Image of a Swedish Navy diver with a skull found during the preliminary investigation of the Vasa, by Anders Franzen

Launched in 1627, the Swedish warship, ‘Vasa’, capsized and sank in Stockholm harbour in 1628 while setting out on her maiden voyage. Although most of her cannons were recovered in 1664, the warship remained largely undisturbed until its rediscovery in 1956.

As one of the oldest fully identified ships in the world, the ‘Vasa’ was considered to be worthy of archaeological study and preservation. In 1957, a committee was established to investigate the possibility of raising the ‘Vasa’ with the Neptun Salvage Company of Stockholm offering to carry out the salvage free of charge if Swedish Navy divers undertook the difficult underwater work necessary before the ship could be raised.

In April 1961, after 333 years submerged on the bottom of Stockholm Harbour, the ‘Vasa’ was raised and work began on conserving and restoring the vessel – a process that paved the way for other maritime archaeology projects such as the, ‘Mary Rose’, in the UK and, more recently, the ‘Mars’, in Sweden.

Categories: History