Vasa Ship Sinking: The Test Was Stopped. She Sailed Anyway.

On Sunday, 10 August 1628, the Swedish warship Vasa, the king's newest and most heavily armed ship, capsized in Stockholm harbour on her first voyage, in front of the city. Before she ever sailed, thirty men had run back and forth across her deck while an admiral watched, and on the third run he made them stop. This video follows what the surviving records actually say: the ship's master who prayed she would even stand upright on her keel, the admiral who thought there was too much ballast, the captain's testimony the day after, the king's reply from his camp, the builders who pointed to a dead man's plan and a living king's approval, and a 1628 shipwright who explained the problem with a pound of lead and a pound of feathers. Then the diving bell of 1663, a plug of black oak in 1956, and the morning in April 1961 when her frames came back out of the water. 00:00 Three planks 00:57 The king’s ship · 1625–1628 02:12 The test at the quay 03:12 Too much ballast 04:08 Sunday, 10 August 1628 06:01 The day after 06:34 The king’s reply 07:18 The inquiry · 5 September 09:22 A pound of lead 10:19 The diving bell · 1663 11:44 Black oak · 1956 12:49 24 April 1961 14:04 What the record doesn’t say 14:44 Still that shape Primary sources: the interrogation of Captain Söfring Hansson, 11 August 1628; the Council of State's letter to Gustav II Adolf, 12 August 1628; the Vasa passage of the King's reply, 1 September 1628; and the surviving pages of the inquest protocol of 5 September 1628. All four as transcribed by the Vasa Museum from the originals in the Swedish National Archives (Riksarkivet). Translations from the Swedish are our own. Francesco Negri, Il viaggio settentrionale (written after 1663; Liber Liber edition). Sandström et al., Nature 415 (2002). Background from the Vasa Museum's published history pages. Photographs of the ship: Anneli Karlsson and Karolina Kristensson / Vasamuseet (SMTM), CC BY-SA and CC BY, via DigitaltMuseum; Jules Verne Times Two, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Salvage films 1957–1961 (Sjöhistoriska museet / Vasamuseet, CC BY) and salvage photographs 1956–1962 (Vasamuseet, Public Domain Mark), via DigitaltMuseum; the diving bell shown in 1960 is a replica. Paintings, engravings and maps (public domain): Gustav II Adolf, presumably by Jacob Hoefnagel; Tre Kronor castle by Govert Dircksz Camphuysen (1661); Stockholm by Willem Swidde after Erik Dahlbergh (Suecia antiqua, 1693); Stockholm by Frans Hogenberg; a map of Stockholm, 1640s (National Library of Sweden); Klas Fleming, unknown artist. The cross-sections and the balance are schematic animations, not to scale.