KING GUSTAVUS GOOFED

People entering the enormous, dimly lighted room slow their pace and speak quietly. They stare in awe at the relic of the past looming above them. The towering wooden ship in the center of the building floats in air, rather than in the cold Baltic Sea that was meant to be her home nearly four hundred years ago.

The Vasa Ship Museum in Stockholm, Sweden cradles the spectacular sailing ship, the Vasa. The beautiful curving hull, the elaborate decorative carvings, the maze of ropes attached to soaring masts, all were meant to strike fear into Sweden's enemies in the early 1700's. Now, she stands glowing softly in her custom-built home as though she emerged from a time capsule, which in a way, she did.

THE KING NEEDS A SHIP
King Gustavus II Adolphus of Sweden intended that this ship, the Vasa, would overpower the enemy, both with her superior firepower and with her unparalleled size and beauty. King Gustavus' grandfather, the larger-than-life hero Gustav Vasa, liberated Sweden from Denmark.

The brilliant and charming Gustavus II came to the throne in 1611, at the age of 17 and defeated the Danes once again, then waged war on Russia and Poland. The Swedes admired the young king for his military prowess, but to complete his triumphs, he needed to build a navy. In the early seventeenth century, Sweden had lost twelve ships in quick succession. People began to think the country was jinxed.

BUILDING THE VASA
In 1624, King Gustavus II ordered four ships to be built by the Dutch master shipwright, Henrik Hybertsson. Although seventeenth century sailing ships demanded complex construction, building practices look primitive by today's standards. The master shipwright held the plans for a ship in his head. No scientifically determined measurements guided construction.

Bad omens plagued the Vasa. The king changed orders midway through the construction. Hybertsson became too ill to directly oversee the job, and then he died. His successor had no written record of what had gone before and the king was breathing down his neck to finish this job in half the normal time. The 136 foot long ship must be ready to sail to Poland in mid-summer of 1628.

A forest of oak trees (about one thousand) produced the long, straight timbers for the new ship. Carpenters, woodcarvers, metal workers, painters, gilders and other craftsmen poured into the shipyard in Stockholm.

When the king demanded more guns than called for in the original plan, the designer realized that he needed an unprecedented second gun deck. Forty-eight 24 pound cannons, each weighing one and a half tons, plus 24 smaller guns, strained the balance of the ship.

Before the guns were installed, 30 men ran back and forth across the deck, performing a stability test. The ship rocked dangerously. But the King wanted this ship; the nation was at war and twelve other ships had recently been lost. Although a boatswain said the ship was "narrow at the bottom and lacked enough belly," no one dared stop construction to make corrections.

Finally crewmembers installed all 64 guns and lashed them into place. Artists painted the 500 decorative figures in bright colors and slathered them with gold leaf. The Vasa family shield with lions representing Gustavus, the Lion of the North, filled the flat surface of the stern. A ten foot long lion, stretched and ready to leap, decorated the beak-head of the prow and other lions decorated gun ports. From gargoyles to mermaids, from Roman gods to Old Testament figures, designers installed lavish figures meant to bring good fortune.

Lagging behind the king's desired launch date by a month, the shipbuilders finally finished the job in August 1628. Proud of their new assignment, the crewmembers invited their wives and children to join the launch and ride as far as the islands outside the bay where soldiers would board the ship.

THE LAUNCH
On a glorious summer day, small boats towed the great ship from her mooring near the castle. With gold ornaments flashing sunlight, she fired a farewell salute and hundreds of people on the banks watched as she set sail.

Within a few minutes after sails were hoisted, a gust of wind tilted the ship, but it righted itself. Along the embankments, the people gasped. Then they covered their faces as a second gust of wind dropped over the inland hills. The ship listed again. The gun ports, still open from the farewell salute, filled with water and the Vasa slowly disappeared beneath 110 feet of water, flags and sails still flying. She had traveled only 1400 yards.

Although small boats in the harbor picked up most of the 150 people on board, about fifty, among them some women and children, did not escape. They lay buried with the great ship Vasa in the cold waters under Stockholm's bay for over 300 years.

Gustavus furiously demanded an accounting. The people of Sweden, dismayed at yet another disaster, believed they had witnessed an evil omen. A Board of Inquiry questioned everyone involved, but when the evidence showed no malfeasance by the captain or the shipbuilders, the investigation quietly ended.

After all, who could accuse the king? Insistence on an unheard of two gun decks, changes in length of the ship, which meant some patchwork in the hull, an increase of numbers of heavy weapons and demands for speed of construction, all contributed to the tragedy.

THE REBIRTH
Unique when she was built, the Vasa of the twenty-first century tells a story perhaps more incredible than the fame she might have won in battle. The Vasa is the only totally recovered seventeenth century sailing ship in the world. Most of the guns were salvaged in 1664, but complete recovery proved too difficult until 1961.

Granted, what visitors to the Vasa Museum see today has been patched together, polished and painted. But miraculously reborn after 333 years, only 5% of the museum ship Vasa has been replaced. 95% of this ship survived.

Q. Why has her oak and pine wood lasted?
A. The shipworm, which destroys wood in most oceans, does not live in the Baltic, so her wood is whole.

Once engineer, Anders Franzen found the ship, divers dug tunnels underneath and wrapped cables around the hull in a two-year effort. In August 1959 the cables were pulled and the ship carefully raised a few inches off the bottom. The hull did not break. During this time, other divers brought to the surface broken pieces of ornaments, furnishings, clothing, and the skeletons of thirty people.

For two more years divers worked filling holes where bolts had rusted away and the still-underwater ship was made watertight. Carpenters fashioned new hatches to cover each of the gun ports. When the ship once more could keep water out, cables carefully raised her above the surface. For the first time in over 300 years, she saw the sun.

To keep the waterlogged wood from cracking, workman dipped small parts in vats of polyethylene glycol (PEG) and sprayed the hull with a solution containing PEG. The preservation spraying went on around the clock for 17 years.

Ten years ago the ship and some of the relics of life aboard ship moved to their permanent home, the Vasa Museum. Movies in several languages paint the background of wars and sailing ships, tell the story of her building, her death and her recovery. Details of sailors lives are displayed - trunks of clothing, cooking utensils, mugs for ale, even a backgammon game.

But all the fascinating details pale beside the looming ship, as intricately decorated as a palace dining room. The Vasa's ropes are coiled, sails folded, everlastingly ready for a battle that she will never join. Instead of teaching how to win great battles, the Vasa presents a lesson in the effects of meddling management. Now it can be said.

In the end, King Gustavus II sunk his own ship.

Vasa ship photographed by Hans Hammarskiöld

http://www.vasamuseet.se
The home site for the Vasa Ship Museum in Stockholm, Sweden

http://home.swipnet.se/~w-70853/WASA2e.htm
Part of History of Sweden site with history of Vasa ship and many pictures, created by Johan Avard

http://user.tninet.se/~cdn845y
Briefer history and explanation of Vasa, similar to text of Vasa Museum brochure, by Magnus Larsson.

http://dossantos.cbpa.louisville.edu/courses/cis675/vasa/index.htm
Case study on "managing projects involving large scale, innovative technology," using the Vasa ship as an example. Contains comprehensive review of the building of the ship. Prepared by Richard O. Mason of Southern Methodist University for class use.

http://www.abc.sc/~m10354/publ/vasa.htm
A paper entitled "The Swedish Ship's Revival" by Dottie E. Magol, Univeresity of Miami, Miami, Florida, prepared for a Marine Archaeology class in fall, 1996.