For more than three centuries, a nearly intact shipwreck lay preserved in time on the seafloor of Stockholm harbor. When she was pulled from the ocean one spring morning in 1961, news of her recovery broke around the world.
This wasn’t just any shipwreck, though.
The 220-foot former flagship, the Vasa, built for King Gustav II Adolf between 1626 and 1628, had been a symbol of Swedish pride, showcasing both extravagance and firepower in excess—ultimately leading to her demise.
Not only is the Vasa the world’s best-preserved ship dating from the early 1600s, in her time, she was also a symbolic display of power, strength, and craftsmanship—perhaps the 17th century equivalent to Air Force One. Befitting the volatile period, the Vasa was the most heavily armed warship in the Baltic with her 64 cannons, large crew, and hand-to-hand combat implements. Her stately importance and unmatched armament made the flagship King Gustav’s way of showing the rest of Europe that Sweden was a force to be reckoned with on the high seas—at least until her ironic end.
She was also lavishly adorned with hundreds of sculptures and decorations. Armed heroes from Greek and Roman mythology jostled alongside lions, angels, and biblical figures. Richly colored, many parts in gold leaf, the ship was a spectacle to behold when she set sail on her maiden voyage in August 1628—a far cry from the minimalist approach modern Swedish design is known for today, yet the same Scandi reverence for aesthetic pervades.
Just as the fated ship the Titanic departed Southampton, UK, to great uproar, the Vasa left Stockholm harbor before a huge, excited crowd and a band playing to celebrate the occasion—yet like the Titanic, the Vasa was fated to an early, watery grave. Lacking the design excellence for which Sweden is now famed, shipbuilders failed to engineer for her over-the-top armament and opulence—the ship was top heavy. Before ogling onlookers, a strong gust of wind caused the ship to keel over in the harbor, just minutes after setting sail.
When divers discovered the vessel off the Swedish coast some 333 years later, it was the start of a restoration project that took several years to complete. The Vasa had been firmly welded to the hardened blue clay of the seabed; it would be difficult and perilous for workers to excavate. Had she sunken in other waters, though, the rescue might not have been worth it; the Baltic, however, was at the time free of the wood-eating shipworms found in warmer saltier waters. The Vasa was salvageable.
It also helped that then king Gustav VI Adolf was himself an archaeologist who invested efforts of the royal court to save the ship. Thus, the Vasa (again) became a national treasure, and thousands were there to watch as the sculptured heads of ancient warriors rose from the sea.
Amateur archaeologist Anders Franzén initiated the ship’s recovery with dogged determination, and it is to his credit, and that of his team, that some 1.5 million sightseers visit the Vasa Museum each year to gaze upon the ornately adorned vessel, restored to some of her former glory.
