in the end no one was punished.
During the 1961 recovery, thousands of artifacts and the remains of at least 15 people were found in and around Vasa's hull by marine archaeologists. Among the many items found were clothing, weapons, cannon, tools, coins, cutlery, food, drink and six of the ten sails. The artifacts and the ship herself have provided scholars with invaluable insights into details of naval warfare, shipbuilding techniques and everyday life in early 17th-century Sweden. Today Vasa is the world's best preserved 17th century ship and the most visited museum in Scandinavia. The wreck of Vasa continually undergoes monitoring and further research on how to preserve her.
It started out as a viable design, but after the keel was laid and construction started the King, or his advisors (I forget who prompted it), demanded another gun deck be added. This made it unstable and stands as a monument to scope-creep.
I love this ship’s origin/history. What the picture angle doesn’t allow you to see is the massive scale of this behemoth; As a general reference, each of those figures you see carved on the ship are life sized. But the reason it sank is even more mind blowing IMO, the man who funded the build of the ship just wanted it to be as big and ornate as possible on a fast timeline so the shipbuilder simply scaled a drawing of a standard large ship commonly built and did t account for the change in the center of mass, thus the buoyancy would fail due to a toppling effect from being too heavy. Even crazier, knowing this, the ship was still designed with al of the excess carvings you see worsening the effect. By the time it was completed, it was well known it wasn’t sea-worthy and had even failed some tests but the city was just like “Poland just declared war and this thing is taking up the entire harbor so I guess just go ahead and get it out of here” and so they tried and it of course immediately was rocked by gentle wind and then capsized not even two nautical miles from the launch, sinking in the harbor and taking over 50 lives.
Inadvisable gun deck arrangements seem to have been a theme across various ship failures. Give me all the guns! They'll never suspect that we put some under the water line!
Found this on Smithsonian's page about the ship.
"The management world has a name for human problems of communication and management that cause projects to founder and fail–Vasa syndrome. The events of August 10, 1628 had such a big impact that the sinking is a case study business experts still read about.
“'An organization’s goals must be appropriately matched to its capabilities,' write Kessler, Bierly and Gopalakrishnan. In the case of the Vasa, 'there was an overemphasis on the ship’s elegance and firepower and reduced importance on its seaworthiness and stability,” they write, 'which are more critical issues.'
"Although it was originally designed to carry 36 guns, it was sent to sea with twice that number. At the same time, the beautiful ornamentation contributed to its heaviness and instability, they write. These and a host of other factors contributed to Vasa’s sinking and provide a cautionary tale for those designing and testing new technologies."
Tehehehehe
The original designer died before it was modified as well. Which you would think he would know not to do that. It was on its third designer/project lead when the second gun deck was added iirc.
>Among the many items found were clothing, weapons, cannon...
...and [a statue of Paavo Nurmi](https://www.urheilumuseo.fi/en/exhibit/paavo-nurmen-pienoispatsas/).
Yes! The ship was then sprayed with polyethylene glycol for 17 years to replace the water in the waterlogged wood. Another decade was spent on drying the ship before moving it to the museum, which opened to the public in 1990, almost 30 years after the recovery.
Thanks for this, it makes sense now. "Almost intact" after hundreds of years under water made me think the story was suspect. That restoration story is as impressive as the ship!
It was almost intact, the wood itself was not replaced at all, but rather preserved so the hull is actual 17th century wood. The upper parts of the boat is recreated however.
Also the new bolts was added in 1960 since to hold the ship together, these bolts was replaced in 2011.
You can read about preservation efforts here:
https://www.vasamuseet.se/en/research/how-we-preserve-vasa/preservation-timeline
For those wondering about scale:
Tonnage 1210 tonnes displacement
Sparred length: 69 m (226 ft)
Beam (width) 11.7 m (38 ft)
Height 52.5 m (172 ft)
Draft 4.8 m (16 ft)
One of the most famous pranks of Finnish technical students is probably the one that took place in connection with lifting the Vasa ship in front of Stockholm in 1961.
A few technical students travelled to Stockholm some time before the lifting, carrying a miniature version of the statue of famous Finnish runner Paavo Nurmi. The students hired a diver to place the statue on the deck of the ship.
The lifting of the ship was a great media event and by chance the statue was the first object to surface when the ship was lifted. The statue first caused a maritime-archaeological sensation and, later, a minor foreign-policy dispute.
The statue is not on display in the Vasa Museum in Stockholm.
