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00:15These divers are getting ready to enter the cold waters of Stockholm harbour.
00:22They are looking for the surviving remains of one of the most majestic galleons ever to put to sea,
00:28the Vassa. Archaeologist Fred Hocker is the project leader.
00:35When people write the history of 20th century archaeology, there are a handful of sites that will appear in every
00:43textbook.
00:46Tutankhamen's tomb will be one of those, and Vassa is going to be one of those because it is huge,
00:53it's spectacular,
00:54it's exceptionally well preserved, it reveals enormous amounts of information about the past.
01:02In the 1620s, the King of Sweden, Gustav II Adolf, also known as Gustavus Adolphus, reinforced his fleet with a
01:12new generation of warships.
01:14The first ship was called Vassa. It would be the most powerfully armed warship in the world. Vassa cast off
01:21from the royal palace.
01:26On the 10th of August 1628, the Vassa, named for Sweden's ruling dynasty, set sail on her maiden voyage.
01:50As the ship was pulling out to sea, the cannon fired a farewell salute.
01:57A small gust of wind caused the ship to heal. It recovered, but a second much stronger gust tipped the
02:05ship so far over, water started pouring in through the open gun ports.
02:13Eighteen minutes after setting sail, the Vassa disappeared under the water.
02:27The water there is 32 metres deep, but the ship is taller than that.
02:31So even after the ship came to rest on the bottom, the upper ends of the masts still poked out
02:37of the water, so everyone could see where the ship had sunk.
02:42The sinking of the Vassa was a catastrophe for Sweden's ambition to dominate the Baltic Sea and become the most
02:50powerful nation in Northern Europe.
02:53Raised from the seabed in the 1960s, the wreck of the Vassa is an amazing time machine.
03:00An archaeological treasure trove of artefacts that hold countless mysteries for researchers.
03:08Why did the Vassa sink?
03:10What does its wreck reveal about the geopolitics of a bygone era?
03:17What does it tell us about the lives of ordinary people?
03:42I've been working with Vassa now for 19 years, almost a third of my life. It's the pinnacle of an
03:49archaeological career.
03:51Even though the wreck was in near perfect condition when it was raised, some artefacts are yet to be found.
03:58And which spot are you going to look at first?
04:01It's one timber called number 11.
04:04Over a year ago, the scientific team sent down a robot to explore the harbour bed.
04:10It does not look like a Swedish knife, does it?
04:12No, it doesn't.
04:13That reminds me of when I lived in Texas.
04:16It's a classic Pui knife.
04:17So these red dots here, the indications here, these timbers, I think, look interesting.
04:23Things we should look at.
04:24Yeah. So we try to go down and have a look and see what we see.
04:30This dive is the result of years of research.
04:34That leaves one cannon that nobody has picked up yet.
04:39And that still could be down there.
04:41But there's a lot of other things that could be down there that are also very interesting.
04:46If you're looking for the bowsprit, you're looking for a timber that's like that thick.
04:51And, you know, seven metres, eight metres long.
04:53Big stuff could be down there.
04:54They had quite good visibility yesterday. It was pitch black.
05:03Here in the Baltic, the water is below eight degrees.
05:09Despite the limited visibility, the archaeologists hope to find the Vassar's last missing cannon.
05:20Not all treasure lies on the seabed.
05:22Some are held in the national archives in Stockholm.
05:29Contemporary documents can provide vital information about the sinking.
05:34Anna Maria Forsberg, one of the Vassar Museums researchers, has found one account of the events.
05:43This is a letter from the Rådet of Sweden, to Gustav II Adolf, the king of Sweden.
05:54It was a bit sad for them to write.
05:56Here they tell us that the Vassar has lost.
06:23In another letter, Gabriel Ochschen Schörner writes to his brother Axel, the grand captain of the ship.
06:30One chancellor of Sweden, the kings right hand man.
06:33What happened here is that the new, sköna skeppet Vasa was and cast it completely on the skull.
06:41With two sköna metallstycken.
06:44What I think is the most exciting thing about this brevet is a passage where he describes
06:49that the boatmen had to take their daughters and children on this trip.
06:54The idea was not that they would be with all the way, but they would go away.
06:59But unfortunately, they came not so far away, and many of them died.
07:04According to the letter, there were about 30 people.
07:06The king of the Skönaval is a former emperor.
07:08The British Empire of Poland
07:09The British Empire of Poland
07:16Unusually for the period, most of the sailors knew how to swim.
07:20This is why there were relatively few casualties.
07:24Preoccupied with his military campaign in Poland, the king did not hear the news immediately.
07:31It was several weeks before his response reached the capital.
07:35He demanded that an attempt be made to raise the ship
07:39and the guilty parties punished.
07:42Admiral Carl Carlson St. Gyllenhaelm, the king's half-brother,
07:47took charge of investigating the fiasco.
07:51A little less than four weeks after the sinking,
07:54an inquest was arranged in which the surviving officers
07:58and the shipbuilders would be interrogated by a prosecutor
08:02in front of a jury made up of members of the royal council
08:06and senior officers from the military.
08:08The inquest was held in one of the main rooms
08:11of the royal palace in Stockholm, the palace called Treykroner.
08:17Fortunately, the minutes from the inquest survived,
08:19so we get a very good sense of the moment
08:22and of the people who were involved.
08:27Captain Sofring Hansen.
08:29The captain escaped from the sinking ship at the last minute.
08:34He was arrested as soon as he set foot on dry land.
08:38According to the official records,
08:40he was shackled before his clothes were even dry.
08:44Everyone was sober.
08:46All the guns were properly secured.
08:49You can cut me in a thousand pieces
08:51if all the guns were not secured.
08:53Eric Jonson was also questioned.
