Her Name is Vasa

Located on the island of Djurgården, Stockholm, there is a museum which displays the only almost fully intact 17th century warship that has ever been salvaged.  The 64-gun warship was named after one of the King in Sweden, Gustav Vasa.

The Vasa ship capsized and sank in Stockholm 1628 only after traveling for a distance of less than 1 mile.   This short life of the ship was caused by its poor design  with heavy top and light bottom.  It was told that even though the ship manufacturers already noticed the severe defects with the design, they were too afraid to tell the King.  Soon after the ship started her maiden voyage, the instability showed up immediately.  Wind first blew the ship and made her lean toward one direction, the ship couldn’t regain her balance afterwards.  The second blow of wind pushed the ship lean further down toward the water.  Water started pouring into the ship through those gun decks, and the ship vanished into the ocean in a very short time.  The time before sinking was around 20 minutes during which the ship traveled only 1,500 meters (slightly less than 1 mile).  All crews on the ship were trapped and killed.

The unlucky and Transient fate of Vasa actually created an opportunity for her remains to be restored from a fairly shallow water (around 30 meters or 100 feet deep).  After 333 years on the sea bed the mighty warship was salvaged in 1960s and treated with modern technologies including polyethylene glycol to make it Shine again. But around 98 percent of the parts on the ship remain original.  Even some crew members’ faces were restored using the skeletons left inside the ship.

Even though she was mechanically unfavorable, she is a true treasure from artistic standpoint – she is covered by well carved mysterious creatures and human beings all around her body.  The details out of those craftsmanship are extraordinary, representing the ambition and enthusiasm of her builders back in time.
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