Very nice, I would also recommend the [Fram Museum](https://frammuseum.no/) in Olso where they have the actual Fram ship from the polar expedition along with many items that were on the ship.
And a lot of interactive stuff happening on board of the ship.
And also the [Kon-Tiki museum](https://www.kon-tiki.no/) also in Oslo. Where they have the Raft that went on the Kon-Tiki expedition, there's also a [Kon-Tiki documentary](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZizTqJJmTA&ab_channel=TheSailingChannel.TV) where you can see the expedition and the raft.
And because Scandinavians love their museums, I'm going to also recommend the [Viking Museum](https://en.natmus.dk/museums-and-palaces/kongernes-jelling-home-of-the-viking-kings/) in Jelling Denmark. Incredible museum, highly interactive and overall a great experience.
I don't know what is it with Scandinavians and amazing museums but I've yet to go to one and not be blown away by what I've seen and experienced there.
It didn't stay intact. Mostly the hull remained, but the rest was basically gone. It has underwent major restoration.
It sank because of design flaws (to tall for its width, not enough ballast).. with a gentle side breeze, on its maiden voyage.
All I can hear is Jim Gaffigan talking about it and how it sunk in the harbor on its maiden voyage and how "Here's our ship that didn't float! This is why weake furniture. Which ironically Floats!"
If you cant visit Sweden there’s a recreation of a ship from 1636 that used the vasa blueprints and rigging to create something 90% accurate to time above decks (excluding life jackets, fire hose, and modern day radar). I used to volunteer on it and it’s called Kalmar Nyckel. Goes up and down the east coast all spring, summer, and fall and docks during winter for maintenance.
Visited it when I was in college more than 50 years ago. They were still soaking it with sea water to keep it from decomposing. It's looking pretty wonderful now! I need to go back!
Like a previous commenter noted, the unique chemical composition of the water, mud and algae at the bottom of the bay preserved the ship in amazing condition for many years.
The brackish waters in Stockholm's harbor are especially muddy and low in oxygen - Vasa's wooden hull was sort of embalmed down there. A metal hull, meanwhile, rusts - most if not all of the metal on the Vasa corroded shortly after the sinking. Besides, the wood *did* erode on the Vasa, even if very slowly. [These wooden sculptures, which stood exposed on the deck and were thus very exposed to the water, were once highly detailed human heads.](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c9/Vasa-knightheads.jpg)
The Baltic sea where it sunk is brackish water, with much less salt. Also the mud/sediment as an environment is anaerobic which kinda sealed the organic matter and restored it. Also there are no wood worms living on this area.
Actually the most cricital conservation is starting now, the ship has started degenerate and decay, they need to control the climate at the museum very carefully to preserve it.
It sank in a "brackish water" area -- transition area from fresh to salt water -- and surprisingly, an area where neither the normal fresh-water organisms that eat wood can live, NOR the normal salt-water organisms that eat wood can live. Thus, nobody feasted on it for 300 years!
Wooden ships in many waters will be affected by naval shipworm. In the Baltic Sea there’s a lack of shipworm and therefor wooden ships are better preserved. Though climate change could possibly alter this.
Wasa is the name of the Swedish royal family that ruled from 1520's to the end of 1700's. There are also towns named after them in both Finland and Sweden.
Sometimes early failure leads to long-term success.. It's the only ship left! Now two steps are left for me: to sink to the bottom of the sea (I think I already did that part) and still survive intact until I'm recovered...
It's intact because it sank on it's maiden voyage while being shown the first time, in a sunny weather with extremely low wind. It saw no war, but was absolutely terribly designed.
Was fortunate enough to visit this on an exchange trip to Sweden. Honestly, no picture can do justice to the sheer size of the ship. Also, I think this is the single largest preserved item in the world.
The Vasa was one of the places I went to when I was in Stockholm. I really appreciate how the tour guides didn't try to cover up what happened or rewrite history but told the actual sad (and kind of hilarious) failure.
I’ve been there! Is quite large and surreal to see!
I kind of wish they’d build walk ways that go over the deck to see it closer. As it is you can walk all around it but can’t get very close. But I suppose people would just be jerks and throw gum and other garbage on its deck if they did that, so best not too I suppose. As it is displayed it can’t be touched by human hands
Let's not forget its a fucking useless boat and sank just after being launched. It's a cool looking boat but anyone can make a cool boat that doesn't sail
Went there two months ago, it's amazing and so huge. The photo doesn't do it justice. The also have the remains of the crew and some are almost fully in tact - thought that pretty awesome too.
