Being able to see this fantastic vessel up close must be an extraordinary experience but being able to spend days or months working on this ship as few people in the world have been able to do must have been something indescribable. Your work is truly fascinating. I think it has something magical and the power to defeat time which has stopped on this wonderful object. Thank you for your stories and for passing on your great archaeological experience.
Awesome! I can tell that even as a simple OW diver the Eastern sea, above the lower Baltic sea is a hidden tresure, just around where i live there are at least 3 relatively intact shipwrecks from the 1800s i hawe been to one that where so insanely well preserved i almost looked as it where ancored waiting for a new rig there on the bottom of the sea. I think the only reason there are not more of them is that they break down into pieces if the ship did drive ashore before it sunk, but even on those sites the wood is usualy well preserved as long as it has been under the level of ice.
Yes, It is quite insane that even the ropes and blocks, tallow, etc could possibly even that well preserved, i doubt that many people here actualy realize what tresure this is! I hope You decide to publish the drawings in the future i would really look forward to that!
I saw the Wasa in 1987 just after sailing a beautiful, but simple, Swedish sailboat across the Atlantic. Wasa was still being misted at the time. I remember standing at the transom in frozen awe of the size, the decorations, and the beautiful lines. It was so amazing to me that this ship still existed.
Great video. Thanks. I remember first time I visited the Vasa museum. It was in the 70s and it was in the old makeshift corrugated building : 'Vasavarvet' it was called then. It was continually being sprayed with PEG, the beakhead was missing, the sterncastle was missing, the deck was missing... It looked like an impossible task to restore. I've been back since and it really is an impressive sight recommended to all! I live in Australia since a few decades back, so unfortunately I have not been back as much as I'd like.. :-)
Yes, by now they have reassembled her and the new museum was completed around her. It even was expanded a few years ago, but after my tenure there. I love this ship passionately!
Dr. Batchvarov, a couple of questions about the Vasa's bilge pumps. Concerning the pump fittings located, strangely enough, in the waterways of the lower gun deck: were these typical suction pumps and were the actual pump mechanisms found? In Vasa I page 347 Fig. 12-24 shows the piping for another pump. This shows a single lead pipe leading up from the bilge ending in a Y configuration. How did this pump work? Was the pump mechanism found? Love your videos! Thanks!
The two bilge pumps in the waterways run down towards the bilges. She is pretty flat-bottomed with very little deadrise. Thus, when heeled, under way, the central pump would not be able to evacuate water, as that would gather in the turn of the bilge area. The two side pumps, however (lead pipes) would be able to do that. The pump Mechanism itself is indeed a suction one and- clearly - removable. As far as I recall it is in the storage area of the museum, but I am not ready to swear to this. Most of my time was spent crawling through the frames of the ship, hidden between the planking and ceiling. My main achievement was figuring out how to trace them and comment them.
Following with interest and have been in the museum a number of times! And enjoyed Fred Hocker's book. Any ideas on where to get the Volume 1 of the archeological report? Seems to be sold out everywhere. Hope Vol1 would be reprinted once Vol2 is out? Or is it just silently sold in the museum shop, same as the plans? :)
@@kroumbatchvarov-archaeologist went to the museum shop today - they have plenty of Volume 2 in stock (895 sek), but Volume 1 is long gone and there is no way to order :( they call it ”the old testament and the new one” 😊 Will try my luck in the second hand market!
How does one become a ship archeologist?... Maybe you could tell us in one of your future videos. About Vasa: was it common for a ship of her era to have an asymmetrical structure? (I find it pretty shocking, especially for a ship of her class and status. Is it maybe a sign of lack of resources?...)
It is pretty common for traditional, bottom-based Dutch construction. As the bottom and bilges were assembled before any frames were added, with the help of temporary cleats nailed across the seams, the actual number and dimensions of the Timbers was irrelevant. Neither was there any need to have them strictly perpendicular. This explains why the Dutch built faster and cheaper than other nations in this period.
Good idea on the becoming ship archaeologist part! I may well do something like this. There are very few programs in the world that offer this line of study
Awesome video. I have the Mantua 1/60 Vasa. What books do you recommend to bring this model to an acceptable replica of the real ship. Thank you in advance.
It all depends on your budget for books. I recommend as general reference Vasa volume 1, the Vasa by Fred Hocker- more general, but with excellent photographs, and the absolutely needed book if you are planning to rig her, the Vasa 2. It is about to be released officially this month. It contains all that you could possibly ever want to know of rigging a 17th c ship in general and Vasa in specific. The hull volume, which now has been delegated to forth in the row is only just beginning to be worked on, so I am not sure how much time will Pass before we can publish it. I reckon 3-4 years at least. Thank you for watching and thank you for your comments!