08:55The artillery master miraculously survived.
08:59He had been struck by a gunport hatch cover
09:02and lay near death for several days.
09:05He was an artillery master,
09:07so he had run below decks
09:08to check that the guns were properly secured,
09:11which he reported they were.
09:13And one of the questions that he asked everyone was,
09:16were you drunk?
09:16And Eric Jonson gives a very detailed answer
09:19because he explains that he had had something to drink
09:23just twice that day
09:24and that he also said that he sat in the great cabin
09:28with his servant
09:28where they had a small bit of meat and bread
09:32and nothing more than that for the rest of the day.
09:35He then went on to try to defend himself.
09:39The ship would have sunk
09:40even if no sail had been raised.
09:43At which point,
09:44Admiral Carl Carlson Jillingham,
09:46who was chairing the inquest,
09:48asked if he knew if the ship was unstable.
09:51I'm not a captain nor a vice-admiral.
09:54I'm just an artillery master.
09:55For questions about its stability,
09:57you should have to ask the captain or the shipbuilder.
10:00The man who had designed the ship,
10:02Henrik Hübertzmann,
10:03had died a year before the ship sailed.
10:06He couldn't defend himself
10:09and he didn't need to be punished.
10:10So he was a perfectly acceptable,
10:13even an ideal scapegoat.
10:22No plans of the Vassa have been found.
10:26Shipbuilders of the period did not work from drawings.
10:29In the 17th century,
10:31Dutch shipbuilding was highly respected
10:34and the Vassa's Dutch designer
10:36had moved to Stockholm
10:37to manage the Navy shipyard with his wife.
10:45In the time that Vassa was built,
10:47none of the mathematical tools
10:49that we use today
10:50to calculate stability or displacement
10:52had yet been discovered.
10:53And so you largely had to build on the basis of experience.
10:57You took a design that you knew worked
11:00from a successful ship
11:01and made incremental changes to that.
11:04Designer Henrik Hübertzmann
11:06was a man of experience,
11:08but the Vassa represented a new challenge.
11:12One of the problems that he had in designing Vassa
11:15is that he'd never built a ship
11:17with multiple gun decks.
11:18And so he was stepping very far outside of his experience
11:22when he set about designing this ship.
11:26When Hübertzmann died,
11:28his wife, Margarita Nilsdottir,
11:31took over running the shipyard.
11:33It was not unheard of for women,
11:35and particularly widows,
11:36to manage a family concern.
11:39The Vassa was completed under her supervision
11:42with the technical build overseen
11:45by her husband's business partner,
11:47Arant de Crota.
11:48De Crota recounted submitting
11:51the planned dimensions to the king.
11:54The model was a ship built for the French.
11:59We built the ship that the king had approved.
12:03Then why did the ship sink?
12:07I don't know.
12:09Only God knows.
12:11God, or perhaps, the king.
12:15Who was this monarch so feared throughout Europe?
12:19When Gustavus Adolphus came to the throne in 1611,
12:22he was 16.
12:24He inherited three wars,
12:26one with Denmark,
12:28another with Russia,
12:29and a third with Poland.
12:32Gustav Adolphus was a real warrior king.
12:36One who stood in the middle of his troops
12:39and showed murder and fought in the first place.
12:47Sweden was in war during a large part of his government's time.
12:53In his 21st year on the throne,
12:55it was just a war in four years.
13:05The Thirty Years' War broke out in 1618.
13:09Its roots were in the political and religious clashes
13:13that had changed the face of Europe
13:15during the previous century,
13:17with Protestantism replacing Catholicism
13:20in many northern countries.
13:23Conversion was a way for states
13:25to assert their independence
13:27from the Pope,
13:28Catholic Spain
13:29and the Holy Roman Empire.
13:35Raised a Protestant,
13:37Gustavus Adolphus
13:38saw the upheaval
13:39as an opportunity to transform Sweden.
14:03Despite Sweden's struggling economy,
14:06the king still nurtured great ambitions.
14:08He wanted to make his country
14:11the dominant power in northern Europe.
14:14In Poland,
14:16Gustavus Adolphus
14:17was not only fighting a Catholic neighbor,
14:20he was also fighting his cousin,
14:23Sigismund III,
14:24king of Poland-Lithuania.
14:28As the grandsons of Gustav I,
14:31they both claimed to be the rightful heir
14:33to the Swedish throne.
14:38In 1621,
14:40Gustavus Adolphus
14:42seized the port of Riga
14:43from the Poles,
14:45giving him control
14:46over an expansive territory
14:48that encompasses today's Baltic states.
14:52Next,
14:53the king of Sweden
14:54wanted to take Gdansk,
14:55but his fleet
14:57suffered heavy losses.
15:05To regain superiority,
15:07new ships had to be built.
15:12There is some pressure
15:14because the king
15:15wants to build up
15:16his naval force
15:17as rapidly as possible
15:18so that it can be a useful tool
15:20in his war against his cousin,
15:23Sigismund of Poland-Lithuania.
15:29A large,
15:31heavily armed ship
15:32was needed.
15:36A 16th century change
15:38in naval tactics
15:40had seen boarding
15:41give way to cannonading.
15:44Tall stern castles
15:45benefited boarding,
15:47but did not provide
15:48the same strategic advantage
15:50once cannon were introduced.
15:53Ships remained at a distance
15:54to fire broadsides
15:56at each other.
16:09Why opt for cannonading?
16:12In 2013,
16:14Fred Hocker
16:15conducted an experiment
16:17to gauge its effectiveness.
16:19He cast a cannon
16:21identical to those
16:22on the Vassar.
16:23I'd really like to understand
16:25how you would have used Vassa
16:27in a battle
16:28in the 1620s.