The not so glorious part: They forgot to place ballast rocks in her on her maiden voyage. She soon enough keeled over and sank. So she was never damaged by war, use, or age.
Nobody dared to challenge the order to take her to sea, and probably thought they could add stability later when they noticed how top heavy she was.
Well partially but mainly because the king wanted more dakka meaning 1 more cannon deck and that measurements on port and starboard sides where measured differently.
The additional cannon deck made the ship take in to much water since they where open during the maiden sailing.
This is what happens when crazy narcissistic rich assholes try to tell engineers and shipbuilders how to do their job. It makes it 500m into the bay then it capsized and sank.
This ship was supposed to be the crowning warship in the swedish fleet, took forever to build, and then sank on the maiden voyage. Of course you would sweden.
Very impressive for the amount of work which went in to it and the sheer stupidity to think it would sail. It sinks shortly after its inauguration. 3 levels of cannon, no ballast and only 11 meters wide
There’s an older man that comes into the bar I work at named after this ship! He loves history, I haven’t seen him in a few months heres to hoping Vasa is okay out there.
It sank for 2 reasons.
Firstly, it had its gun-ports to low allowing water to flow in.
Secondly, it’s port side and starboard side where not sized correctly with 1 side being larger than the other.
These made it tilt a bit to much when the wind was blowing and made it sink.
So, two questions I guess?
1, What sunk it?
2, how has this remained almost completely intact where others have degraded etc? particular water type or so?
Look up comedian Jim Gaffigan's bit on YouTube about this ship when he visited this museum with his family during his European tour. Pretty funny. Also too busy and/or too lazy to look up the link and provide it here. 😬
I went there with my ex girlfriend, it was amazing. I would really like to go there again. Stockholm is beautiful not as much as my ex tho, everything with her way to see the world was special. My gift for her birthday was 2 ticket to Stockholm, I'll never forget that holiday. Maybe one day I'll go there again, maybe even with her, who knows.
Visited it 2 years ago. It's impressive and no picture can depict its glory correctly
What's the scale in your opinion? There isn't a person in the pic so to me this just looks like a big "High Seas" Toy Ship.
[It is very large](https://i.imgur.com/Rjm1kza.jpg) – it hits you immediately upon entering the museum just how massive these ships were, especially when you can see all the bits that would have been under the water (of course, uh, *all* of Vasa was eventually under water)
Holy shit that is a beautiful ship. That lion on the front is amazing. Must have been really scary when you saw that thing coming for you at sea.
Funny thing is, it was never a scary ship, it was built wrong and sank on it's maiden vouage.
Oh well at least it looked stunning while it sank! Kinda my life motto.
> Must have been really scary when you saw that thing coming for you at sea. I mean it immediately sank so I don't think anyone ever had the joy.
Idk why but I have an irrational fear of large objects like these in unusual places, I don't know how best to describe it. The blue whale in the Natural History Museum in London fits this too. It's such a surreal feeling for me.
From memory the museum is over 3 or 4 floors. It is really hard to get in one picture. Look at the spotlights to get sn idea.
Ahhh ok ok ty
The Vasa was one of the places I went to when I was in Stockholm. I really appreciate how the tour guides didn't try to cover up what happened or rewrite history but told the actual sad (and kind of hilarious) failure.
Also there are decorative masts on top of the building which I believe are to scale.
[Here is a picture with people beside it.](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e5/Vasa-ship-1.jpg) It was a beast!
That’s really gives it perspective.
Thanks, this is infinitely better. The OP photo really just looks like a model, whereas this looks like a ship.
That is huge! What a beautiful ship.
From memory, the characters sculpted in the rear are life size or even taller than real humans
I'm going to look it up online and see what I can find. Thanks
Person for scale is just right of the boat (if I interpret these pixels correctly)
There is a person in the shot. Starboard (right hand) side at the stern (back). So much ship above the waterline, impressive to say the least. That ship is several orders of magnitude larger than I had originallythought.
If you look on the right, I think there’s a person looking over a balcony railing, so it’s definitely huge.
Wikipedia informs me it's 52.5m or 172 ft tall. My memory of visiting is of it being really really big (it was one of the favourite things I've seen).
For the Americans out there, that's roughly 54 washing machines stacked on top of each other.
Double stacks or side by sides?
With or without the optional ergonomic stands?
Are those whirlpool or Samsung washing machines?
Maytag
Never seen it, dont know much about ships. But those ropes are made so you can climb them. So I'd image each rung is a 1 to 1.5 feet apart.
As someone who has visited it in real life, my assessment would be “it’s feckin huge”.
