VASA

THIS MODEL

48" long x 15" Wide x 42" High
(1000 HRS)

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general information about ALL ship models

all are scratch built -not from a model kit- by a master artisan.

Plank on bulkhead construction (a painstaking process -
each individual plank is added to the hull one at a time).
Built with rare, high quality woods such as ebony,
rosewood and blackwood.

The model rests on a large, polished marble base between four arched metal
dolphins.
beautifuly stitched canvas sails.No plastic parts
(metal anchors and machine turned brass cannons.
Significant deck detail.

To build this ship, extensive research was performed using various sources
such as museums, drawings, copies of original plans
and photos of the actual ship.

HISTORY

The Royal Warship Vasa capsized on her maiden voyage in August 1628 and
never once fired her guns at the enemy. Raised in 1961 the Vasa is the only well
preserved 17th century warship in the world.
She has her own museum in Stockholm, Sweden.

There is a lot to be learned from studying the decorations of the Vasa.
The many sculptures adorning the ship are expressions of various ideas and
beliefs of that age. Facts about the swedish King Gustav II Adolf, King of
Sweden at the time of Vasa´s building,
In 1625 the Crown signed a contract to build four warships, two larger and
two smaller ships. The contract was signed with the dutch shipbuilder Henrik
Hybertsson and his brother who both lived in Stockholm. The two Dutchmen
ran a shipbuilding operation on a contract basis at the Royal Shipyard in
Stockholm. The ships were to be built within four years. Holland was the
greatest shipbuilding nation of the time. The Royal Shipyard was a large
industry for its time, three hundred people worked there.
The two larger ships were the Vasa and the Tre Kronor (Three Crowns).

The Vasa was named after the ruling Vasa dynasty. To be precise she was
named after the heraldic emblem of the Vasa dynasty. The emblem was a sheaf
of corn. These two ships belonged to a category called Royal Ship (in swedish
Regalskepp). These were the largest warships in the navy. They were usually
named after royal regalia, the Sword, the Crown etc. By 1628, the year of
Vasa´s completion, there were eight large warships and 21 middle-sized ships
in the navy.

The Vasa was built with oak from the Crown´s oak forests. These trees were
protected by law. Approximately one thousand oaks were felled to build the
ship. The timber was floated in the summer and drawn by horses in the winter
across the ice to the shipyard. They didn´t have proper drawings in the early
17th century, instead they made some rough calculations of the ship´s
dimensions, also called 'reckonings'.The reckonings were often kept secret.

The Vasa´s hull was first built on a stocks, with the prow facing towards the
water. As soon as the bottom and the sides of the hull were planked and the
ship was able to float, she was launched into the water and construction was
thereafter completed. The reason for this was weight. It would have been very
difficult to launch a heavy ship built of oak later on.

The warships in the navy returned to port around september/october and
remained there until april/may. Before setting sail again in the spring the ships
needed to be looked over. They were tarred, careened(keeled over), painted
and rigged. Then the artillery and ammunition were taken on board. Finally
provisions were loaded and the ship was ready to sail. The provisions were
meant to last for two or three months. Needless to say, life in the navy was
very harsh. The crew was read the rules to be followed on board by an
officer before embarkation.
Failure to obey the rules often resulted in severe punishment.

The crew slept beside the cannons on the gun decks, and on the lower deck.
They slept in their clothes directly on the deck planks. There were no
blankets or mattresses. The hammock had not yet been developed. It entered
service in 1676. The sailors sewed their own clothing. The food on board was
mainly bread, grain, peas, dried meat and fish. They swallowed it down with
beer. There were three different kinds of beer on board. The best kind was
reserved for the high ranking officers, the second best beer was for the
lesser officers while the main crew drank a simple watery kind of beer.
Because of the poor food, the cold and lack of hygiene on board, diseases
frequently raged in the navy. A barber-surgeon was responsible for medical
care and haircutting.

The captain of the Vasa was Söfring Hansson. To assist him there were two sub-
lieutenants. Then followed a number of lesser officers, non-commissioned
officers. The mates were in charge of navigation, the skipper helped steer the
ship. A bombardier was responsible for the artillery. There were two mates,
two skippers and one bombardier on the Vasa. There were also about 90
sailors and 20 special soldiers who fired the cannons. On board was also one
cook. Three hundred soldiers were to be taken on board later on, but luckily
Vasa capsized before they embarked.