A thing i heared about Vasa was that they had a part of a ship under construction, and that that ship was streched a bit to come to the dimentions of the plan, is this true or not? Is the contruction of the Vasa, framing ect. comparible to ships from like the Dutch VOC, like the Batavia. could the things learned form Vasa be transfert over to ship wrecks like that. Was the Vasa build/ framed like other ships (non warships) as in number of frames, size of the frames, thinckness of the planking, was there a speration between the to uses at this time, this is the construction of a warship, and that is the construction of a cargo/trading ship?
These are all excellent questions! First about the myth of the stretching of the ship or the addition of decks. It is purely a myth!! It began in the 1960s from incorrect interpretation of a document. The ship is a 3-decker. She always has been a three-decker and always was intended to look the way she does now. We have the correspondence between the King and the master shipwright and it is very clear that they had agreed on what the ship is to be before construction began. The sizes of timbers, the cost, money flow all are in accordance with the original agreement. As result of my work documenting the frames, we now have indisputable physical, archaeological evidence that the ship was always intended to be a 3-decker. The Vasa guides explain this to visitors, the books Fred Hocker published speak of it, at every lecture he speaks of it (and me to my students!) and yet, the myth refuses to die. Partially, because the City guides love to tell this story to American tourists who give them tips for this: very attractive, the story of a stupid King or ruling a shipwright. Utterly untrue, but very Hollywoodesque.
As to is it compatible: yes, absolutely! This is exactly how Batavia was built: it is known among us as bottom-based construction because the process begins with the assembly of the bottom planking with the help of short clears across the seams of neighboring planks. Thus, the shape of the bottom was achieved without a single floor timber being added. Only after this is complete, floor timbers are added to support the already achieved shape. Then what in English would be called the first futtocks are added. Then a few second futtocks are raised, on which is hung a batten, more or less coinciding with where the wakes would be, and into this overall shape the rest of the framing is added. The levels of framing (2-3 futtocks) are going up simultaneously with the planking and ceiling, as they are what holds the frames together. Should you remove the planking, the frame will collapse into pile of separate timbers. It was actually a very efficient and quick way to build a ship, that did not require expensive timbers or high cost of labour spent on converting them. They are irregular, they aren’t even straight and most definitely are not 90-degrees to the center line of the ship. It wasn’t necessary.
So, yes: this is the method that is attested on Batavia, too. On Vergulde Draak, on Mauritius and other Dutch 17thc wrecks. It was used for seagoing ships, it was used for smaller coastal and canal craft. As far as how similar is Vasa to a retourschip : very. There are two minor changes that were made to Vasa during construction: the mizzen mast was moved about a meter and a half, to Kate the geometry of the sail work- Fred writes about it in his book - and the second is in the bow. It is likely that initially she was intended to have a flat bow bulkhead. The current curving of the hull required addition of deckplqnking, which all begins on the same beam. It is about a meter, no more, long as far as I recall. This curving bulkhead type was better adapted for very heavy seas like the ones encountered in the Roaring 40s and around Cape of Good Hope and was characteristic of Dutch East Indiamen. I do not know why this change was made and I am not aware of any documents to have emerged that explain it.
And the final part of this lengthy reply to very interesting questions: because of the method used by the Dutch, there actually is no specification how many frames the ship has to have. In English ships, yes- the room and space specified will give you a specific number of frames. Not on Dutch ships. That’s why I said that building a frame model of Vasa, in the Navy Board style would be practically impossible or at least a deeply frustrating and aesthetically unsatisfying business. The dimensions or scantlings of the timbers is a product of the overall dimensions of the ship, which determines the size of keel, which in turn determines the size of frame timbers. As late as the initial battles of the Second Anglo-Dutch war, especially the Dutch (though the English, too, to a lesser degree) supplemented the fleet with hired merchant ships to which more guns were added. Thus, at the Battle of Lowestoft the four largest Dutch ships, all of 80- guns, were actually VOC ships. They were all lost. Dutch ships were more lightly built with lighter cannon in comparison to English contemporary practice, but they could and did outbuild the English heavily. Only after from 1666 onwards, merchant ships really begin to disappear from either fleet as they were considered too lightly-built and too slow. So any differences would be in timber dimensions, not so much in style of construction.
