The most expensive and ornamented ship built in 17th Century. It took a three years' work of carpenters, smiths, painters, sculpturers, sail makers to build a ship, which was to become the pride of Swedish Navy. Unfortunately the sailing ship never left port- it drowned after 1300m of the maiden voyage.

On 10th August 1628 in Stockholm, a warship ordered by king Gustav II Adolph was launched. VASA, because her we're talking about, was to be the greatest of all existing ships. A thousand of carefully chosen oaks were used for the construction; the hull was covered in hundreds of sculptures covered with gold. 64 cannons were placed onboard, including 48 of 24-pounders.

Thousands of the Stockholmers gathered on the

Leader of a team of divers getting the hull ready to be lifted.

shore to admire the magnificent ship on its first voyage. A light wind blew from the South West, and captain Söfring Hansson ordered four of the ten sails to be hauled up. The ship began its maiden  voyage. Later, the Royal Council wrote to King Gustav II Adolph: "As the ship left the shelter. (...) a stronger wind filled the sails and she began to lean to port, then straightened a bit (...), leaned to the other side and water rushed in through the gun gates." Almost 50 of the crew went down with the ship.

When he learned about the tragedy, King of Sweden wanted the responsible punished. Just a few hours after the catastrophe, captain Hansson was being questioned by the Council and was imprisoned. Hansson was positive, that all of the cannons were properly secured, and he is not to be blamed for the loss of the ship. He admitted a light breeze made the ship capsize, as she was unstable although all the required ballast was onboard. He exclaimed the project was bad, and the main builder, Henrik Hybertsson, was responsible for the tragedy. The crew confirmed his evidence - no mistake was made during the  manoeuvres, cannons were secured properly, so there was no way they could have moved. The mistake was in the construction.

After 333 years at the sea bottom, VASA reached the surface.

During the investigation, the results of a stability test, which was carried out before the ship was allowed to sail, were announced. 30 deck hands would run across the ship from one side to the other, as the ship was berthed. After 3 changes of direction they had to stop, as VASA would capsize. Admiral Klas Fleming, who was present, did not call off the maiden voyage.  It seemed the constructor will take all the blame, but Hybertsson died a year earlier, and the leaseholders of the shipyard proved they were innocent. They claimed the dimensions of the ship were according to the plan the king authorised. The Council reached a point where they could do nothing, and the person responsible was not found.

Three days after the sinking, an Englishman, Ian Bulmer, acquired the exclusive right to lift the ship. However, neither he nor any others were able to lift a cannon. VASA's treasures remained unreachable until 1660, when Swedish Albrekt von Treileben and German Andreas Peckell took the lead. They used a diving bell, which allowed the diver to stay under water for half an hour. The work plan included taking the cannons out of the ship and lifting them to the surface (each cannon weighted around 1 tone). This way, more than 50 cannons were raised from VASA in 1664-65.

Now scientists and renovators could start their work.

1953 came. Engineer Anders Franzén, a specialist in sea battles, started the search for the wreck of VASA. He managed to define the place where the ship went down. On 25th August 1956, near the Beckholmen Island, Franzén came across a piece of blackened oak wood. The 17th century sources did not agree on the place VASA sank, but divers called to the spot confirmed- it must have been VASA. The wreck lay 32 metres beneath the surface.

It was not easy to plan how to lift the ship. Never has such a huge and old ship had been lifted. There were lots of ideas - one of the methods was to put lots of ping-pong balls in the ship and freezing it, what would make it float. A more conventional way was chosen. Steel ropes were to be put under the hull, and attached to pontoons filled with water. As the water will be pumped out, the pontoons will start to float and lift VASA from the bottom.

Hundreds of tons of water were pumped out of the hull.

The work began in the autumn of 1957. Divers, using holes with air made tunnels under the wreck. They worked 30metres under the surface in darkness and narrow tunnels. They had to crawl, and there was a risk of hooking to a beam. Over their heads an old ship weighting more than 100tons with stones in the hold was. During two years of work, 6 steel ropes were put under the hull, attached to the pontoons, and the hull was lifted from the bottom. She was hauled to shallow waters. Now the hull had to be repaired, as well as the stern, and rotten screws replaced with wooden pegs.

On 24th April 1961 after 333 years lying on the sea bottom, VASA came to surface. She was examined and preserved. After covering her with a plastic foil, the whole hull was sprinkled with water- if it dried quickly it would fall apart. Water was pumped out of the interior and on its own keel the ship sailed to the dry dock. There the mud was removed form the lower deck and preservation began. The wooden parts were sprinkled with PEG (polyethylene glycol), which gets into the wood, and removes the water. This way they stopped the wood from shrinking and breaking, this chemical replaced water that was in the wood. Each kilogram of wood contained 1.5 kg of water- from the whole construction of the hull 580 tones were removed. Sculptures and smaller pieces were placed in bath tubes filled with PEG. The conservation took 17 years. In the interior of the hull many treasures were found: 4000 coins, cannons, armours, crewmembers' private things, kitchen utensils - more than 26000 artefacts, which has given us knowledge about the old times, people, customs and handcraft.

Even today, the ship is placed in a special museum, which provides optimal environment. The humidity must be 60% and temperature exactly 20°C, the level of light cannot exceed 50 luxes.

VASA is probably the biggest puzzle of the world - a team of scientists and carpenters had to put together more than 13 500 loose parts, to make VASA look as she does today. It is worth visiting the website of the VASA MUSEUM in Stockholm, and see the photos of the ship: