The Vasa: A Ship For All Time

Standing next to this magnificent ship Vasa was a breathtaking highlight. There is much to say about this incredible ship but two things seem most important: 1) I believe the world is indebted to the Swedish people for their visionary salvage of this irreplaceable  piece of history, and 2) No pictures can communicate the magnitude of the ships presence.

To give some idea of size and scope, consider that the small red dot in the lower right corner is the sweater of a visitor. The portion of the ship seen in this photo is just the rear quarter and stands six stories tall, not including the masts that are another 190 feet tall. Forty acres of timber (1,000) trees were used in its construction. The Vasa was a floating skyscraper in its day.

The Vasa was raised from Stockholm Harbor in 1961, 333 years after her  ill-fated maiden voyage in 1628. She was built during the 30 Years' War of 1618-1648, when Sweden had lost a dozen ships and needed vessels to support military campaigns in the Baltic. The ship was the largest in the history of the Swedish fleet. On August 10, 1628, the vessel departed from her mooring in front of the royal palace with some 130 crewmen and wives on board. As she sailed slowly through the islands that separate Stockholm from the open sea, a wind caught the sails, and the top-heavy ship unexpectedly hove to port. Water poured through the open cannon ports, and the ship sank in the 105-foot (32-meter) channel.

In the morning sunshine of April 24, 1961, the final lift took place. Crowds gathered on the waterfront, just as they had 333 years earlier to witness the Vasa's maiden voyage. Hundreds of journalists from around the world covered the event, along with a brass band. At 9:03 a.m. precisely, the Vasa finally surfaced.

It took nearly 30 years for the Vasa to be preserved, restored, and displayed in The Vasamuseet (The Vasa Museum) .                                      

Modernization of the Swedish navy began in 1620 and by 1625 about 25 new ships had been built. The navy also purchased ships from Holland. Unfortunately 14 ships were lost between 1620-25, mainly to storms. The Vasa was commissioned by King Gustav II Adolphus who is shown here with an angel heralding his past, present, and future deeds.

When studying the Vasa it becomes apparent that the strategy of the day was to shift from close quarter bombarment to a longer ranged attack with heavy cannons. The Vasa featured two covered decks of 64 cannons, and included rear cannon ports.

Three hundred years of submersion eroded the brightly painted fixtures on the Vasa. Samples have been rendered to give visitors an idea of the detail and craftsmanship that added to the spectacle of the ship's imposing display. Stern ornaments (painted red, gold, blue) included intricately carved gods, demons, kings, knights, warriors, cherubs, mermaids, and weird animal shapes – all meant to frighten enemies and also to symbolize power, courage, and cruelty. It took 3 years to build Vasa, creating both a floating work of art and a weapon of war.    

The Vasa carried a crew of 200; about 50 of them drowned. Skeletons of the crew raised with the ship have been used to reconstruct the heads of crew members, including a few women. 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. Some examples: If you said you didn´t like the food, you were to live on bread and water for 10 days. If you refused to obey a direct order you were keelhauled. If it happened again you were shot. If you blasphemed the name of God, you were shot. Other cruel punishments included being forced to run the gauntlet and being maimed. 

Gustavus Vasa I, after whom the ship is named, was responsible for uniting Sweden. He was thought of as a harsh but good monarch. His contemporaries did not look upon him that way, though. They considered him ruthless and were afraid of him. He knew almost nothing about ruling a country when he acquired the power at the age of 27. What he knew was how to run manors. Therefore he treated the country as his own private business. His goal was to create a rich and independent Sweden. After almost 20 years of struggles he succeeded. He was one of the kings who did the most for Sweden and also became Sweden's richest king ever.

In Vasa I's day, the Crown was not in debt to its own subjects. On the contrary, it was able to lend money if necessary. The Sala mine had just been opened and Vasa used the silver from it to mint new coins. He kept some of these in the vaults of Stockholm Castle, but he re-invested many more into the mining works: Sweden's only industry. The King then called on German smiths to teach the Swedes the new art of forging iron, and then supplied the money to build iron bar foundries in Bergslagen. The production of iron bars in Sweden soon became of monumental importance.

The export of iron bars eventually became one of Sweden's most significant contributions to the global slave trade. Arms, ship building materials, slave binding implements such as shackles, etc., and plantation equipment were but a few of the many uses Sweden's European customers made of their iron purchases in their colonial territories worldwide. The iron was traded exclusively for gold bars, which was Sweden's main revenue for over a hundred years. The industry was so developed that In 1750, the king of England was petitioned by English merchants to divest the nation of dependency on Swedish iron.

It is also intersting that Dutch Master Shipwright Henrik Hybertson was responsible for designing and building the Vasa. Hybertson was an experienced shipbuilder of the highly respected 'Dutch School' of shipbuilding. According to the methods used during this era, most of the design specifics were known only by the Master and executed according to his 'School"of thought and experience. No scientific theory of vessel design or stability was available. The shipwright made no mathematical calculations, for example, to determine such important factors as a ship's center of gravity, its center of displacement volume, its form stability or its weight stability. There were no schematics or engineering drawings. Instead, a ship's 'reckoning' was used. It contained figures on the ship's main dimensions, its principal construction details, and other related facts. Everything else was up to the craftsmanship, professional skill and experience of the master shipbuilder.

The Dutch had honed the skill of shipbuilding from ongoing maritme warfare. The first slaves sold in America arrived in a Dutch Man of War (Warship) at the English colony Jamestwon, in 1619, nine years prior to the Vasa's fateful christening. As warfare subsided among European nations, many of the warships were converted to slavers that eventually transported millions of Africans to North and South America. Slavery in America oficially ended on June 16, 1865 but was follwed by another 100 years legal separation between the races (Jim Crow) until the 1965 Civil Rights Movement.

“A lot of blacks don’t want to talk about slavery because they feel personally ashamed by having been so debased. A lot of whites don’t want to talk about it because they feel that they are the legatees of a vicious thing. If there’s no vehicle to help them bring it out, they go into denial because the pain is too much to keep conscious.  - Dr. Russell Adams, Chairman, Department of Afro-American Studies, Howard University

To visit the Vasa is to come face to face with the craftsmanship and artistry of an authentic vessel from an era from which we have very little. When standing next to this majestic example of human ingenuity one is awed by all it represents to many people from many nations. The past and future are served by the Swedish efforts to caretake such an important contribution, and I for one am eternally grateful.

Lama Choyin Rangdrol

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