Thursday, February 2, 2017

The Story of the Wasa - Part 3, Armaments and Ornamentation

Armaments

While the Wasa was heavily armed, other warships in the Baltic carried more gunnery.  Still, she was likely the most powerful warship of the time due to her ability to place more cannon fire from a single side of the ship.  The King’s instructions to the shipwrights were to build the Wasa with devastating firepower in order to sink the enemy ships rather than to disable and board them. 

During construction, the King made frequent changes in the number, size and placement of guns on the ship.  The configuration ranged from thirty-six 24-pound guns on the lower deck with twenty-four 12-pound guns on the upper deck, to thirty 24-pound guns on the lower deck with thirty 12-pound guns on the upper deck.  Finally, the order was given for thirty-two (a total of sixty-four) 24-pound guns on both the upper and lower decks.  While this provided more firepower and standardized the ammunition, it also further raised the center of gravity of the vessel. 



Unlike other ships of the day, the Wasa boasted all newly manufactured cannons and other guns.  Sweden had a mountain that contained a vast supply of copper ore.  This copper allowed for casting new, lighter weight bronze cannons.  Wasa's cannons weighed nearly 100 tons.  They manufactured two hundred and fifty six cannons for the four ships the King commissioned.  However, due to manufacturing delays, Sweden launched Wasa with only forty-eight of the 24-pound guns evenly divided between the two decks.

Ornamentation

The exterior of warships of the Baroque era was frequently highly decorated.  These decorations served two primary purposes; the ornamental sculptures served to authenticate the monarch’s wealth, wisdom and authority, and they would belittle, intimidate and taunt the enemy sailors.  Inspiration for Wasa’s sculptures arose from a variety of sources including Egypt, the Old Testament, and Roman and Grecian antiquity.  Many of the sculptures were quite grotesque, adding to the enemy’s horror.  In contrast to the exterior, the interior of the ship was quite sparse.







Six expert sculptors, along with many assistants, fashioned the sculptures over a two-year period, carving them from oak, pine and/or linden and were painted in vivid colors.  For the larger sculptures, they employed multiple pieces of wood bolted together.  Nearly 500 sculptures decorated the Wasa, with many already recovered and restored






Ship Models Online offers two Wasa tall ship models as well as models of other tall ships of the same era.


Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasa_(ship)

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