16:30Well, if we're going to test
16:31how effective the cannon is
16:33against a ship,
16:34I'd like to see
16:34how accurate is it?
16:36How much damage does it do?
16:38Well, why don't we also test
16:39how well a ship
16:40would stand up to the cannon?
16:41So let's build a section
16:43of Vassa
16:44and use that as the target.
16:53The test is conducted
16:55at a military firing range
16:57using a full-scale cannon.
17:00The target is positioned
17:0130 metres away,
17:03a similar distance
17:04to close combat
17:05prior to boarding.
17:13The ball creates
17:15a shockwave
17:16in front of it
17:17that spalls off
17:19big splinters
17:20on the inside.
17:21And those splinters
17:22expand out
17:23from the point of impact
17:24in a cone
17:25at up to 45 degrees
17:27from the angle of impact.
17:30And the paradox is
17:32the thicker the timber is,
17:34the more the risk is
17:35for the people inside
17:36because the thicker the timber
17:38generates bigger splinters.
17:40If you were killed
17:41by being hit by a cannonball,
17:42it became part of a legend
17:44because it was actually
17:45quite rare.
17:46Most people
17:47were killed
17:48or injured
17:49by splinters.
17:52The cannon had a range
17:54of 300 to 500 metres
17:56but was so inaccurate
17:58they were fired
17:59at the last minute.
18:01The primary function
18:02of artillery
18:03in Voss's time
18:04was believed to be
18:06to soften up the enemy
18:07before you boarded the ship.
18:09And so what you were
18:10trying to do
18:10was to wound
18:12as many enemy men
18:14as you could
18:14and break their will
18:16to defend their own ship.
18:18So what you wanted to do
18:19was to create carnage.
18:24You didn't really want
18:26to sink the ship
18:27because you wanted
18:28to capture the ship.
18:29So ideally you'd like
18:30to wound as many soldiers
18:31and sailors as you could
18:32with as little damage
18:33to the ship as you could.
18:38Gunners used a range
18:39of ammunition
18:40depending on the kind
18:41of damage
18:42that was required.
18:45There were three types
18:46of ammunition
18:47you could use
18:47against rigging.
18:48One was a normal cannonball
18:50with a spike through it
18:51and that was designed
18:52to tear ragged holes
18:54and sails
18:54at long distance
18:56to slow an enemy ship down
18:57and reduce its ability
18:59to maneuver.
19:00Someone had the bright idea
19:01that if that would be effective
19:03you could make it even better
19:04by taking that cannonball
19:06and making two halves
19:08with a spike in each half
19:10and a pivot in the middle
19:11so that in action
19:13it would open in the air
19:14like a pair of scissors.
19:16At close range
19:18you could load something
19:19called chain shot
19:20which is two half cannonballs
19:23fastened together
19:24by a length of chain
19:25and that would open up
19:26in the air
19:27and travel like a flying guillotine
19:30and that would cut down rigging
19:32cut down men
19:34and finally at close range
19:35if you were interested
19:36in really destroying
19:39the will of the crew
19:40you loaded something
19:41that we call case shot
19:42and that's a wooden canister
19:45about that big
19:46full of musket balls
19:48or scrap metal
19:49it turns a 24 pounder cannon
19:52into a gigantic shotgun.
19:55The temptation
19:57to install multiple cannon
19:59is understandable.
20:01The generations of warships
20:02that came after the Vasa
20:03all resorted to cannonading.
20:06These vessels
20:07had no tall stern cursals
20:09as they had become superfluous.
20:13But the Vasa was built
20:15during a period of tactical transition
20:18when naval architects
20:20included both cannon
20:21and a tall stern cursal
20:23in their ship design.
20:27The desire for heavier
20:29and heavier armament
20:30created design challenges
20:32for the builders of ships
20:34in how to accommodate
20:35all of this weight
20:36high up in the ship
20:37and still have it possible
20:39to sail the ship safely.
20:43Did the Vasa sink
20:45as the result
20:46of a design flaw
20:47or because of
20:48a navigational error?
20:50Several days
20:51into the inquest
20:52the prosecutor believed
20:53he had found the culprit.
20:55Not a superior officer
20:57but the ship's master
20:59Joran Mattson.
21:01Mattson defended himself
21:03telling the inquest
21:05that the captain
21:06had conducted
21:07a stability test.
21:0930 sailors
21:10had to run
21:11back and forth
21:12on the deck
21:12but after three trips
21:14they were told
21:14to stop.
21:16If they'd continued
21:17the ship would have capsized.
21:21Mattson gave further evidence
21:22to the stunned inquest.
21:26It was Vice Admiral
21:28Klaas Fleming
21:29who told them
21:29to stop the test.
21:31I heard him say
21:33if only his Royal Majesty
21:34were at home.
21:35As a member
21:37of the Navy's top brass
21:39Klaas Fleming
21:40had direct access
21:41to the king.
21:43Why did he not
21:44tell him about the test?
21:46The minutes
21:47of the inquest
21:48include another
21:49critical testimony.
21:51Hugo was probably
21:52a shipyard worker.
21:55Hugo says
21:56that the ship
21:58is not wide enough
22:00and that the keel
22:02cannot bear
22:03the weight
22:05above the water.
22:06And basically
22:06that's the same
22:07conclusion we have today.
22:08Exactly.
22:09There's not enough
22:10ship in the water
22:11to carry the part
22:12that's out of the water.
22:13Yeah.
22:13Everyone knew
22:14no one spoke up.
22:16However,
22:17the ship's master
22:18had tried to stabilize
22:20the Vassa
22:20by putting ballast
22:22in the hold.
22:23Here's where
22:24the fiscal
22:25and the prosecutor
22:26asks the ship's master
22:28was it your fault
22:30that the ship sank
22:30because you didn't
22:31put enough ballast
22:32in the ship?
