Incredible Ships We've Brought Up From the Deep

Some Finnish college students had some fun in 1961 by diving to the wreck of Vasa and putting a statue of a Finnish track and field legend Paavo Nurmi (9 time olympic champion) on the deck before it was lifted. The Swedish scientists were quite baffled by the finding and it has since become a well known practical joke.

Slight correction on how the Wasa was preserved while submerged: the waters around Stockholm are brackish, not salty. The worms that usually destroy sunken wood don't do very well in brackish water. Consequently, there are a lot of interesting wrecks along the Swedish and Finnish coast.

Visiting the Vasa museum was one of the highlights of my trip to Stockholm a few summers ago. The ship is truly breathtaking.

The Vasa Museum is simply awesome. It’s a must-see when you’re visiting Stockholm. Been there twice already.

About the Vasa: One thing I always found interesting is that its demise launched the first SERIOUS investigation ever in Swedish history; the version of an aircraft crash investigation of the day. And when they had studied drawings and plans (as they were, since most ship builders still worked by experience and not by drawings) and questioned everyone and their grandmother... they found out that the biggest culprit probably was the King, who had ordered the topmost guns late in development of the plans... No, the King was not "brought to justice" of course, but instead of trying to find someone to hang, the investigation just quietly... stopped. Nobody who was innocent got blamed as a scapegoat.

Read about the raising of the Vasa in National Geographic magazines when I was still in primary school. Got to visit the raised Vasa in 2011. It wasn't the "polluted water" that caused the Vasa to be preserved, the Baltic Sea into which it sank doesn't support the shipworm which can destroy a sunken wooden ship within just a decade.

I think the Vasa raising needs a video of it own.

I saw the Mary Rose on a school trip, not long after she'd been recovered and was laying in a big white tent, being sprayed constantly to prevent drying out. My residing memory is that she smelled like freshly chopped raw mushrooms. I have returned to Portsmouth many times in the last 40 years and she's now laid up in an excellent museum display, and well worth a visit. You can visit HMS Victory in the same day, and also see my Wife, the first Woman to go to sea in the RN's history in the photos in the museum. She was not impressed that she's now a museum exhibit! ;)

Another great story of recovery is that of the steamship Arabia which sank in the Missouri River in 1856 and was recovered from a Kansas cornfield in 1988. They recovered a veritable treasure trove of pre-Civil War artifacts as well as the vessel itself.

The story of the Vasa is way more complicated than just an 'oops, too top-heavy'. During it's construction, the Dutch naval architect who designed her, was forced to add a second gundeck because the king wanted two gundecks, despite the warnings from said architect that the ship would sit too low in the water for that. Even the rocking test had shown that the lower gundeck was a huge liability it the ship would list just a bit too far.

Visited the Vasaa couple years ago; incredible is the only word that comes close to describing it. Inside was found about 25% of the original sails and the ship itself is about98% original.

The Vasa Museum is a must-see if in Stockholm. Simply amazing!

The story of the Vasa is an interesting one to me, in particular because it seems like a very real-world example of “The Emperor’s New Clothes”. It’s an excellent example to me of the possible dangers of being unwilling to tell someone “NO”.

Vasa was such a wonderful... failure. And we made a museum of that failure! It's an amazing museum, do visit it if you're in Stockholm at any time.

Been to the vasa museum and it is indeed epic. I can really recommend to go see it for yourself.

You have really found the right job for you, Simon. You have enthusiasm in your voice that only comes from being passionately interested in what one is doing and your research comes across as professional and thorough on all the subjects I have seen you tackle.

From memory, I believe the tunnelling under the Vasa used a "Jettestrom" water jet that also sprayed backwards to counterbalance the recoil from the "forward" jet. The lift combined floatation bags at the stern with two cable lifting barges named Odin and Frigg. The barges would be part flooded, the cables tightened then the water pumped out to achieve the lift. Vasa could then be brought to shallower waters for the process to be repeated. Source of this story would be the children's Britannica yearbook dated 1961 or 1962. It's been a long time since I had it, but shows the impact of the contents on a young reader.

Vasa was even a bigger tragedy as they know she was unstable, but no one dared to inform the king. Magnificent museum though! Everyone I have brought there likes it. A must see if you ever visit Stockholm.

The Vasa raising was incredible, it was amazing to see her floated to dock on her own keel.

Visiting the Mary Rose is on my bucket list.