It has been raised from the bottom of the Baltic Sea and is now housed in it’s own purpose built museum in Stockholm. When entering the Museum probably the first reaction is to notice the Vasa’s sheer height – the masts stick out of the museum roof 10 metres or more. Immediately, the impression one gets is that it is top heavy and present-day technical calculations show that the ship is indeed very top-heavy and would require only a moderate wind to overturn her. The ambition of King Gustavus II Adolphus had clearly exceeded the theoretical know-how of the shipbuilders of that period!
This picture shows the side of the ship from the stern, which gives a fair
impression of its height. Remember, the masts stick out of the roof for some 10 metres or so. Unfortunately it looks rather dull in this picture because the lighting in the Museum is kept low and flash photography is forbidden!!
The discovery of the Vasa was reported in the Swedish evening paper “Espressen” on September 13, 1956. As is so often the case with the search for what was, for hundreds of years, regarded as a lost cause, the discovery was the result of the determination of one man. Anders Franzen was a 38 year old engineer and one of Sweden’s foremost experts on naval
warfare in the 16th and 17th centuries. He was also a specialist on wrecked naval vessels. He not only researched the archives but also went out in a boat for several years before he found the site.
However the thing that excites a woodcarver are the number of wood carvings decorating the hull and it could be interesting therefore to tell some of the story, and show a few of the photographs it was possible to take. We will serialise the story and use it and some more photos as an odd sort of “stocking filler” in the future! Please regard these two photographs as a bit of a preview!.
(Adapted from Issue 107 – April 2012 of “Kent News”)
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