22:34And then he answers
22:35and explains
22:36that he put in
22:37the right amount
22:38and he couldn't have
22:39put one stone more
22:40he says.
22:41And anyway
22:42if he had added
22:43more ballast
22:44the gun ports
22:45would have been
22:45too close to the water
22:46and things would have
22:47been even worse.
22:50Did the captain
22:51make an error
22:52just after
22:53the Vassa set sail?
22:55As Vassa
22:56left the harbor
22:57they fired a salute
22:59a tradition
23:00which meant
23:01that all the gun ports
23:02were open
23:02and the cannon
23:03were run out
23:04and eventually
23:05part of the process
23:07of getting ready for sea
23:08would have been
23:08to pull the cannon in
23:09and close the gun ports.
23:11They hadn't gotten
23:12to that point yet
23:14when that gust of wind
23:16filled the sails
23:17but it was the captain's
23:18first order
23:19once the ship
23:20started to heal
23:21was to try to close
23:22the gun ports
23:23so that the ship
23:24wouldn't take on water.
23:28after water
23:29flooded the lower decks
23:30it was impossible
23:32to write the ship
23:33had the gun ports
23:35been closed
23:36the Vassa
23:37probably wouldn't
23:38have sunk that day
23:39but it was not
23:40sea worthy.
23:45Vems fel var det
23:47egentligen att
23:47Vasa sjöng?
23:48En fråga som är
23:49väldigt aktuell
23:50direkt efter
23:51förlisningen
23:52och sen har
23:53fortsatt att
23:53jäcka människor
23:54men det är ganska
23:55svårt att hitta
23:56en ensam
23:57skyldig person
23:58de som konstruerade
24:00skeppet
24:00de som byggde det
24:01hade naturligtvis
24:02ett ansvar
24:04amiralen
24:05Flemming
24:06som visste
24:06att det var instabilt
24:07och som inte sa
24:07någonting till kungen
24:08har ju ett ännu
24:09större ansvar
24:10men det vilar ju också
24:11ett ansvar på kungen
24:12själv
24:13som uppenbarligen
24:14regerade i en kultur
24:15där ingen av hans
24:16undersåtar
24:17vågade berätta
24:18sanningen för honom.
24:19There's a lot
24:20of literature
24:21in the business
24:21world especially
24:22that uses
24:24Vasa
24:24as a case
24:25study
24:26for how
24:27not to
24:27manage a project
24:28There's even
24:29a book
24:30about this
24:31called
24:31Vasa
24:31Syndrome
24:32By the end
24:33of the inquest
24:34no one
24:35was held
24:35accountable
24:36and condemned
24:37for the
24:37catastrophe
24:38but the Vasa
24:39became
24:40a salient
24:41lesson
24:43Several
24:44unsuccessful
24:45salvage
24:46attempts
24:46were made
24:47in the months
24:48following the
24:48sinking
24:49Then the sea
24:51closed over
24:51the Vasa
24:52for 300
24:53years
24:54Over the years
24:56many treasure
24:57hunters
24:58tried to
24:58locate the
24:59wreck
25:00In 1956
25:02Anders
25:03Fransen
25:04an engineer
25:05and maritime
25:06history
25:06enthusiast
25:07tried his
25:08luck too
25:08He was
25:09assisted
25:10by leading
25:11diver
25:12per Edwin
25:13Falting
25:13So they
25:15start dragging
25:16the water
25:16in front
25:17of Beckholmen
25:17in the
25:18summer
25:18of 1956
25:19And on
25:21August 25th
25:22they grabbed
25:23that they're
25:23using
25:23fastens
25:24in something
25:25And there's
25:26a plug
25:26of black
25:27oak
25:28They tried
25:29to identify
25:30the origin
25:31of this
25:31fragment
25:32by exploring
25:33the seabed
25:35It was a
25:36large ship
25:37buried
25:37in 5 metres
25:39of mud
25:42When a
25:43three metre
25:43figurehead
25:44a lion
25:45the symbol
25:46of royal
25:47power
25:47and a
25:48cannon
25:48bearing
25:49Gustavus
25:50Adolphus'
25:50arms
25:51were recovered
25:51the
25:52archaeologists
25:53knew
25:53they had
25:54found
25:54the
25:54Vasa
25:56It was
25:57decided
25:57that the
25:58first phase
25:59of moving
25:59the ship
26:00would involve
26:00putting cables
26:02completely
26:02under the
26:03ship
26:03And so
26:04Navy divers
26:05spent the
26:06next two
26:06years
26:07digging six
26:08tunnels
26:09completely
26:10under the
26:11ship
26:11using high
26:12pressure
26:12water jets
26:13so that they
26:14could pass
26:14cables under
26:15the ship
26:20One of the
26:21questions that
26:21the engineers
26:22connected to
26:23the project
26:24have
26:25during the
26:26entire
26:26salvage
26:27process
26:27is
26:28can Vasa
26:29take it
26:30Is the
26:31ship in
26:31good enough
26:32condition
26:32that it
26:33will hold
26:34together
26:35under all