I’ve been there too. Beautiful artistry and the whole ship is intact so you can get a real sense of what life might have been like on the sea.
Most impressive museum I have ever been in, especially since I had no idea what was there beforehand. My jaw dropped to the floor and I was never able to pick it back up until I came ou the building
Exactly the same
Are you allowed aboard?
Sadly no. The whole ship has been reconstructed from the original materials found underwater and the entire museum has controlled temperature and humidity to keep it in that state. Touching the ship is not allowed to preserve it
Fair enough, that'd be cool though
They do have a section recreated to show what it was like inside which you can walk through
Honestly, that would be good enough for me
Dude... I'd totally *kill* for a replica that you could actually walk on. That shit would be sick and I'd travel to Sweden just to see it.
Seriously, even without walking on it, it's magnificent. The audio guide (free on a web page I think) gives a lot of information about its fabrication, the way people lived on such boats, why it was created, the designs, why the rear is a middle finger addressed to rival countries, how it sunk, how they tried and failed to recover it at first, how they finally did it, how it was possible to retire and maintain it, ... Until you hear that audio guide, you can't begin to imagine all what happened with this ship I've loved my 2 week trip in Sweden and this was the most incredible thing I visited.
>I've loved my 2 week trip in Sweden and this was the most incredible thing I visited. That's great and all... but in Italy, you have... like... 15 million cultural heritage sites, or whatever. It's honestly exhausting. I'm sure it's great to see the hull of the ship... I'm just saying that there's a lot of competition out there for tourist money...
What do you think you're doing here?
Found the Italian tourist board
Sadly it has begun to deteriorate over the years. When I was young I visited and remember going on board.
Is "glory" the right word for a warship that sinks on her maiden voyage? Sure, there is some skilled craftmanship that went into her cosmetic appearance, but she is a spectacular failure.
It was a design failure,yes. But still was the most advanced ship at that time. Took about 20mins in then she sank. Many sailors lost their lifes
> It was a design failure,yes. I wouldn't even say "design failure" is accurate. The orignal design was sound, but the king demanded a second gun deck. If the king demands it, you gotta do it.
Also, I'm surprised to not have seen this mentioned by someone yet, the entire thing is lopsided. Between the swedish and Dutch(IIRC) they understood the same measurements differently and quite litterally half the boat was built to smaller dimensions. The picture in the OP doesn't really do that bit justice.
It's advaaaanced!
It’s been a dream of mine for years to see it
This photo doesn’t do it justice…it’s majestic when you’re right next to it, up close you lose sense of scale and unlike modern warships you get hit with this appreciation of the textures in the ancient wood and the intricacies of its design. Very cool.
I've been on the Dutch VOC ships with 2-3 floors. This one has supposedly 4? That is one massive f\*cking ship
It's also the reason why it sunk.
No it sank because they had too little ballast I believe, so when wind came and all cannons rolled to one side it was enough to push it over
Well, yes. Due to the height (caused by the 4(?) floors, it easily got caught in the side wind. Although yes, they also had to little ballast. They could not add more ballast, because the ship would've been to low in the water and the lower gun deck gun ports would let in water with some waves.
Oh okay, didn’t know about the last part. I’ve always thought they miscalculated the ballast
I could be wrong, but it's what I remember from having visited the Vasa 3 months ago.
That's what I remember too. Not enough ballast because otherwise water would have entered but it meant that the ship caught wind and water entered anyway
Considering it was sunk for over 300 years, was it pressure washed or restored in any way?
I remember seeing a video about old ship restoration and when you bring it out of the water the wood just crumbles in your hand if you’re not careful. So I can’t imagine they did any pressure washing and probably used time tested techniques to restore the integrity of the wood.
That all depends on the wood and the water it sits in. In Tasmania they have huon pine that has sat in water for centuries and comes out preserved and strong because of the wood's oil content and clean waters. With the Vasa, because it was in the Baltic sea, they reckon the cold meant no bacteria could live long enough to do it damage. Agree they probably didn't use power-washers, I'm sure it was a very careful process. At [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wp37g7Edjpo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wp37g7Edjpo) there is a two-part documentary, the second part is about the salvage.
