Vasa was a Swedish man-of-war (warship) built from 1626 to 1628. The ship foundered and sank after sailing less than one nautical mile (apx. 1.1 mi or 1.8 km) into her maiden voyage on August 10, 1628.
Armament: 64 guns, including: 48 * 24 pounders, 8 * 3 pounders, 2 * 1 pounders and 6 * howitzers.
Vasa was built top-heavy with insufficient ballast. Despite an obvious lack of stability in port, she was allowed to set sail and foundered a few minutes later when she first encountered a wind stronger than a breeze. The impulsive move to set sail resulted from a combination of factors. Swedish king Gustavus Adolphus, who was abroad on the date of her maiden voyage, was impatient to see Vasa join the Baltic fleet in the Thirty Years' War. At the same time, the king's subordinates lacked the political courage to discuss the ship's structural problems frankly or to have the maiden voyage postponed. An inquiry was organized by the privy council to find someone responsible for the disaster, but no sentences were handed out.
Most of her valuable bronze cannons were salvaged in the 17th century and the Vasa fell into obscurity for the next threehundred years.
Vasa was located again in the late 1950s, in a busy shipping lane just outside the Stockholm harbour. She was salvaged with a largely intact hull on April 24, 1961.
During the 1961 recovery, thousands of artifacts and the remains of at least 15 people were found in and around the hull of the Vasa by marine archaeologists. Among the many items found were clothing, weapons, cannons, tools, coins, cutlery, food, drink and six of the ten sails. The artifacts and the ship itself have provided historians with invaluable insight into details of naval warfare, shipbuilding techniques and everyday life in early 17th-century Sweden. When she was built, Vasa was intended to express the expansionist aspirations of Sweden and its king, Gustavus Adolphus, and no expense was spared in decorating and equipping her. She was one of the largest and most heavily armed warships of her time and was adorned with hundreds of sculptures, all of them painted in vivid colors.
Nowadays Vasa can be seen in the impressive Vasa Museum in Stockholm, Sweden. See the museum's Home Page below for opening hours and admission charges.
Link to the Home Page of the Vasa Museum.
Link til Wikipedia Vasa.