Vasa History

Gustav II Adolf

The Ship Yard

People from a half dozen countries toiled here from sunrise to sunset, six days a week, as carpenters, sawyers, smiths, mastmakers, turners, and a host of other specialized trades. Welcome to Skeppsgården, the navy yard in Stockholm and Vasa's birthplace.

The Disaster

The Inquest

Already the day after Vasa sank, the Council of State started looking for the responsible parties, but nobody was ever punished for one of the greatest scandals of Sweden's Great Power Era.

Vasa – the machine of war

 Her cannon could fire 250 kilograms of ammunition in a single broadside, and when the heavy iron shot left the muzzles, they travelled near the speed of sound. For a brief few minutes, she was the most powerfully armed ship in the Baltic, if not the world, a floating fortress to be feared from Reval to Copenhagen.

Life on Board

450 men crowded into less than 600 square meters of living space, sleeping in shifts, eating from communal bowls, disease an ever-present risk, tedium the order of the day. But the food was regular, the duty was clearly defined, and unlike in the army, you could come home in the winter.

The Search for Vasa

The Salvage

The Excavation

The Museum