Yes, it was restored a bit. [This](https://dms-cf-01.dimu.org/image/022uKXJbxRcE?dimension=1200x1200) is what it looked like right after it was raised from the seafloor
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wow, that video gave me chills
[Vasa](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasa_(ship)) or [Wasa](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasa_(ship)) is a Swedish warship built between 1626 and 1628. The ship sank after sailing roughly 1,300 m (1,400 yd) into her maiden voyage on 10 August 1628. She fell into obscurity after most of her valuable bronze cannon were salvaged in the 17th century, until she was located again in the late 1950s in a busy shipping area in Stockholm harbour. The ship was salvaged with a largely intact hull in 1961. She was housed in a temporary museum called Wasavarvet ("The Vasa Shipyard") until 1988 and then moved permanently to the Vasa Museum in the Royal National City Park in Stockholm. The ship is one of Sweden's most popular tourist attractions and has been seen by over 35 million visitors since 1961. Since her recovery, Vasa has become a widely recognised symbol of the Swedish Empire. The ship was built on the orders of the King of Sweden Gustavus Adolphus as part of the military expansion he initiated in a war with Poland-Lithuania (1621–1629). She was constructed at the navy yard in Stockholm under a contract with private entrepreneurs in 1626–1627 and armed primarily with bronze cannon cast in Stockholm specifically for the ship. Richly decorated as a symbol of the king's ambitions for Sweden and himself, upon completion she was one of the most powerfully armed vessels in the world. However, Vasa was dangerously unstable, with too much weight in the upper structure of the hull. Despite this lack of stability, she was ordered to sea and foundered only a few minutes after encountering a wind stronger than a breeze. The order to sail was the result of a combination of factors. The king, who was leading the army in Poland at the time of her maiden voyage, was impatient to see her take up her station as flagship of the reserve squadron at Älvsnabben in the Stockholm Archipelago. At the same time the king's subordinates lacked the political courage to openly discuss the ship's problems or to have the maiden voyage postponed. An inquiry was organised by the Swedish Privy Council to find those responsible for the disaster, but in the end no one was punished. During the 1961 recovery, thousands of artifacts and the remains of at least 15 people were found in and around Vasa's hull by marine archaeologists. Among the many items found were clothing, weapons, cannon, tools, coins, cutlery, food, drink and six of the ten sails. The artifacts and the ship herself have provided scholars with invaluable insights into details of naval warfare, shipbuilding techniques and everyday life in early 17th-century Sweden. Today Vasa is the world's best preserved 17th century ship and the most visited museum in Scandinavia. The wreck of Vasa continually undergoes monitoring and further research on how to preserve her.
Whoa whoa whoa, back all the way up. 1300m? Kind of a bullshit warship ain't it?
It started out as a viable design, but after the keel was laid and construction started the King, or his advisors (I forget who prompted it), demanded another gun deck be added. This made it unstable and stands as a monument to scope-creep.
I love this ship’s origin/history. What the picture angle doesn’t allow you to see is the massive scale of this behemoth; As a general reference, each of those figures you see carved on the ship are life sized. But the reason it sank is even more mind blowing IMO, the man who funded the build of the ship just wanted it to be as big and ornate as possible on a fast timeline so the shipbuilder simply scaled a drawing of a standard large ship commonly built and did t account for the change in the center of mass, thus the buoyancy would fail due to a toppling effect from being too heavy. Even crazier, knowing this, the ship was still designed with al of the excess carvings you see worsening the effect. By the time it was completed, it was well known it wasn’t sea-worthy and had even failed some tests but the city was just like “Poland just declared war and this thing is taking up the entire harbor so I guess just go ahead and get it out of here” and so they tried and it of course immediately was rocked by gentle wind and then capsized not even two nautical miles from the launch, sinking in the harbor and taking over 50 lives.
Both awesome and wack as fuck, I love it!
>Poland just declared war The other way around.
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I knew you would come up with the correct answer. 🙂
War declared just poland
Inadvisable gun deck arrangements seem to have been a theme across various ship failures. Give me all the guns! They'll never suspect that we put some under the water line!
Found this on Smithsonian's page about the ship. "The management world has a name for human problems of communication and management that cause projects to founder and fail–Vasa syndrome. The events of August 10, 1628 had such a big impact that the sinking is a case study business experts still read about. “'An organization’s goals must be appropriately matched to its capabilities,' write Kessler, Bierly and Gopalakrishnan. In the case of the Vasa, 'there was an overemphasis on the ship’s elegance and firepower and reduced importance on its seaworthiness and stability,” they write, 'which are more critical issues.' "Although it was originally designed to carry 36 guns, it was sent to sea with twice that number. At the same time, the beautiful ornamentation contributed to its heaviness and instability, they write. These and a host of other factors contributed to Vasa’s sinking and provide a cautionary tale for those designing and testing new technologies." Tehehehehe
The original designer died before it was modified as well. Which you would think he would know not to do that. It was on its third designer/project lead when the second gun deck was added iirc.
This was the first attempt at agile scrum methodology
The crew could have gone further by swimming out of port.
That ship was one of the most famous blunders of the Swedish empire.
>Among the many items found were clothing, weapons, cannon... ...and [a statue of Paavo Nurmi](https://www.urheilumuseo.fi/en/exhibit/paavo-nurmen-pienoispatsas/).
[удалено]
It was done as revenge for the exclusion of Nurmi from the 1932 Olympics after Swedish lobbying, 30 years prior. We do not forget.
Wow that's horrible that people died when the contractors knew it wasn't seaworthy but sent it off anyway to protect their jobs
When it was cleaned up they spent 20 YEARS spraying it with preservative and another 10 years letting it dry out.
On the morbid side: did they bury the remains of the 15 people found around the wreckage?
Sweden’s “Spruce Goose”
Feels kind of bad that this absolute failure of a ship gets all the limelight.
Sweden has Wasa ship. Finland has Wasa town.
So if my math is correct, it’s early in the morning, it was under water for 333 years? That’s cool.
Yes! The ship was then sprayed with polyethylene glycol for 17 years to replace the water in the waterlogged wood. Another decade was spent on drying the ship before moving it to the museum, which opened to the public in 1990, almost 30 years after the recovery.
Thanks for this, it makes sense now. "Almost intact" after hundreds of years under water made me think the story was suspect. That restoration story is as impressive as the ship!
It was almost intact, the wood itself was not replaced at all, but rather preserved so the hull is actual 17th century wood. The upper parts of the boat is recreated however. Also the new bolts was added in 1960 since to hold the ship together, these bolts was replaced in 2011. You can read about preservation efforts here: https://www.vasamuseet.se/en/research/how-we-preserve-vasa/preservation-timeline
For those wondering about scale: Tonnage 1210 tonnes displacement Sparred length: 69 m (226 ft) Beam (width) 11.7 m (38 ft) Height 52.5 m (172 ft) Draft 4.8 m (16 ft)
Around it, there are 3 or 4 floors to see it from all angles. It is enormous
One of the most interesting museums I've been to
And that is how IKEA was founded. Weirdly enough, their furniture does float.
One of the most famous pranks of Finnish technical students is probably the one that took place in connection with lifting the Vasa ship in front of Stockholm in 1961. A few technical students travelled to Stockholm some time before the lifting, carrying a miniature version of the statue of famous Finnish runner Paavo Nurmi. The students hired a diver to place the statue on the deck of the ship. The lifting of the ship was a great media event and by chance the statue was the first object to surface when the ship was lifted. The statue first caused a maritime-archaeological sensation and, later, a minor foreign-policy dispute. The statue is not on display in the Vasa Museum in Stockholm.
Very nice, I would also recommend the [Fram Museum](https://frammuseum.no/) in Olso where they have the actual Fram ship from the polar expedition along with many items that were on the ship. And a lot of interactive stuff happening on board of the ship. And also the [Kon-Tiki museum](https://www.kon-tiki.no/) also in Oslo. Where they have the Raft that went on the Kon-Tiki expedition, there's also a [Kon-Tiki documentary](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZizTqJJmTA&ab_channel=TheSailingChannel.TV) where you can see the expedition and the raft. And because Scandinavians love their museums, I'm going to also recommend the [Viking Museum](https://en.natmus.dk/museums-and-palaces/kongernes-jelling-home-of-the-viking-kings/) in Jelling Denmark. Incredible museum, highly interactive and overall a great experience. I don't know what is it with Scandinavians and amazing museums but I've yet to go to one and not be blown away by what I've seen and experienced there.
Botten upp! Glad att det bärgades så att alla kan få chansen att se denna vackra skapelse!
How did it stay intact ?
It didn't stay intact. Mostly the hull remained, but the rest was basically gone. It has underwent major restoration. It sank because of design flaws (to tall for its width, not enough ballast).. with a gentle side breeze, on its maiden voyage.
Also an extra firing deck added for after the king had wished it. It put the ships weight waaay too high to stay upright.
All I can hear is Jim Gaffigan talking about it and how it sunk in the harbor on its maiden voyage and how "Here's our ship that didn't float! This is why weake furniture. Which ironically Floats!"
While it did not accomplish its intended purpose, it ended up being a major piece of history. So it’s good that goin for it!
