The Salvaging

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The Salvaging

The exhibition "The Salvage" recounts the events from when Vasa was rediscovered by Anders Franzén in 1956 to when she broke the surface in 1961.

Here, you can see Anders Franzén's hand-made sounding lead, displayed alongside other materials that guided him in his search for Vasa. The diving suit in the exhibition shows how the divers, led by the diving supervisor Per Edvin Fälting, were equipped during the salvage operation in the 1950s and 60s. The suit, along with its accessories, weighed nearly 100 kilograms during the dives.

The diorama in the exhibition depicts a section of Vasa's hull as it lay in darkness, submerged in the mud at the bottom. The light from above illuminates a diver as he works to dig out one of the six tunnels beneath the ship. Through these tunnels, steel cables were later pulled and attached to the two salvage ships, Oden and Frigg. The salvage process is illustrated in a model series in the three glass cases in the exhibition: the wreck on the seabed, the first lift in 1959, and the final salvage in 1961. When Vasa broke the surface at 9:03 AM on April 24, 1961, it was in front of international TV cameras.