oh it is not realy a suprise, that the timbers dont have a unequal width. All timbers are hand hewen with axe and not sawn on a sawmill. Am I right when I say that all knee braces are from naural grown kees at the tree? In my area of germany, there are a lot of timber framed housed some are the same age like the VASA. There you will hardly find two equal planks. Only in case the wood is thick enough to first shape and than splitit in half, there will be two mirrored parts. Even more difficult for a ship that will need 20 times more wood than a timber framed farm house or barn. But what about all the aditional material? there must be hundreds of items on a worship even if it is not fully equiped. Special the handguns are interesting to me because I do a litle bit of historical gunbuilding myself. Did they use mainly matchlock muskets or were some more modern guns used as well, and were did they come from? Like doglock guns or maybe french locks availeble too. The veriety of different systems was extreme in that era. In every room of influence like germany or france or england they invented different systems at that times but only the flintlock survived as military weapon....... And for sure I love this contends 🙂 thank you alot for your nice videos.
Interesting point. For the Timbers, it wasn’t due to the hand cutting, but that the design and construction process didn’t need even timbers or even square to the centerline of the ship as most other shipbuilding traditions required (such as English whole-moulding for example). On English wrecks, there is some variation, but negligible in comparison with the framing of Vasa. This difference comes of bottom-based vs frame-first whole-moulded construction. Practically no iron survives from the ship. Very few hand guns were found and they appear to be hunting weapons. The soldiers and their equipment were not Yet aboard. Only the stock survives, without the iron of the personal weapons. Fred speaks of this in his book. Which I believe is also available in German
for sure I will try to find the book. I is a very intresting time period. Even the gunstocks would be interesting to me. At the moment I try to recreate a german flintlock Jäger rifle from about 1800. This time I tryed to make a period correct hand cutted rifling on the barrel..... Hopefully it will have a nice acuracy..... @@kroumbatchvarov-archaeologist
Being able to see this fantastic vessel up close must be an extraordinary experience but being able to spend days or months working on this ship as few people in the world have been able to do must have been something indescribable. Your work is truly fascinating. I think it has something magical and the power to defeat time which has stopped on this wonderful object. Thank you for your stories and for passing on your great archaeological experience.
Awesome! I can tell that even as a simple OW diver the Eastern sea, above the lower Baltic sea is a hidden tresure, just around where i live there are at least 3 relatively intact shipwrecks from the 1800s i hawe been to one that where so insanely well preserved i almost looked as it where ancored waiting for a new rig there on the bottom of the sea. I think the only reason there are not more of them is that they break down into pieces if the ship did drive ashore before it sunk, but even on those sites the wood is usualy well preserved as long as it has been under the level of ice.
Yes, exactly. And there are lots of wrecks there even with rigs still standing!
Yes, It is quite insane that even the ropes and blocks, tallow, etc could possibly even that well preserved, i doubt that many people here actualy realize what tresure this is! I hope You decide to publish the drawings in the future i would really look forward to that!
I saw the Wasa in 1987 just after sailing a beautiful, but simple, Swedish sailboat across the Atlantic. Wasa was still being misted at the time. I remember standing at the transom in frozen awe of the size, the decorations, and the beautiful lines. It was so amazing to me that this ship still existed.
Oh how right you are! This ship is the closest I have ever come to a “religious experience”!
Excellent!! Your very lucky to work on such a fine ship!
Many thanks!
I was indeed! My favourite job for sure
It is worth the trip to Sweden to see this magnificent ship.
Indeed it is!
For sure!
Keep it coming! It's like I am in class again.
Thank you so much! You keep watching, I’ll keep them coming :-)
Great video. Thanks.
I remember first time I visited the Vasa museum. It was in the 70s and it was in the old makeshift corrugated building : 'Vasavarvet' it was called then.
It was continually being sprayed with PEG, the beakhead was missing, the sterncastle was missing, the deck was missing...
It looked like an impossible task to restore.
I've been back since and it really is an impressive sight recommended to all!
I live in Australia since a few decades back, so unfortunately I have not been back as much as I'd like.. :-)
Yes, by now they have reassembled her and the new museum was completed around her. It even was expanded a few years ago, but after my tenure there. I love this ship passionately!
I really enjoyed the knowledge you passed on in this video. Thanks again for sharing 👍
Thank you!
Thank you very much, Kroum Batchvarov👍
I want to visit the Vasa next year, and spend as much time as possible. I am thinking about early spring.
Probably best- before the tourist season begins.
