Exploring the Vasa Museum: A Journey Through Time, Stockholm, Sweden

For those readers who haven’t heard of the Vasa, the king’s 69-metre (226 feet) long warship dates back to 1628.

On her maiden voyage, which only lasted 2 hours, the Vasa left the shelter of Stockholm Harbour’s cliffs to set sail.

A breeze caught her canvas, heeling her over, and water gushed through open gunports. The Vasa sank in only 32 metres of water, 120 metres from Beckholmen’s shore in the harbour entrance.

One problem with the Vasa’s design was that above the waterline, it was too heavily built and too tall for the small hull below the waterline. This made the ship fast. However, with the centre of gravity too high above the waterline, the ship heeled over perilously, even in a light breeze.

If the gun ports were closed on the maiden voyage, this could have averted the catastrophe when the Vasa heeled over with the wind.

Wandering through the Vasa Museum, I think to myself, this is not the place where I first visited the Vasa in 1985. Is my memory fading?

Starting to think I was imagining things, I found a plaque advising that the current museum had only opened in 1990…that explains everything!

When I first visited the Vasa, she was on a covered pontoon superstructure. I found this detailed report on the conservation of the Vasa. This also explains the transition from the pontoon superstructure to today’s museum, some 500 metres from its previous location. ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).