The Vasa Ship Sank in 1628

[Treasure_Hunter]

The Vasa ship capsized and sank in Stockholm 1628. After over 330 years on the sea bed the warship was salvaged and the Vasa Museum built around the only completely intact and best preserved 17th century ships in existence




The Vasa Museum (vasamuseet.se)

 

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[Boatlode]

One of the many places I would love to visit but probably never will get the chance.

 

[Rüdiger]

I've been there, great and absolutely worth seeing!

mvh
Rüdiger

 

[ARC]

One of my favs....

The Vasa never even made sea voyage... never even made it to open sea... she sailed for only 20 minutes.

Crowds that had gathered to see the state of the art ship... watched in horror as she capsized after leaving the dock.

 

[Smithbrown]

The Vasa Museum re-opens on the 19th May, The Vasa Museum (vasamuseet.se)
though not sure how easy it is to get into Sweden these days; certainly not on the UK government approved destinations at the moment...

 

[TRG]

From a translated FB post:

"This morning Patrik and I started the day by being on TV4's morning sofa. We first told us about what ships we
found in Vaxholm 2019 that we have now identified. Initially, we thought it could move around Vasa's sister ship
but sometimes it doesn't turn out as you intended 🙂
Was really fun! Got a round in the makeup first but then where did we go 🙂 Here is a clip from the press release:
Marinarkeologists are now confident that it is about the earlog vessels Apollo and Maria, which among other things
transported troops to Poland in connection with Karl X's invasion, both ships participated in the Battle of Mön 1657
and were also part of the Battle of Öresund 1658.
- The work of identifying the ships has been a real mystery to solve and there are many pieces that must fall into place.
It's about large ships with strong dimensions. We took a number of wooden samples in order to make an age date and
the results showed that the oak that the ships are built from had been harvested during the winter of 1646/47.
This means that the ships should have been built one or two years later, says Jim Hansson, marinarcheologist and project
manager for the divers in Vaxholm. He continues:
- When we dived on the ships we got Vasa feel, the hours were huge, so one possible track was that there were some
of Vaasa's sister ships that we know were sunk outside Vaxholm. But the dating didn't match. Vaasa's sisters Apple, Crown
and Scepter were built shortly after Vasa's loss in 1628. We were thinking about whether the samples we had taken could
possibly come from parts of the ships repaired, in that case in the 1640 s.
The marinarkeologists carried out new divers and took more samples for analysis, which clearly showed that both ships must
have been built from oak chops during the winter of 1646/47. Eken from one ship came from northern Germany and the
other from eastern Sweden.
Now a work started making sketches that were digitized to reconstruct the ships. By measuring tire beams and spanting and
pairing that information with details in the hull, marine archaeologists were able to get a good picture of the ship's size and shape.
- We could say that one ship has been 8,7 meters in the widest place. By having both the width and shape of the ship, we
were able to estimate the length to about 35 meters. It also sued well with the length and width conditions that were common
in the 1600 s, Jim Hansson says.

Intensive work on identifying the ships

Through archival research, marine archaeologists found two ships built in 1648: Apollo built in Wismar in Germany and Maria
built at Skeppsholmen in Stockholm. According to the archives, their measurements consisted of what the marine archaeologists
had come to. According to the sources, both ships would have been deliberately sunk at Vaxholm in 1677.
- In the end we had all the puzzle pieces we needed to say what ships it was about. The ship's dimensions and shape consisted
of the measures according to the sources, the origin of the wooden samples where we had found northern Germany for the
smaller ship Apollo and so eastern Sweden for the greater Maria, also sued, Jim Hansson says.
- In addition, we know that the really large ships of Vaasa's type were primarily King Gustav II Adolf's idea and that idea died in 1632.
After his death, instead, medium-size was built, because they could be used for many different things and were more seaworthy
than the big unthinkable ships, deputy project manager Patrik Höglund tells and continues:
- This kind of medium-sized ship was provided with heavy artillery. The ships were not very large, but very heavily built to withstand
the weight of artillery. The vessel's firepower increased in relation to the size, which Apollo and Maria are good examples of.
- It's interesting to tell you about these ships. The type of ship that Apollo and Maria represent has never previously been
documented archaeologically and they have lots of knowledge to convey, Jim Hansson concludes.
According to the archives, there should be more wrecks at Vaxholm, including Vaasa's sister ship and conquered Danish ship,
why Vrak's marinarkeologists will continue the investigations in the area.
The continued surveys in Vaxholm are included in the research program ′′ The Forgotten Navy - Sweden's ′′ blue ′′ cultural
heritage 1450-1850 ′′ which is conducted in collaboration between CEMAS at Stockholm University and the State's maritime
and transport history museums as well as the Museverket in Finland. The research programme is financed by the
Riksbankens Jubilee Fund (RJ).
Will come a little more links later. Really fun to be able to show how archaeology works. Sometimes you have to reevaluate
and look at it with other eyes. Here you can see our effort 🙂
https://www.tv4play.se/program/nyhetsmorgon/13339865
The project is being done in collaboration with the Navy and Dendro. dk who has dated the samples we have taken."

Link is to a page with a video

 

[TRG]

Link to the FB page: https://www.facebook.com/TimberERC/