26:36of the
26:36stress
26:36of pulling
26:37it out
26:37of the
26:37mud
26:38bringing
26:38it to
26:39the
26:39surface
26:39moving
26:40it
26:40and
26:41then
26:41emptying
26:41it
26:41Because
26:42one of
26:42the
26:43possibilities
26:43that they
26:43consider
26:44is that
26:44when they
26:45lift
26:45the ship
26:46the six
26:46cables
26:46will just
26:47slice
26:47the ship
26:47in seven
26:48pieces
26:54The wreck
26:55was slowly
26:56moved
26:56to shallower
26:57waters
26:58Almost five
27:00years later
27:00on the 24th
27:01of April
27:021961
27:03a crowd
27:04gathered
27:05to watch
27:05the final
27:06phase
27:06of the
27:07salvage
27:07effort
27:09Broadcast
27:10live
27:10around the
27:11world
27:11millions
27:12of viewers
27:13watched
27:13this
27:14delicate
27:14operation
27:19The winches
27:20on the
27:20two
27:21pontoons
27:21start
27:22to
27:23haul
27:23the
27:23ship
27:23up
27:24slowly
27:25clank
27:26clank
27:27clank
27:28and soon
27:29the ends
27:31of some
27:32of the
27:32upper
27:32timbers
27:32of the
27:33ship
27:33like
27:33bent
27:34fingers
27:34start
27:35to
27:35appear
27:36out
27:36of the
27:36water
27:36and people
27:37wonder
27:38is this
27:38actually
27:39a ship
27:39but soon
27:40two ghostly
27:42faces appear
27:43coming up
27:44out of the
27:44water
27:45towards the
27:45bow
27:46that have
27:47stayed in
27:47their places
27:48for 333
27:49years
27:49originally
27:50they were
27:51Roman warriors
27:52but now
27:52they're so
27:53eroded
27:53they look
27:54like ghosts
27:57and people
27:58can start
27:58to see
27:59how much
27:59ship
28:00there really
28:05is
28:05the
28:06upper
28:06parts
28:06of the
28:07vassar
28:07had been
28:07damaged
28:08over the
28:08centuries
28:09but the
28:10bases
28:11of the
28:11masts
28:12the decks
28:13and the
28:13hull
28:14had
28:14miraculously
28:15survived
28:20the
28:21mud
28:21and the
28:22water
28:22was
28:23cleared
28:23to
28:24lighten
28:24the
28:25ship
28:29three
28:30months
28:30later
28:31the
28:31wreck
28:32was
28:32slowly
28:32towed
28:33to
28:33a
28:33dry
28:33dock
28:34Gustavus
28:35Adolphus
28:36never
28:36saw
28:36his
28:36galleon
28:37sail
28:37but
28:38his
28:38successor
28:39Gustav
28:40VI
28:40Adolf
28:41had
28:41the
28:41privilege
28:42of
28:43exploring
28:43it
28:44even
28:45without
28:45its
28:45stern
28:46castle
28:46the
28:47hull
28:47stands
28:48at
28:48an
28:48impressive
28:4820
28:49meters
29:00Carl
29:01Olaf
29:01Sederland
29:02a
29:02pioneer
29:02of
29:03maritime
29:03archaeology
29:04was
29:05part
29:05of
29:05the
29:05team
29:06that
29:06refloated
29:06the
29:07Vasa
29:07in
29:071961
29:10this
29:11is
29:11my
29:11favorite
29:12view
29:12of
29:12the
29:12ship
29:12what
29:13was
29:14it
29:14like
29:14when
29:14you
29:14first
29:15went
29:15on
29:15board
29:15right
29:16after
29:17it
29:17had
29:17been
29:17raised
29:17it
29:18was
29:18wet
29:19you
29:19had
29:20to
29:21be
29:21dressed
29:21in
29:21rubber
29:22from
29:22top
29:22and
29:23have
29:23helmet
29:24on
29:24and
29:24then
29:25you
29:25have
29:25to
29:25wade
29:25through
29:26the
29:26mud
29:31here
29:40come
29:40the
29:41hundreds
29:41of
29:41fynd
29:42per
29:42dag
29:42som
29:43we
29:43had
29:43to
29:43hand
29:43om
29:44and
29:44it
29:45was
29:45so
29:45an
29:45intensive
29:46verksam
29:51rake
29:52to
29:52i
29:53väldigt
29:53god
29:53kondition
29:54av
29:54flera
29:55sken
29:56Östersjön
29:57i
29:57ett
29:57särskilt
29:58hav
29:58i
29:59det
29:59avseendet
29:59att
29:59det
30:00bevarar
30:01trävirke
30:02bättre
30:02än
30:03vad som
30:04är
30:04fallet
30:04i
30:05stora
30:05oceaner
30:05dels
30:06är
30:06det
30:06ett
30:06lugnare
30:07hav
30:07så
30:08det
30:08förstörs
30:09inte
30:09lika
30:10kraftigt
30:11sen
30:11finns
30:12det
30:12en
30:14skeppsmask
30:14som
30:15finns i
30:15saltare
30:16vatten
30:16och som inte finns i Östersjön
30:18och den skeppsmasken
30:19den äter
30:20upp
30:20trävirke
30:22These
30:22are the
30:22reasons
30:23for
30:23Vasa's
30:24remarkable
30:24state
30:25of
30:25preservation.
30:26But
30:27the
30:27chemistry
30:27of
30:28the
30:28water
30:28in
30:28Stockholm
30:28harbour
30:29is
30:29terrible
30:30for
30:30metals
30:30and
30:31so
30:32we
30:32have
30:33not
30:33so
30:33much
30:34in
30:34the
30:34way
30:34of
30:34metal
30:34material
30:35that
30:35survives
30:36especially
30:37if
30:37it's
30:37iron.
