Swedish Ship Salvaged After Three Centuries

Press, Volume C, Issue 29514, 16 May 1961, Page 8

Swedish Ship Salvaged After Three Centuries

The Swedish three-decker, 48-gun ship of the line Vasa, raised from the depths of Stockholm Harbour on April 24, has three claims to fame. She replaces Nelson’s Victory as the oldest naval vessel afloat; sank with 350 officers and men on her maiden voyage shortly after being warped from the landing quay; and lay on the hbrbour bed for more than three centuries and then was raised worm-free and well -p reserved. On a summer’s day in 1628, top and mizzen sails set, the Vasa moved off slowly as cheering throngs ashore bade her bon voyage. Then, as she left the shelter of the cliffs, she heeled over and sank in 18 fathoms of water. Forty lives were lost The first serious attempt to raise her was made in 1959 by the Vasa Salvage Foundation whose members believe that study of the ship “will throw' new light on the history and development of sailing ships.” Before this, in 1957, the Foundation had called in a Swedish salvage company and compressed air plant experts whose two years of research cleared the way for the actual salvage attempt. Fortunately the ship rested in the mud on an even keel. Six Tunnels

To move the ship in one piece divers first made six tunnels, each about 65ft long under the vessel from one side to the other. Then several steel cables were oassed under the hull in each tunnel and connected to two pontoons on the harbour surface. In August, 1959. the stage was set for the first lifting of the Vasa. Slowly she was hoisted high enough for the first move shorewards. Until operations were suspended by the onset of winter. 17 “jumps” shorewards had been made. When operations were restarted in the next northern summer the vessel was lying, still undamaged, in 50ft. of water a short distance from the naval depot at the inner Stockholm harbour entrance. The depot. Hasten Holmen, is to be the ship’s new home. The divers at first had to work virtually in the dark. Even with very highpowered mercury vapour worklamps, they could see only six feet ahead in the dirty brown water. Then, when they started work, the disturbed slime and silt on

the half-buried ship reduced visibility to nit Specially trained men carried on mainly by touch and soon developed remarkable speed in their work of identifying the vessel parts and loose articles on and near her. After each shift experts interrogated the divers about what they had felt, and formed fairly detailed sketches. It is a tribute to the divers that these jig-saw sketches have now been proved very close to reality. Mud and Silt Biggest task of all was ridding the hull of its accumulation of mud and silt. For this divers used compressed air fed from plants floating over their heads on barges. Thereafter the way was clear for pumping the Vasa to the surface before towing her to the dry dock. Long before the vessel finally broke surface late in April many important articles had been recovered and been put on show in the Stockholm Museum of Naval History. Most imposing is the Vaisa's two-to-n figurehead—a wooden lion rampant 16ft high. Its still crimson mouth and golden mane are a tribute to the great craftsmen of those days and the skill of the men who recovered it and who now have brought the ship to the surface for all to see.