17th-Century Warship Pulled From Baltic Sea Is Almost Perfectly Preserved

Swedish warship, Vasa set sail on her maiden voyage from the castle fortress at Vaxholm on August 10, 1628.

The Vasa was a brightly painted spectacle of maritime design commissioned by the Swedish monarchy under Gustav Adolf II in the early 17th century. It was designed by the experienced ship maker Henrik Hybertsson, and was initially expected to carry 36-guns aboard the deck. However, the King of Sweden demanded aesthetic perfection at the cost of the ship’s stability.

Vasa was riddled with heavy ornamental decoration and 64-bronze canons. However, what appeared to be a great day to take off — turned disastrous.

Due to the weight and construction of the ship — a few wrong pulls of various sails sent the ship deep into the waters of the Baltic Sea.

Thankfully, only 30 of the ship’s crew died that afternoon, but the maritime disaster would haunt the Swedish Empire for centuries.

As for the ship itself, the extremely cold waters of the Baltic Sea protected the wooden ship from harmful bacteria that would otherwise deteriorate its body. When Sweden finally extracted the ship from her resting place in 1961, approximately 95% of the ship remained intact, creating an incredibly rare archaeological opportunity.

 

The ship resides on display in Stockholm’s Vasa Museum, which boasts that the Vasa is the only fully preserved 17th-century ship in the world. In order to ready the ship for public display, the preservation team took three decades to carefully extract her from the freezing waters. Thanks to their precise work, we can see remnants of the once colorfully painted lions and crests on the ship’s transom, as well as unique artifacts from the time period that survived the wreck.

Among the wreckage were pieces of a historic Backgammon board.

You can visit the Vasa Museum’s website for information about its reopening and purchasing tickets.