Vasa Warship (1628): Sweden's Great Ship Sinks on Maiden Voyage

The Vasa was a Swedish warship that capsized and sank in Stockholm harbour on 10 August 1628, only minutes after setting out on her maiden voyage. Built as one of the most heavily armed and lavishly decorated ships of her day for King Gustavus Adolphus, she sailed only about 1,300 metres before a gust of wind rolled her over. Raised almost intact in 1961, the Vasa is now the best-preserved 17th-century ship in the world and the centrepiece of one of Europe’s most visited museums.

Background: Sweden’s navy and the Baltic wars

In the 1620s Sweden was a rising military power under Gustavus Adolphus (Gustav II Adolf, reigned 1611–1632). The kingdom was at war with Poland-Lithuania over control of the southern Baltic coast, and a strong navy was essential to move troops, protect supply lines and blockade enemy ports.

In 1625 the crown contracted the Dutch-born master shipwright Henrik Hybertsson and his business partner Arendt de Groote to build several warships at the navy yard in Stockholm. The Vasa, named after the ruling Vasa dynasty, was the first and largest of them. Construction began in 1626.

The king took a close interest. During construction the ship’s planned dimensions were changed, and her armament grew. By the time she was finished she carried 64 guns, including 48 bronze 24-pounders, with a full second gun deck. Such a heavy armament on two complete gun decks was very unusual for a ship of her size at the time.

Building a floating monument

The Vasa was meant to impress as much as to fight. Her stern and bow were covered with hundreds of carved and painted sculptures: lions, Roman emperors, biblical heroes, sea creatures and the royal arms. These carvings, originally painted in bright colours and gilt, proclaimed the power of the Swedish crown to friends and enemies alike.

Hybertsson fell ill and died in 1627, before the ship was complete. The work was finished by his assistant Hein Jacobsson. Like most shipbuilders of the period, they worked from experience and rules of thumb rather than calculated drawings. There were no reliable methods for calculating a ship’s stability in advance.

The stability test

Shortly before the maiden voyage a stability test was carried out in the presence of Admiral Klas Fleming. Thirty men ran back and forth across the upper deck to see how the ship would rock. After three runs the Vasa was heeling so much that the test was stopped, apparently because the officers feared she would capsize at the quay.

Nothing was done to correct the problem. The king, then campaigning in Prussia, wanted the ship at sea, and nobody present seems to have had the authority, or the confidence, to delay the launch. The testimony from the later inquiry shows that people were aware the ship was unsteady.

What happened on 10 August 1628

On Sunday 10 August 1628, a calm afternoon with a light breeze, the Vasa was warped (pulled by anchors and ropes) along the waterfront from below the royal palace. Crowds gathered to watch, and many crew members had brought their wives and children for the first stage of the voyage, a common practice when ships left harbour.

Under the command of Captain Söfring Hansson she set four of her ten sails and fired a salute. As she passed the cliffs on the south side of the harbour, a gust of wind made her heel to port. She righted herself, but a second gust pushed her further over. Water flooded in through the open lower gunports, which were only a little more than a metre above the waterline.

The Vasa sank within minutes, having travelled roughly 1,300 metres. She settled upright on the bottom in about 32 metres of water near the islet of Beckholmen, with the tips of her masts still above the surface. Estimates of the dead are usually around 30, with figures of up to 50 given; many people on board survived by clinging to debris or being picked up by boats.

Why did the Vasa sink?

The basic cause was poor stability. The hull was too narrow and the part of the ship below the waterline too small to carry the weight of her tall upper works, two decks of heavy guns and the massive decorated stern. The ship carried about 120 tonnes of stone ballast, but there was not enough room in the hold to add much more without bringing the gunports even closer to the water.

Modern measurements of the ship have also shown that the hull is slightly asymmetrical, heavier and broader on one side, which may reflect different teams of carpenters working to different measurements. Researchers have suggested this contributed to her instability, although it was not the main cause.

The open gunports were the immediate trigger. Once the ship heeled far enough for the sea to reach them, water flooded the lower deck and there was no way to recover.