Dr. Batchvarov, a couple of questions about the Vasa's bilge pumps. Concerning the pump fittings located, strangely enough, in the waterways of the lower gun deck: were these typical suction pumps and were the actual pump mechanisms found? In Vasa I page 347 Fig. 12-24 shows the piping for another pump. This shows a single lead pipe leading up from the bilge ending in a Y configuration. How did this pump work? Was the pump mechanism found? Love your videos! Thanks!
The two bilge pumps in the waterways run down towards the bilges. She is pretty flat-bottomed with very little deadrise. Thus, when heeled, under way, the central pump would not be able to evacuate water, as that would gather in the turn of the bilge area. The two side pumps, however (lead pipes) would be able to do that. The pump
Mechanism itself is indeed a suction one and- clearly - removable. As far as I recall it is in the storage area of the museum, but I am not ready to swear to this. Most of my time was spent crawling through the frames of the ship, hidden between the planking and ceiling. My main achievement was figuring out how to trace them and comment them.
Great video Kroum. I am planning a trip to Vasa next year. Looking forward to it even more now. 😊
Seeing her for the first time is an incredible experience
Following with interest and have been in the museum a number of times! And enjoyed Fred Hocker's book.
Any ideas on where to get the Volume 1 of the archeological report? Seems to be sold out everywhere. Hope Vol1 would be reprinted once Vol2 is out?
Or is it just silently sold in the museum shop, same as the plans? :)
I would suggest the Museum store itself or Amazon. Or bookfinder.com. The 2nd volume just came out, but I still have not seen it.
@@kroumbatchvarov-archaeologist went to the museum shop today - they have plenty of Volume 2 in stock (895 sek), but Volume 1 is long gone and there is no way to order :( they call it ”the old testament and the new one” 😊
Will try my luck in the second hand market!
How does one become a ship archeologist?... Maybe you could tell us in one of your future videos.
About Vasa: was it common for a ship of her era to have an asymmetrical structure?
(I find it pretty shocking, especially for a ship of her class and status. Is it maybe a sign of lack of resources?...)
It is pretty common for traditional, bottom-based Dutch construction. As the bottom and bilges were assembled before any frames were added, with the help of temporary cleats nailed across the seams, the actual number and dimensions of the Timbers was irrelevant. Neither was there any need to have them strictly perpendicular. This explains why the Dutch built faster and cheaper than other nations in this period.
Good idea on the becoming ship archaeologist part! I may well do something like this. There are very few programs in the world that offer this line of study
Awesome video. I have the Mantua 1/60 Vasa. What books do you recommend to bring this model to an acceptable replica of the real ship. Thank you in advance.
It all depends on your budget for books. I recommend as general reference Vasa volume 1, the Vasa by Fred Hocker- more general, but with excellent photographs, and the absolutely needed book if you are planning to rig her, the Vasa 2. It is about to be released officially this month. It contains all that you could possibly ever want to know of rigging a 17th c ship in general and Vasa in specific. The hull volume, which now has been delegated to forth in the row is only just beginning to be worked on, so I am not sure how much time will
Pass before we can publish it. I reckon 3-4 years at least.
Thank you for watching and thank you for your comments!
A thing i heared about Vasa was that they had a part of a ship under construction, and that that ship was streched a bit to come to the dimentions of the plan, is this true or not?
Is the contruction of the Vasa, framing ect. comparible to ships from like the Dutch VOC, like the Batavia. could the things learned form Vasa be transfert over to ship wrecks like that.
Was the Vasa build/ framed like other ships (non warships) as in number of frames, size of the frames, thinckness of the planking, was there a speration between the to uses at this time, this is the construction of a warship, and that is the construction of a cargo/trading ship?
These are all excellent questions! First about the myth of the stretching of the ship or the addition of decks. It is purely a myth!! It began in the 1960s from incorrect interpretation of a document. The ship is a 3-decker. She always has been a three-decker and always was intended to look the way she does now. We have the correspondence between the King and the master shipwright and it is very clear that they had agreed on what the ship is to be before construction began. The sizes of timbers, the cost, money flow all are in accordance with the original agreement. As result of my work documenting the frames, we now have indisputable physical, archaeological evidence that the ship was always intended to be a 3-decker. The Vasa guides explain this to visitors, the books Fred Hocker published speak of it, at every lecture he speaks of it (and me to my students!) and yet, the myth refuses to die. Partially, because the City guides love to tell this story to American tourists who give them tips for this: very attractive, the story of a stupid King or ruling a shipwright. Utterly untrue, but very Hollywoodesque.