Some examples of the punishments the crew received in the navy include: If you
said you didn´t like the food the punishment administered was to live on bread
and water for 10 days. If you refused to obey a direct order you were
keelhauled. If it happened again they shot you.
If you were to blaspheme the name of God you were shot.
Other cruel punishments were having to run the gauntlet and maiming.

The capsizing of the Vasa.

In august 1628 the Vasa capsized on her maiden voyage. She had set sail from
the Royal Castle at 3 pm steering eastward toward the archipelago of
Stockholm. She fired a "swedish charge", a two-gun salute. A gust of wind
from the south caused her to heel somewhat, nothing alarming in that though.
The Vasa soon came inte more open water and the wind increased in force.
Suddenly a few gusts of wind made her heel alarmingly to port and water
began pouring through the lower gunports. Efforts by the crew to right her
failed and the Vasa rapidly sank to a depth of 30 meters.

The water was clear back then and one could actually see glimpses of the
Vasa as she lay on the seabed. She sank just off the tiny island of Beckholmen,
a very brief voyage indeed. It has been estimated that the ship would have
capsized had the breeze only been 4 meters per second!
The Vasa carried a crew of 200, about 50 of them drowned. Of course the
disaster was considered a bad omen for the nation.
People were very superstitious back then.

Why did the Vasa capsize ?

What caused this national disaster ? The Vasa was known to not carry enough
ballast, there wasn´t room enough. Also the lower gunports were
dangerously close to the water-line. The ship was top-heavy and hadn´t passed
lurch tests earlier. Lurch tests were carried out by letting 30 men run from
side to side causing the ship to roll. Time was short though and the King, off in
Poland at the time, ordered that the Vasa should set sail anyway.
She was to help in a blockade operation.

After the disaster an investigation was made to find out why the Vasa had
capsized, why she had been so poorly constructed. Nobody was held
responsible for her sinking in the end. The king Gustav II Adolf had a part in the
disaster. He had forced the shipbuilders to enlarge the Vasa so she could
carry two gun decks. He gave this order early during Vasa's construction, but
it still wasn't possible to build the Vasa with two gun decks and make her
seaworthy. The shipbuilder had only had a single gun deck in mind.

The shipbuilder would have needed to completely rebuild the ship. There had
been news about a new danish warship with two gun decks. Gustav II Adolf
wanted a ship to match it. However, the king was in Poland when the Vasa set
sail and it was vice-admiral Klas Fleming who allowed her to set sail. He knew
about the problems with Vasa´s seaworthiness.
He must have felt that the King wanted the Vasa to enter service as soon as
possible, and disregarded the problems.

The salvaging and the restoration of the Vasa.

News of the disaster spread rapidly and only three days later an englishman
by the name of Ian Bulmer appeared in Stockholm and made an attempt to raise
her. He wasn´t successfull but he did manage to move her so that the ship lay
more upright. That was no mean feat considering the Vasa´s great weight. The
artillery alone weighed about 80 tons. To this day nobody knows how Bulmer
accomplished this. There is a possibilty that the Vasa "did this herself" over
the years. When the Vasa was raised in 1961 it was pointed out that the fact
that she lay upright tucked into the sea-bed made the work much easier.

Several more attempts to raise the ship were made but they lacked the
equipment needed. Finally the diving-bell was invented and two Swedes used it
to recover most of the bronze guns aboard the ship. Their names were Hans
Albrecht von Treileben and Andreas Peckell. The work took place between
1663-64. Their recovery of the guns was documented by the italian priest and
explorer Francesco Negri. He was staying in Stockholm at the time and he
wrote that the diving-bell used was about 1.25 meters high and that it
resembled a church bell. Negri also tells how the diver worked. He stood on a
lead plate inside the diving-bell. He wore warm clothes made of skin. His main
tool was a long wooden pole with an iron hook on one end. The diver also
brought rope with him which he tied around the gun. The bronze guns saved
from the depths were worth a considerable sum and were sold to Germany.

After the guns had been recovered, the wreck slowly faded out of memory.
The Vasa´s mainmast was visible above the water-line for about 100 years, but
snapped at long last. The exact location of the Vasa was thereafter
forgotten. The Vasa was finally raised in the late summer of 1961. Anders
Franzén, an amateur marine archaeologist, had found the Vasa in 1956. Divers
reported that the hull was intact and plans were made to raise her. Normally
old ships are destroyed by the ship worm. Fortunately where the Vasa lay in
Stockholm´s harbour the water is brackish. The ship worm can´t live in
brackish water so the Vasa was in quite good shape.

