''Of course the ship was well built, but she had not the correct proportions. "
This reconstruction drawing (left) shows the royal coat of arms (cover) near the top. Just above are the initials GA RS for " Gustavus Adolphus Rex Sueciae. " Below, between the two large windows is a sheafofgrain flanked by two cherubs-the symbol for the name of the ship. Drawing by Gunnar Olofsson. A bellicose and prideful lion glared from each gun port lid when the ship was cleared for action.
Jacobsson merely pointed out with a certain justice that one doesn 't argue with the King, and repeated that as the original builder was dead all he had done was to carry out the original agreement and had built the ship according to the design the King had approved. He kept on insisting that the vessel had been irreproachably built, to which the prosecutor eventually answered a little testily: ''Of course, the ship was well built, but she had not the correct proportions." The testimony of others tended to corroborate what these men said, and thus it appears evident that for the court to find any of the accused guilty would have been to condemn not only the respected Admiral Fleming but the King himself. This the court was reluctant to do, and no findings were ever published, or if they were, they have never been found. Why did Wasa sink? In retrospect it is easy to see that the inexact science of 17th century naval architecture had unwittingly produced a crank vessel. A sailing ship is a balance of numerous and often contradictory forces. If some factors are either ignored, or, conversely, if they carry undue weight with the designer or builder the vessel will be a failure . In this case numerous important criterea were imperfectly balanced off against each other. Probably most of the causes for her sinking were brought out 355 years ago at the court of inquiry, yet the court was unable or unwilling to state them at the time .
*
*
*
*
*
The first attempt to raise the vessel was made almost immediately after the sinking. An Englishman, one Jan Bulmer, who was in Stockholm at the time, rushed right off to the Council of the Realm, and convinced that harried body to grant him permission to raise the wreck on a "no cure, no pay" basis. Bulmer started work August 13, only three days after the disaster, when Was a 's main topgallant mast still showed above water. Somehow he succeeded in righting her so that she was on an even keel before she sank too deeply into the mud and slime, and in so doing performed a great service to later salvors. But despite strenuous efforts he could achieve nothing more. The Councilors of the Realm elbowed Bulmer aside in favor of our friend Admiral Fleming-who had conducted the ill-starred capsizing test, and who had discounted the need for additional ballast. He had no more success than Bulmer, and in 1629 he was forced to write 24
his King explaining his difficulties , and ending, not surprisingly, with the words, '' there is a heavier weight here than I could ever have supposed." Shortly after this , the Navy gave up all attempts at salvage. In 1663 a turning point of sorts was reached when two men , Col. von Treileben and Andreas Peckell appeared upon the scene and set out to salvage not the entire ship, which they realized to be impossible , but her very valuable bronze guns. Five years earlier von Treileben had successfully employed a new invention , the diving bell, in salvaging cannons from the Danish vessel Sancta Sophia which had sunk off Gothenburg , also in 110 feet of water. Use of this bell made his syndicate successful where so many others had failed. They were faced with a task that would have given pause to even a modern diver . Wasa had now been on the bottom for over thirty years, and had been subject in the meantime to the nonetoo-gentle and blind attempts of numerous would-be salvors. Some of her spars were still standing, but her decks were littered with fallen yards, cordage, sails, wreckage of all sorts, and tons of mud and slime. This mess was miraculously cleared away by von Treileben's and Peckell 's men, who then proceeded , most unfortunately for us today, to tear away not only the ornate poop and quarter deck, but also most of the main deck as well in order to get at the guns below. They managed to bring to the surface over 50 of the 64 guns aboard Wasa , including over 40 of the 48 24-pounders-weighing over 2500 pounds apiece! The majority had to be jockeyed out through the gunports on the lower two decks.
*
*
*
*
*
The passage of three hundred years found modern Sweden still the dominant power in the Baltic, and as dependent upon the sea for her livelihood and her defense as in the 17th century. She is today as then first and foremost a maritime nation, and her people are intensely proud of her maritime heritage. It is not surprising , therefore, to find that the Swedish Museum of Maritime History was the first in the world to be able to list marine archaeology as one of its regular activities . A museum , however, depends upon the caliber of its staff for its success or failure, and the Museum of Maritime History is indeed fortunate to have found a young man named Anders Franzen-a petroleum geologist by training , the chief engineering SEA HIS1DRY, SPRING 1983