As to is it compatible: yes, absolutely! This is exactly how Batavia was built: it is known among us as bottom-based construction because the process begins with the assembly of the bottom planking with the help of short clears across the seams of neighboring planks. Thus, the shape of the bottom was achieved without a single floor timber being added. Only after this is complete, floor timbers are added to support the already achieved shape. Then what in English would be called the first futtocks are added. Then a few second futtocks are raised, on which is hung a batten, more or less coinciding with where the wakes would be, and into this overall shape the rest of the framing is added. The levels of framing (2-3 futtocks) are going up simultaneously with the planking and ceiling, as they are what holds the frames together. Should you remove the planking, the frame will collapse into pile of separate timbers. It was actually a very efficient and quick way to build a ship, that did not require expensive timbers or high cost of labour spent on converting them. They are irregular, they aren’t even straight and most definitely are not 90-degrees to the center line of the ship. It wasn’t necessary.
So, yes: this is the method that is attested on Batavia, too. On Vergulde Draak, on Mauritius and other Dutch 17thc wrecks. It was used for seagoing ships, it was used for smaller coastal and canal craft.
As far as how similar is Vasa to a retourschip : very. There are two minor changes that were made to Vasa during construction: the mizzen mast was moved about a meter and a half, to Kate the geometry of the sail work- Fred writes about it in his book - and the second is in the bow. It is likely that initially she was intended to have a flat bow bulkhead. The current curving of the hull required addition of deckplqnking, which all begins on the same beam. It is about a meter, no more, long as far as I recall. This curving bulkhead type was better adapted for very heavy seas like the ones encountered in the Roaring 40s and around Cape of Good Hope and was characteristic of Dutch East Indiamen. I do not know why this change was made and I am not aware of any documents to have emerged that explain it.
And the final part of this lengthy reply to very interesting questions: because of the method used by the Dutch, there actually is no specification how many frames the ship has to have. In English ships, yes- the room and space specified will give you a specific number of frames. Not on Dutch ships. That’s why I said that building a frame model of Vasa, in the Navy Board style would be practically impossible or at least a deeply frustrating and aesthetically unsatisfying business.
The dimensions or scantlings of the timbers is a product of the overall dimensions of the ship, which determines the size of keel, which in turn determines the size of frame timbers. As late as the initial battles of the Second Anglo-Dutch war, especially the Dutch (though the English, too, to a lesser degree) supplemented the fleet with hired merchant ships to which more guns were added. Thus, at the Battle of Lowestoft the four largest Dutch ships, all of 80- guns, were actually VOC ships. They were all lost. Dutch ships were more lightly built with lighter cannon in comparison to English contemporary practice, but they could and did outbuild the English heavily. Only after from 1666 onwards, merchant ships really begin to disappear from either fleet as they were considered too lightly-built and too slow. So any differences would be in timber dimensions, not so much in style of construction.
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oh it is not realy a suprise, that the timbers dont have a unequal width. All timbers are hand hewen with axe and not sawn on a sawmill. Am I right when I say that all knee braces are from naural grown kees at the tree? In my area of germany, there are a lot of timber framed housed some are the same age like the VASA. There you will hardly find two equal planks. Only in case the wood is thick enough to first shape and than splitit in half, there will be two mirrored parts. Even more difficult for a ship that will need 20 times more wood than a timber framed farm house or barn.
But what about all the aditional material? there must be hundreds of items on a worship even if it is not fully equiped. Special the handguns are interesting to me because I do a litle bit of historical gunbuilding myself. Did they use mainly matchlock muskets or were some more modern guns used as well, and were did they come from? Like doglock guns or maybe french locks availeble too. The veriety of different systems was extreme in that era. In every room of influence like germany or france or england they invented different systems at that times but only the flintlock survived as military weapon.......
And for sure I love this contends 🙂 thank you alot for your nice videos.
Interesting point. For the Timbers, it wasn’t due to the hand cutting, but that the design and construction process didn’t need even timbers or even square to the centerline of the ship as most other shipbuilding traditions required (such as English whole-moulding for example). On English wrecks, there is some variation, but negligible in comparison with the framing of Vasa. This difference comes of bottom-based vs frame-first whole-moulded construction.
Practically no iron survives from the ship. Very few hand guns were found and they appear to be hunting weapons. The soldiers and their equipment were not
Yet aboard. Only the stock survives, without the iron of the personal weapons. Fred speaks of this in his book. Which I believe is also available in German
for sure I will try to find the book. I is a very intresting time period. Even the gunstocks would be interesting to me. At the moment I try to recreate a german flintlock Jäger rifle from about 1800. This time I tryed to make a period correct hand cutted rifling on the barrel..... Hopefully it will have a nice acuracy..... @@kroumbatchvarov-archaeologist