The raising was a cooperation between the navy and the privately owned
'Neptunbolaget'. The dives were led by Per Edvin Fälting. Divers from the navy
made six tunnels beneath the hull and pulled cables through them. This was
very dangerous work! The Vasa was then raised to the surface using two
special pontoons capable of lifting extremely heavy loads. Their names were
Oden and Frigg. Before the Vasa hit the surface the hull had to be sealed. It
was covered with holes after the long gone iron bolts. The holes (around
5000!) were plugged so that the Vasa could float

The hull contained a great deal of mud, some of it had to be removed
immediately. A team of archaeologists made a preliminary search through the
mud uncovering many items. After this the ship was towed into drydock and the
task of emptying the hulls contents of mud were continued. Archaeologists
found about 2000 items all in all. The Vasa was then placed on a concrete
pontoon and an aluminum construction was built over it as a temporary means
of storage. Finally the ship was towed to the 'Wasavarvet'. The year was 1961.

The second phase of work with the Vasa now commenced, the conservation and
restauration of the ship. To prevent the oak wood of the hull from shrinking
and cracking, the Vasa was sprinkled with a special chemical solution on a
regular basis. This chemical solution, known as polyethylene glycol or 'PEG',
had earlier proved itself successfull in preserving wood. PEG is an oil
product found in lipstick. Boric acid and borax were added to prevent rot. This
work of preservation continued for 18 years. In 1965 an automatic sprinkler
system was arranged. All the loose wooden parts were placed in twenty
meter long basins for treatment. Some small and fragile objects, such as
spoons and bottles, were freeze-dried instead.

Between 1963-67 divers carefully searched the sea-bed where the Vasa had
lain. They were able to find several thousand bits and pieces belonging to the
wreck. Among the objects were a large number of sculptures which had
fallen off the ship soon after her sinking. All of these pieces were kept in
large basins for preservation. The sculptures that fell off the Vasa when the
nails rusted were soon buried in mud. These sculptures were therefore
remarkably well preserved in many cases, protected by their mud encasing.
Water-currents have damaged the sculptures that remained fastened to the
ship. Luckily some very important parts of the Vasa such as the foreship and
the so-called 'aftercastle' on the stern had fallen off the ship at an early
stage.

It was decided that the Vasa was to be restored to her original condition as
far as possible. It was also stated that the ship and the sculptures would not
be repainted. That would have meant "falsification" of the Vasa. Instead the
foreship with its beak-head, the aftercastle and the sculptures were
reassembled and replaced on the Vasa. Most of the original pieces of wood
were found, so not many parts needed to be reproduced to substitute the
missing ones. This work took a long time of course and one understands why
the Vasa has been called 'the largest puzzle in the world'.

In 1990 the reconstruction and preservation-work were complete and she was
moved from the temporary Vasa Museum at Wasavarvet(The Vasa Dockyard) to
a new beautiful museum that could finally do the ship justice, and also
maintain the right temperature and humidity. The Vasa Museum located on the
island of Djurgården is Stockholm´s main tourist attraction. The Vasa of
today is the most well-preserved 17th century ship in the world.

What was found on board ?

One of the most interesting finds was the discovery of twenty skeletons. They
were analyzed and, not surprisingly, proved that they had lived a life of
hardship. One astonishing find was the remains of six sails. It was possible to
piece them back together again. These sails are the only 17th century sails to
have made it into our time. A number of objects belonging to the crew were
discovered. Cutlery , pieces of clothing, seaman´s chests, tools, combs and a
pewter mug were found. They even found a backgammon. On board the Vasa
was a barber-surgeon. The barber-surgeon cut hair and was also the medic on
board.

In a wooden tub the equipment of the barber-surgeon was found. The tub
contained a grater, a stone jar and a wooden mortar to grind herbs with.
Located approximately in the middle of the ship far down in the hold was the
cook´s galley. A large iron pot(180 liters) was found there. On the lower
decks beneath the two gun decks, the remains of about 100 barrels were
found. Bones belonging to sheep, oxen and pigs were discovered. The meat had
been heavily salted so it would not rot. The salt explains why so much beer
was consumed in the navy.

Facts and figures.