30:39there
30:40are
30:40over
30:40250
30:41tools
30:42of
30:42various
30:43types
30:43found
30:43on
30:43board
30:44the
30:44ship
30:44but
30:44a
30:44lot
30:44of
30:44them
30:45are
30:45just
30:45sticks
30:46this
30:46long
30:46only
30:47the
30:47handles
30:47survive
30:48the
30:48axe
30:48heads
30:49and
30:49hammer
30:49heads
30:50have
30:50disappeared
30:51they've
30:51corroded
30:52away
30:52even
30:53where
30:53we
30:53have
30:53iron
30:54objects
30:54that
30:54survive
30:55they've
30:56lost
30:56a lot
30:56of
30:56their
30:56weight
30:57so
30:57a
30:57cannonball
30:58that
30:58originally
30:59weighed
30:5910
30:59kilograms
31:00maybe
31:00weighs
31:012
31:01kilograms
31:02or
31:023
31:02kilograms
31:02now
31:03once
31:04out
31:04of
31:04the
31:04water
31:05there
31:05was
31:05a
31:05danger
31:06the
31:06wreck
31:06would
31:07rot
31:07so
31:08it
31:08was
31:08sprayed
31:08with
31:09glycol
31:09this
31:10solution
31:11slowly
31:11penetrates
31:12the
31:12wood
31:12and
31:13represses
31:13the
31:13activity
31:14of
31:14microorganisms
31:15liable
31:16to
31:16attack
31:16it
31:20in
31:211988
31:21after
31:2226
31:23years
31:23of
31:24spraying
31:24and
31:24drying
31:25the
31:25Vasa
31:25a
31:26purpose
31:26built
31:27museum
31:27opened
31:28its
31:28doors
31:30today
31:31it
31:31is
31:31Sweden's
31:32most
31:32popular
31:32museum
31:33visitors
31:34can
31:34admire
31:35the
31:35remarkable
31:35ship
31:36as well
31:36as
31:37the
31:37700
31:37odd
31:37statues
31:38that
31:38once
31:39adorned
31:39it
31:42model
31:42replicas
31:43reflect
31:44the
31:44vibrancy
31:44of
31:45the
31:45original
31:45colors
31:47when
31:47Vasa
31:48sailed
31:48on its
31:49jungle
31:49and the
31:50sea
31:51was not so
31:51brown
31:52as it
31:52is now
31:53but
31:53it was
31:54it was
31:54of
31:54colors
31:55of
31:56gray
31:56and
31:56kitsch
31:57and
31:57we
31:58would
31:58think
31:59as
31:59vulgar
32:00but
32:00it was
32:01the
32:01time
32:01and
32:01its
32:01mod
32:02it
32:06it
32:06It's
32:07but
32:08it's
32:08it's
32:08cost
32:08but
32:09it's
32:10it's
32:11a
32:11it's
32:11of
32:12the
32:12and
32:13the
32:13that
32:14that
32:14shows
32:14what
32:15the
32:15this
32:16is
32:17as a symbol
32:18for
32:19it
32:19but
32:19it was
32:20not
32:20just
32:20a
32:21but
32:21it's
32:22a propaganda
32:23as
32:23it's
32:25and
32:25it's
32:25it's
32:26This is a nation symbolized by six women and five men.
32:31This is very unusual in the 1600-tall, to bring a nation on this way.
32:37He has allowed to protect his people, but he has also allowed to be loyal and faithful.
32:46And the one who is my favorite is a little girl who sits on the right side.
32:56She has a heavy fist, her shoulders, and she looks a little stupid.
33:03And this is what the majority often saw on the population in Sweden at this time.
33:08Atop the sterncastle, the king dominates his subjects,
33:12but he is supported by these representatives of the people.
33:16Gustavus Adolphus stands above the heroes of the Old Testament
33:21and is in line with King David, the harp-player, who slayed Goliath with God's help.
33:28David was also well-known for the Swedes.
33:31And he also symbolized this idea that even if he is little and weak,
33:35even if he doesn't have many soldiers or many weapons,
33:39you can destroy a great and powerful fiend.
33:42The Vassa was richly decorated inside and out.
33:47As the fleet's flagship, this galleon would have been used by the king.
34:00Analysis has revealed that the great cabin's wood panelling was not painted but varnished.
34:07This cabin would have been fitted out like a room in the royal palace,
34:11with decorative elements and luxury furnishings.
34:21Over the last 20 years, Fred Hocker and the research team
34:25have accurately reconstructed most of the Vassa.
34:28It's been a long time ago, but a few key elements are still to be found.
34:51So, do you see wonderful things down there?
34:54Interesting things?
34:55Uh, lots of timbers and stuff, but nothing that can connect to Vassa.
35:00Okay, just loose timber?
35:02Loose timbers. Nothing, no cannon, no sculpture.
35:06And the sediment out, you know, further out from the slope is really, really, yeah, not so nice.
35:14You're always disappointed if you don't find what you hoped you'd find.
35:18I'm still pretty convinced that there is one cannon unaccounted for from Vassa 64.
35:23Uh, and it has to be somewhere.
35:33Sometimes, researchers do get lucky.
35:36A few miles from where the Vassa sank, archaeologist Jim Hansen has found another wreck.
35:41It will help our understanding of the Vassa.
35:51It is a remarkable find.
35:54A large warship with two gun decks, just like the Vassa.
35:58Well, the archives confirm that it has to be the Epplet, the Vassers sistership, built a year after the Vassa
36:08sank in 1629.
36:13When we came down the first time on the Epplet, so when we came down there, it was a really
36:18bad way.
36:18When we came down there, it was quite a bit of stone, and we thought, well, it might not be
36:23so nice here.
36:24Then we came to a large tank that sticks up a hundred meters on its own places.
36:30On Vasa, you really got the feeling that this was something else.
36:38The cannons were completely intact and in two different levels.
36:44Here was a big overluksfarty.
36:48We knew that it was Vasas systerfartyg that had two cannons.
36:58The Epplet and the Vasa are sister ships because they are exactly the same length
37:05and were built at the same shipyard.
37:13We took the measurements of the deck beams to try to figure out the widest part of the hull.
37:20Here we can see the Epplet in orange and the grey one is Vasa.