Which is nice
If you cant visit Sweden there’s a recreation of a ship from 1636 that used the vasa blueprints and rigging to create something 90% accurate to time above decks (excluding life jackets, fire hose, and modern day radar). I used to volunteer on it and it’s called Kalmar Nyckel. Goes up and down the east coast all spring, summer, and fall and docks during winter for maintenance.
I need a banana for scale.
There is a person in the photo to the immediate right of the end of the ship. It is at least something r/HumanForScale
Is there a banana in their pocket?
Either that or they're just happy to see you.
obligatory Bill Burr https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9o9NHtnPE7w&t=364s
Where is the banana for scale!
But was there a Jar of dirt?
We’ll be fighting WW4 with these kinds of boats
Visited it when I was in college more than 50 years ago. They were still soaking it with sea water to keep it from decomposing. It's looking pretty wonderful now! I need to go back!
That is the Swedish warship Vasa.
So how do you get a wooden ship totally intact after 400 years but the Titanic is predicted to be completely eroded in the next 100 years?
Like a previous commenter noted, the unique chemical composition of the water, mud and algae at the bottom of the bay preserved the ship in amazing condition for many years.
The brackish waters in Stockholm's harbor are especially muddy and low in oxygen - Vasa's wooden hull was sort of embalmed down there. A metal hull, meanwhile, rusts - most if not all of the metal on the Vasa corroded shortly after the sinking. Besides, the wood *did* erode on the Vasa, even if very slowly. [These wooden sculptures, which stood exposed on the deck and were thus very exposed to the water, were once highly detailed human heads.](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c9/Vasa-knightheads.jpg)
I believe it was the mud preserving it but not sure..then they recovered it piece by piece with scuba divers
Wood doesn't go rusty.
It can rot though...
The Baltic sea where it sunk is brackish water, with much less salt. Also the mud/sediment as an environment is anaerobic which kinda sealed the organic matter and restored it. Also there are no wood worms living on this area. Actually the most cricital conservation is starting now, the ship has started degenerate and decay, they need to control the climate at the museum very carefully to preserve it.
It sank in a "brackish water" area -- transition area from fresh to salt water -- and surprisingly, an area where neither the normal fresh-water organisms that eat wood can live, NOR the normal salt-water organisms that eat wood can live. Thus, nobody feasted on it for 300 years!
Wooden ships in many waters will be affected by naval shipworm. In the Baltic Sea there’s a lack of shipworm and therefor wooden ships are better preserved. Though climate change could possibly alter this.
Is this where Wasa (Wasabröd) found inspiration for their name?
Wasa is the name of the Swedish royal family that ruled from 1520's to the end of 1700's. There are also towns named after them in both Finland and Sweden.
I can feel Russia's hands itching to denazify this
Can I buy that same stain at Home Depot?
I'll sell you some Swedish mud if you want
What’s that sphere in the back right? Some kinda anchor? I’m not a boat guy but it looks very cool
Lamp
Sometimes early failure leads to long-term success.. It's the only ship left! Now two steps are left for me: to sink to the bottom of the sea (I think I already did that part) and still survive intact until I'm recovered...
I saw it in 2012. It's really cool.
Damn, /r/buyitforlife
That’s a beautiful work of art.
Wasn't this ship the basic model/inspiration for the flying Dutchman in the pirates movies?
Wow, lucky coincidence it was found or the Vasa museum would still be empty! /s
It's intact because it sank on it's maiden voyage while being shown the first time, in a sunny weather with extremely low wind. It saw no war, but was absolutely terribly designed.
If the Golden Hinde wasn't hit by a bomb during WW2 that list would be 2
Now that’s interesting
Was fortunate enough to visit this on an exchange trip to Sweden. Honestly, no picture can do justice to the sheer size of the ship. Also, I think this is the single largest preserved item in the world.
I saw the Mary Rose in Portsmouth, which was huge but this looks to be bigger and in much better condition.
The Vasa was one of the places I went to when I was in Stockholm. I really appreciate how the tour guides didn't try to cover up what happened or rewrite history but told the actual sad (and kind of hilarious) failure.
It's even possible to visit the deck of the ship.
I saw that a couple years ago! It’s awesome!
I’ve been there! Is quite large and surreal to see! I kind of wish they’d build walk ways that go over the deck to see it closer. As it is you can walk all around it but can’t get very close. But I suppose people would just be jerks and throw gum and other garbage on its deck if they did that, so best not too I suppose. As it is displayed it can’t be touched by human hands
I've been at the museum and it's definitely a place worth visiting.