The inquiry

The captain was arrested immediately, and the Council of the Realm opened an inquiry. Hansson insisted the guns had been secured and the crew sober. The shipbuilders argued that they had built the ship to the dimensions approved by the king, and the officers pointed out that they had reported the failed stability test.

In the end no one was punished. Blaming the shipbuilders would have meant implicitly blaming Gustavus Adolphus, who had approved the design, and Hybertsson, the person most responsible, was already dead. The inquiry has been called an early example of an investigation that ended without a scapegoat.

Salvage and rediscovery

Early salvage and centuries on the seabed

Attempts to raise the ship began within days but failed. In the 1660s Albrecht von Treileben and Andreas Peckell, using a simple diving bell, recovered more than 50 of the valuable bronze guns between 1663 and 1665, an impressive feat at that depth.

After that the Vasa was largely forgotten. Her preservation owed much to the waters of Stockholm: the brackish Baltic is not salty enough for the shipworm (Teredo navalis), a wood-boring mollusc that destroys wrecks in saltier seas. The ship was also partly covered by soft clay, which protected the lower hull.

Rediscovery and salvage in 1961

In the 1950s the amateur marine archaeologist Anders Franzén searched for the Vasa using archival records and a coring device. In August 1956 he brought up a piece of blackened oak and identified the wreck. The Swedish Navy, the Neptun salvage company and the government supported a salvage project.

Over two years, navy divers dug six tunnels beneath the hull through the clay, a dangerous task carried out in near-darkness. Steel cables were passed through the tunnels and attached to pontoons on the surface. The ship was lifted in stages into shallower water, the gunports and holes were sealed, and on 24 April 1961 the Vasa broke the surface for the first time in 333 years.

Inside, archaeologists found more than 40,000 objects, including clothing, coins, tools, cooking equipment, a backgammon set and the skeletal remains of at least 15 people. Together they form a unique record of daily life at sea in the 17th century.

Conservation and the Vasa Museum

Waterlogged wood shrinks and cracks as it dries. To prevent this, the Vasa was sprayed for 17 years, from 1962 to 1979, with polyethylene glycol (PEG), a wax-like substance that replaced water in the wood cells, followed by slow drying.

The ship was first displayed in a temporary building, the Wasa Shipyard. The purpose-built Vasa Museum on Djurgården in Stockholm opened in 1990. Today it receives well over a million visitors a year, making it one of the most visited museums in Scandinavia.

Conservation is still ongoing. Since the early 2000s scientists have monitored acids forming in the timbers from sulphur and iron compounds, and the rusted iron bolts have been replaced with modern steel fastenings. Climate control keeps humidity and temperature stable to slow further decay.

By the numbers

Legacy

The Vasa disaster did not halt Sweden’s rise. Within a few years Gustavus Adolphus had entered the Thirty Years’ War in Germany and won his great victory at the Battle of Breitenfeld in 1631. The navy continued to build large warships, including the Äpplet, a near sister ship of the Vasa launched in 1629.

Today the Vasa is a reference point for maritime archaeology, much as the Mary Rose is in England. She is also often cited in engineering and management courses as a case study of how political pressure, changing requirements and poor communication can lead to disaster, sometimes called the “Vasa syndrome”.

Timeline

• 1625, January: The Swedish crown contracts Henrik Hybertsson to build new warships.
• 1626: Construction of the Vasa begins at the navy yard in Stockholm.
• 1627, spring: Hybertsson dies; Hein Jacobsson completes the ship.
• 1628, summer: A stability test is halted after the ship heels dangerously.
• 1628, 10 August: The Vasa capsizes and sinks on her maiden voyage.
• 1663–1665: More than 50 bronze guns are salvaged with a diving bell.
• 1956, August: Anders Franzén locates the wreck.
• 1961, 24 April: The Vasa is raised to the surface.
• 1962–1979: The hull is sprayed with polyethylene glycol.
• 1990, June: The Vasa Museum opens in Stockholm.

Why it matters

The Vasa shows the ambitions of an emerging great power and the limits of 17th-century technology. Her sinking was a national humiliation, but her recovery gave the world an unmatched time capsule of early modern ship design, art and everyday life.