37:25So we see here that the Epplet is much wider than Vasa is.
37:29And you also see here in the profile.
37:32It's about a meter bigger.
37:33Yeah, exactly as the archives tell us.
37:35Yeah, right, because the survey they did of Epplet.
37:40Vasa is a disaster.
37:42But Epplet is just enough better that it's actually sales.
37:45It's actually used on campaigns briefly, but it's never considered a really good ship.
37:51We also found that they tried to sell it to France three times, but they didn't want to buy it.
37:59Wider and more stable than the Vasa, the Epplet helps prove that the shipbuilders had identified the problem and tried
38:07to remedy it.
38:09After a short period of active service, the Epplet was left in dock in Stockholm for 30 years.
38:17And then by the 1650s, it's decided it would be a better use of that ship to form part of
38:23the blockage that was being built in the approaches to Stockholm.
38:27This was a very common way of defending a place to sink ships. We know of it from Roman times.
38:37The Epplet will be stuck on the bottom. It's very difficult to pull up a large ship.
38:41We have our experience with Vasa.
38:44It's not a point when we have today's techniques or 3D-model.
39:03With its many treasures, the older of the two sister ships is a veritable time machine.
39:16After she sank in 1628, people tried to recover valuable items.
39:22The wreck was easy to find.
39:25She lay at a depth of 30 meters, with her masts sticking out of the water.
39:31The most coveted items were her cannon.
39:35There were 64 in all.
39:37When the galleon was raised in 1961, only three were found.
39:43So what happened to the others?
39:56In 1658, Hans Albrecht von Trillebendt, Dykaklockan, in Sweden.
40:01A big clock, used by bly.
40:04It was down under the water, steadily, so that the water was still there.
40:10A person could still stand here and stand in the clock.
40:18You're welcome.
40:19Lars Gustafson, a professional diver, has tested all sorts of equipment over the course of his career.
40:27A 17th century diving suit is one of the most dangerous.
40:35It's made of moose hide and sewn using traditional Inuit techniques to be as waterproof as possible.
40:44Bell diving is dangerous.
40:47The oxygen inside the bell is rapidly depleted.
40:51To make up for this, a barrel of air connected by a hose to the bell is lowered at the
40:57same time.
41:12Inside the bell, only the diver's head and shoulders are out of the water.
41:16He has no means of seeing what he's doing, and the weights he wears to maintain stability make it very
41:23hard to move.
41:26During this experiment, Lars Gustafson used hooks designed in the 17th century to try and understand how the cannon were
41:36recovered.
41:40After a realistic clocking, you can understand that it had to do such things.
41:47But there are many mysteries that you don't know how they managed to manage it.
41:53For example, to burn a bronze cannon out of a cannon truck on Vasa without any damage to anything else.
42:02It's incredible.
42:15Trileben's operation was a success.
42:18Between 1663 and 1665, 60 cannon were recovered from the wreck.
42:25But where are they now?
42:28Danish historian, Esger Christensen, has been searching the German, Danish and Swedish archives.
42:36He has found a lead.
42:38We know that the Vasa cannons were transported from Stockholm to Lubeck in 1665.
42:45And there was a lot.
42:46There was actually 62 tons of bronze cannons.
42:5253 cannon crossed the Baltic, bound for the port of Lubeck.
43:00Lubeck was a major hub for copper and arms.
43:04The city was known throughout Europe for its foundries.
43:08After 40 years underwater, corrosion made the cannon unstable.
43:12If anyone had tried to fire them, they would have exploded.
43:19So the bronze was melted down for new weapons.
43:3117th century European trade was not only about arms.
43:36From the 12th century, alliances between city-states in northern Europe resulted in one of the world's earliest trade associations,
43:46the Hanseatic League.
43:50From London to Novgorod in Russia, the League included some 200 towns and trading posts.
43:59Connected via land routes to other trade networks, it spanned Europe.
44:07To maintain their sovereignty, some Hanseatic cities remained neutral during conflicts.
44:13This meant trade could continue with all warring parties.
44:17Peace talks were also held in neutral cities.
44:23In the 17th century, the North and Baltic seas were vital for the transportation of goods.
44:31When the Wasser was built, the seven United Provinces of the Netherlands dominated maritime trade.
44:39By trading with Amsterdam and the Hanseatic ports, Gustavus Adolphus could sell Sweden's valuable copper ore,
44:47allowing him to purchase supplies to build ships, such as wood from Poland-Lithuania and hemp canvas from Brittany.
44:56Sweden's fleet became one of the most modern navies of the period.
45:12History tends to illuminate the powerful, but often tells us less about the lives of ordinary people.
45:21Studying bones can help our understanding of more everyday lives.
45:54The
45:55when you first did this, sometimes it has been a bit wrong.
46:05Bone's hair and even brain were preserved.
46:18Skeletal remains found on the Vasa have made it possible
46:22to reconstruct the faces of some of the casualties.
46:26In 2022, the Vasa Museum decided to undertake further DNA analysis
46:33to gain new insights.
46:40Today, it is skeleton G's turn to have a sample taken.
46:44This skeleton has been named Gustav.
46:53Thanks to new techniques, scientists can now extract highly accurate data
46:58from nuclear DNA.
47:01It is richer than mitochondrial DNA, but less resilient.
47:19Anna-Maria Fosberg joins Marie Allen at Uppsala's forensics office.
47:29Skeleton G's DNA has a surprise in store.
47:47So, Gustav is in fact a woman.
47:51The skull and the face were reconstructed by world-renowned reconstruction artist,
47:56Oscar Nielsen.
47:58He has to start all over again.
48:02The skull and the face were reconstructed by world-renowned reconstruction artist,
48:03and he has to start all over again.
48:14The sculptor is guided by marks on the cranium left by muscles.