The Vasa was heavily armed with a total of 64 guns. 48 of these were large
24-pounders. The armament of the Vasa weighed 80 tons. The cannonballs for
the 24-pounders weighed about 10 kilos each. These guns were very valuable
and, as mentioned, were salvaged in the late 17th century. Only 3 of the large
24-pounders remained on board when the ship was raised. This was probably
fortunate, the 80 ton weight of the guns could have damaged the ship had they
remained there until 1961.

Weight of the hull: 1200 tons
Weight of ballast: 120 tons
Total length including the bow-sprit: 69 meters
Greatest width: 11,7 meters
Height from keel to the top of the mainmast: 52,5 meters
Draught: about 5 meters
Number of sails: 10
The three largest masts: The mizzen-mast in the aft,
the mainmast midships and the foremast in the stern.

The decks of the Vasa starting from the hold

The hold was located under the orlop deck. It was not a deck really, but a
storage. As deep down in the ship you could go, this was where the ballast was
placed to balance the ship. The ballast was granite. The cook´s galley was
placed here and some supplies were stored here. Fresh water, beer and meat.
The powder-magazine was located here, at a safe distance from the galley.

The orlop deck, the lower deck, was above the hold. This is where the sails
and ropes were kept. Some food was stored here as well. Bread and peas for
instance. The barber-surgeon worked on this deck.

Upper and lower gun deck were of course where the large 24 pounder guns
were located. 52 of them were placed on these two decks. They were capable
of firing 10 rounds an hour at most. The anchor gear was on the lower gun
deck. The crew would have slept here between the guns directly on deck.

The Upper deck finally was the top deck. It was covered in some areas with
small holes to allow daylight and fresh air to reach the decks below. The
deck just below the upper deck was the upper gun deck. In the aft were the
main cabins. The pilothouse was where the steersman steered the ship. It was
located in front of the main cabin in the aft. The steersman used a long pole
that was connected to the rudder to steer the Vasa.

The Vasa´s exterior.

On the aft of the Vasa is the 20 meter high aftercastle, perhaps the most
striking feature of the ship. The aftercastle was in fact a sort of building
aboard the Vasa. Is is here that the majority of the ship´s sculptures are to be
found. The aftercastle rises about eight meters above the upper deck,
counting from midships. No wonder it catches your attention. Several
important cabins are located there, the main cabin is where the commanding
admiral had his quarters. It was the most magnificent room on the ship,
adorned with small sculptures and decorative carving all of which were
painted. It even had glass windows. Councils were held in the main cabin. The
main cabin is on the same level as the upper gun deck. The pilothouse, as
mentioned, is just in front of the main cabin. Above the main cabin is another
smaller cabin. This is the captain´s cabin. It is on the same level as the upper
deck. Here is a painting of the port side of the aftercastle.

Stretching around the aftercastle on both sides of the Vasa and on the stern
are twin balconies, a small balcony being located just above a larger one.
These are in fact double galleries. Galleries were a common construction but
the double galleries of the Vasa were unique to her. Other Royal Ships only
had one gallery on each side. When located on a ship´s side a gallery is called
'quarter gallery'. The upper quarter gallery, the smallest, is on the same level
as the captain´s cabin and the lower quarter gallery is on the same level as
the main cabin. There were doorways connecting the cabins with the galleries.
Openings in the galleries allowed soldiers to fire their muskets at the enemy.
Just like the rest of the aftercastle, the galleries were heavily adorned with
sculptures.

The galleries and the rest of the aftercastle were painted red. The
sculptures and other decorative ornaments were painted and in some cases
gilded.

An interesting fact about the galleries is that they in fact were a bit of a
"curiosity" from earlier days when the battle tactic for warships was solely
to engage in close combat and attempt to board the enemy. This was still a
valid tactic at the time, but increased fire-power of the artillery meant that
the ship relied on her guns more to undo the enemy at range.

Moving forward to the sides of the Vasa, the gunports are a dominant feature.
Painted on them are lion masks which were supposed to intimidate the enemy.
The masks are painted on the inside of the gunports and revealed themselves
when the gunports were opened.

On the stem of the Vasa is a peculiar structure known as the beak-head. This
structure greatly lengthens the ship´s prow. Its main function was
decorative. The beak-head ´s dominant sculpture is the figurehead, a great lion.
The lion is poised, ready to spring at the enemy. Later generations of war ships
had the beak-head structure reduced in size. Here is a painting of the beak-head.

The crew used the beak-head in a very practical manner, as a toilet. There
were several holes in the beak-head for this purpose. A large number of
sculptures are located here as well, though not nearly as many as on the
aftercastle.