Vasa was built to display Swedish naval power, but its tall, heavily armed hull proved dangerously unstable. The warship sank in Stockholm harbor on its maiden voyage in 1628. Its loss exposed failures of design and command, and its later recovery preserved remarkable evidence of seventeenth-century shipbuilding.
Construction
When Vasa was ordered, Dutch-born Henrik Hybertsson ("Master Henrik") was shipwright at the Stockholm shipyard. On 16 January 1625, Master Henrik and business partner Arendt de Groote signed a contract to build four ships, two with a keel of around 135 feet (41 m) and two smaller ones of 108 feet (33 m).
Master Henrik and Arendt de Groote began buying the raw materials needed for the first ships in 1625, purchasing timber from individual estates in Sweden as well as buying rough-sawn planking in Riga, Königsberg (modern Kaliningrad), and Amsterdam. As they prepared to begin the first of the new ships in the autumn of 1625, Henrik corresponded with the king through Vice Admiral Klas Fleming about which ship to build first. The loss of ten ships in the Bay of Riga led the king to propose building two ships of a new, medium size as a quick compromise, and he sent a specification for this, a ship which would be 120 feet (37 m) long on the keel. Henrik declined, since he had already cut the timber for a large and a small ship.
Construction method
The bottom of Vasa's hull was built using the Dutch bottom-based method of construction (also referred to as the "Dutch flush" method). This differs from both carvel and clinker construction, though the finished appearance is that of the former, and the philosophy of the method is that of the latter. The start of the building process was the setting up of the keel, and the stem and stern post. Then, before any of the floors were installed, the planking of the bottom of the hull was shaped and fitted. The planks were assembled edge to edge (as in carvel), but at this stage of construction, there was no hull skeleton to dictate the shape of the hull (in contrast to carvel). Planks were held together with temporary cleats that were nailed to them.
The plank shape determined the hull shape, in this region of the hull, so making this a "shell-first" construction method, like clinker, as opposed to "skeleton-first" (alternatively "frame-first or "frame-led").
Sinking
On 10 August 1628, Captain Söfring Hansson ordered Vasa to depart on her maiden voyage to the naval station at Älvsnabben. The day was calm, and the only wind was a light breeze from the southwest. The ship was warped along the eastern waterfront of the city to the southern side of the harbor, where four sails were set, and the ship made way to the east. The gun ports were open, and the guns were out to fire a salute as the ship left Stockholm.
As Vasa passed under the lee of the bluffs to the south (now called Södermalm), a gust of wind filled her sails, and she heeled suddenly to port. The sheets were cast off, and the ship slowly righted herself as the gust passed. At Tegelviken, where there is a gap in the bluffs, an even stronger gust again forced the ship onto her port side, this time pushing the open lower gunports under the surface, allowing water to rush in onto the lower gundeck. The water building up on the deck quickly exceeded the ship's minimal righting ability, and water continued to pour in until it ran down into the hold. The ship swiftly sank to a depth of 32 m (105 ft) only 120 m (390 ft) from shore.