48:19He has already reconstructed six faces for the Vasa Museum.
48:27The new DNA data tells us that the woman, now known as Gertrude, had light eyes and hair.
48:48The skull and the face were reconstructed by the eyes and hair.
48:56The skull and the face were reconstructed by the eyes and hair.
49:04She's almost done with muscles.
49:06The next step is to put on layers of hair.
49:12She's been some kind of manual labourer,
49:14or doing that kind of heavy farm work, or something like that, all through her life.
49:19Because her spine, the elements of her spine are almost locked together.
49:23Because the muscle attachments in her vertebra have overgrown so much.
49:31We want to know who those people were that built the ship, who cut the timber, who sailed the ship.
49:37And in this case, the 30 people who died when the ship sank.
49:41Is a way for us to understand the human dimension of what this wreck means.
49:47To look at those people as individuals.
50:00What was Gertrude wearing?
50:03None of Skeleton G's clothing has survived.
50:06Except for a bonnet.
50:08Found in early 2023.
50:10It's so exciting with this mess.
50:12It's found very close to Gertrude.
50:15I saw that the size fits very well with the size of her skull.
50:22The size of this group has not studied.
50:26So it's fantastic that we have the opportunity to look at it in detail.
50:33When I look at it in a microscope, you can see that on some places, it's a lot of red.
50:41Yes.
50:47Fragments of women's clothing found on the ship have enabled the scientists to create an outfit similar to something Gertrude
50:55would have worn.
51:20Gertrude is reunited with her bonnet.
51:27Here she is.
51:28Nice to meet you, Gertrude.
51:31Of course, we're never going to get all the way there because we can't.
51:34We can't know what's inside her head.
51:36But it gives me a sense that what I do is worthwhile.
51:38That it's worth all the effort it takes to do all the different kinds of analysis that we do in
51:45order to have a chance to meet someone from the past.
51:50They're people to me.
51:52And literally putting flesh on the bones here is emotional.
51:56It takes it out of the realm of the purely academic into the realm of the very personal.
52:02Hello.
52:03Hello.
52:04Look how beautiful it is.
52:10Okay, let's go back here.
52:11Yes, let's go back here.
52:14Yes, let's go back here.
52:14Let's see.
52:19So.
52:29The skeletons of 15 victims have been reconstructed.
52:37Most of the people who were found in the ship are relatively young men between the ages of, say, late
52:44teens to 30s.
52:46We have two older males.
52:50Of the two, the skeleton that we call Johan is a person who is probably in his 50s, maybe even
52:58as old as 60.
53:02This skeleton could be Hans Jonsson, an old, highly experienced captain who sailed on the Wasser's maiden voyage.
53:12This is easily our best candidate to be Hans Jonsson, because he's the oldest skeleton.
53:18He also has some injuries that suggest that he would have walked with a pretty bad limp, so probably wasn't
53:25an ordinary sailor.
53:30What we think we can see about his last moments is that he was trying to survive.
53:37That he appears to have climbed up to the top of this pile of anchor cable because it was the
53:42highest point.
53:43And as the water was rising, the air pocket in that compartment was gradually disappearing.
53:54But it was a strange place for a senior captain to be, which is why we think he probably fell
54:00there.
54:00The fact that he's a little unsteady on his feet because of injuries he'd had earlier in life,
54:06means that it might be more likely that he had fallen down through the hatches when the ship began to
54:10heel over.
54:25There was no crew list for the Wasser's maiden voyage.
54:29There is no way of knowing exactly how many people were on the ship when she sank.
54:36The soldiers had not yet boarded, but the sailors' wives and children were allowed on board that first day.
54:44The crew is a good representation of Swedish society.
54:49The sailors, mainly conscripts, came from farming and fishing families.
54:54On board, the strict military and social hierarchy between the officers and the ratings was reflected in their food, personal
55:04belongings and accommodation.
55:12Officers in Kajutan had two people in each room.
55:18There were two people in each room. There were nice chairs and boards.
55:22So here they could live a nice life.
55:25It was normal to have a nice service, a good wine, maybe even with wine.
55:57The rest of the crew lived on the lower decks amongst the campers.
56:06There were a lot of people here.
56:08There were around 450 people on this ship.
56:11There were about 450 people on this ship.
56:13They were on each other.
56:15It was dark, cold, cold, cold.
56:18Maybe not always looked really good.
56:22In the two canons, there were five to eight people.
56:27There were five people in each other.
56:39The men ate out of large communal bowls, but everyone had their own wooden spoon.
56:48These skedars have we quite a lot of them.
56:50They are fascinated because they are personal, they are decorated, painted, painted or marked with wood.
57:02They are painted with wood.
57:08They are very, very bad.
57:10The best thing to drink on a ship, it is oil, because oil contains a lot of calories.
57:16It makes people happy, but it is very good on a ship.
57:2330,000 artefacts have been found so far, but there is a major problem.
57:30The Vasa's hull is slowly collapsing.
57:34To monitor this worrying development, measurements are taken regularly.
57:40The situation has become critical.
57:44A metal support will be installed to stabilise the ship.
57:50The big challenge for us is to continue and expand on the work that's been done since Vasa was raised
57:57from the bottom of the harbour over 60 years ago.
58:00When Vasa was recovered, nobody had done that before.
58:05When Vasa was conserved, nobody had tried to do that before.
58:09We're very often the first project that tries these big new ideas.
58:14Now we're facing another one of those challenges.
58:16How do we support this structure so it can carry its own weight into the future?
58:22We need to focus all of our energy on understanding the ship, investigating the ship, preserving the ship,
58:29so that Vasa can continue to tell its story for hundreds of years to come.
58:345
58:47And he is always moreksi by going.