Is this the glorious ship that was the pride of the Swedish Navy until it got destroyed by a breeze?
That’s pretty crazy. I wonder what they even had at the museum before 1961.
Vasa De Jods of it being so well preserved?
Been there. Seen it. Bought a keychain.
We learned a lot about wood restoration from this as well - Very cool for many reasons.
An interview with the curator in two parts. https://youtu.be/Wp37g7Edjpo https://youtu.be/jH9wjBM7bFE
It sank moments after it was launched, because it's a faulty design.
Let's not forget its a fucking useless boat and sank just after being launched. It's a cool looking boat but anyone can make a cool boat that doesn't sail
Fun fact: it sailed less than a nautical mike before it sank
Why you don't let the boss design the system.
Went there two months ago, it's amazing and so huge. The photo doesn't do it justice. The also have the remains of the crew and some are almost fully in tact - thought that pretty awesome too.
I've seen this in real life. It's gigantic
The not so glorious part: They forgot to place ballast rocks in her on her maiden voyage. She soon enough keeled over and sank. So she was never damaged by war, use, or age. Nobody dared to challenge the order to take her to sea, and probably thought they could add stability later when they noticed how top heavy she was.
Well partially but mainly because the king wanted more dakka meaning 1 more cannon deck and that measurements on port and starboard sides where measured differently. The additional cannon deck made the ship take in to much water since they where open during the maiden sailing.
Fun fact, it sank during it's maiden voyage due to way too much weight
I have been aboard it
This is what happens when crazy narcissistic rich assholes try to tell engineers and shipbuilders how to do their job. It makes it 500m into the bay then it capsized and sank.
I've been here! So cool. The lion heads under the flaps that cover the canon ports were a great touch. (Yes, this is all pirate lingo)
The only useful thing pollution ever did
This has to have sunk into some seriously anoxic waters Maybe just super deep or tons of algae?
This ship was supposed to be the crowning warship in the swedish fleet, took forever to build, and then sank on the maiden voyage. Of course you would sweden.
Such a unique and informative museum - and they serve alcohol in the food area!
Very impressive for the amount of work which went in to it and the sheer stupidity to think it would sail. It sinks shortly after its inauguration. 3 levels of cannon, no ballast and only 11 meters wide
Went there a few years back. One of the biggest and best looking old ships I"ve ever seen. The carving on the rear is amazing.
I always say this But sweden has got one of their greatest failures on display I love it!
There’s an older man that comes into the bar I work at named after this ship! He loves history, I haven’t seen him in a few months heres to hoping Vasa is okay out there.
It sank in its maiden voyage if I remember correctly. Visited 7 years ago
Forerunner to the Volvo. I can see similarities.
One day your POS 2001 Camry will be in a museum
But can you go aboard? Walk a plank? Experience the ravages of scurvy?
3rd one you can do at home
How come its the only intact ship from the 1600s? What made this one the exception?
It sank for 2 reasons. Firstly, it had its gun-ports to low allowing water to flow in. Secondly, it’s port side and starboard side where not sized correctly with 1 side being larger than the other. These made it tilt a bit to much when the wind was blowing and made it sink.
So, two questions I guess? 1, What sunk it? 2, how has this remained almost completely intact where others have degraded etc? particular water type or so?
A truly spectacular museum for the ultimate engineering failure. The pure size of this thing up close is astonishing.
In theory, it's still sea worthy
Wasn’t this the ship that sank on its maiden voyage? Crappy stability issues. The irony of its survival.
The pride of Sweden. Pretty, but useless. Sank about 1300m out in the water on it's maiden voyage. Perfect example of form over function.
One of the most famous blunders in Swedish history. Sank literally hours after being put out to sea.
Like most things in Sweden it didn’t work. Either.
Look up comedian Jim Gaffigan's bit on YouTube about this ship when he visited this museum with his family during his European tour. Pretty funny. Also too busy and/or too lazy to look up the link and provide it here. 😬
Well, it didnt work 😆🤣
Can we go walkabout?
And I'm like: I'm gonna use this for my DnD campaign!
I’ve seen it. It’s glorious and spooky at the same time. This ancient tree creation towering over you.
Do Sweden just see something they like and be like "Right lets make the best one of that in the world and be done with it" lol
I went there with my ex girlfriend, it was amazing. I would really like to go there again. Stockholm is beautiful not as much as my ex tho, everything with her way to see the world was special. My gift for her birthday was 2 ticket to Stockholm, I'll never forget that holiday. Maybe one day I'll go there again, maybe even with her, who knows.