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

Read Part 4 of the Story of the Wasa  – Deterioration and Salvage.

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)

The Story of the Wasa - Part 2, Construction

In January, 1625 King Gustavus Adolphus had his administrator of the Royal Swedish Navy, Vice Admiral Fleming, sign a contract with the Stockholm navy yard to design and build four new warships; two small 108 ft. ships and two larger 128 foot ships to be completed within four years. They purchased raw materials from local Swedish estates as well as from Latvia, Germany, and Holland.

As the ship builders were preparing to begin construction, they sought direction from the King through Admiral Fleming for which ship to build first. Due to the recent loss of ten of his warships from extreme weather, the King proposed immediate construction of two medium sized, 120-foot ships. This created a problem for the shipwrights since they had already laid the keel for one of the smaller ships. Additionally, they had only enough timber available for one 111-foot and one 135-foot ship.

King Adolphus also needed the ship to have a second enclosed gun deck.  This was necessary due to a change in naval tactics from the objective to cripple, board and seize the enemy ship, to one of broadside volleys intended to sink the enemy vessel.  No one in Sweden at that time had built a ship with two enclosed gun decks.  Ships at that time were built by artisans with little understanding of the theoretical principles of shipbuilding.  They appear to have not prepared any specifications or even sketches prepared for the new ships.  Instead, they relied on the knowledge of experienced shipwrights.

The construction of the Wasa began based on a 111-foot keel and was modified to have a 135-foot keel.  It is not clear if the original 111-foot keel was elongated or if they laid a new keel.  Some evidence exists that they elongated the 111-foot keel since it had a fourth scarf instead of the traditional three scarfs.  It took nearly one and a half years after the initial launch to complete the upper deck, sterncastle, beakhead and rigging.  The sails were made of hemp and flax from France, while the rigging was entirely hemp imported from Latvia.

During the summer of 1628, a few months prior to her disastrous maiden voyage, the Wasa failed a stability test.  This test, which involved 30 men running back and forth across the upper deck, was terminated after only three traverses due to fear the ship would capsize.  The shipwrights were unable to develop any means of correcting the issue...yetthe King insisted on a launch in late July of 1628.

Read Part 3 of the Story of the Wasa – Armaments and Ornamentation.

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)