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January 2013 www.sname.org/sname/mt www.sname.org/sname/mt ( historical note )Maiden Voyage Lessons What a 17th century maritime disaster teaches us today BY PETER NOBLE In the early 17th century, Europe was in turmoil. Power struggles were underway between Catholic and Protestant factions, which led to events such as the transatlantic voyage of the Mayower that brought the Pilgrim fathers to Plymouth Rock in 1620. Less than six years after the Pilgrims landed in New England, the Swedish King Gustav II Adophus, who was a major protagonist on the Protestant side against the Holy Roman empire, ordered construction of a major war- ship, the Vasa . At the time, the Swedish empire covered most of modern day Sweden, all of Finland and Estonia, and portions of Russia, Norway, and Germany. e main enemies opposing the Swedes were the Catholic Polish states, but they were also concerned about an invasion from Denmark, which could result in restricting Swedens access from the Baltic to the North Sea. It took almost two years to build the Vasa . She was an impressive ship: a hull built of oak from more than a thou- sand trees, with 64 canon, masts over 50 meters high, and hundreds of painted and gilded sculptures. Henrick Hybertsson, an experienced Dutch ship- wright, was hired to execute the construction project. However, he fell ill and died in the spring of 1627, and responsibility for the construction passed to Henrik Jakobsson, who modied the ship by extending the beam while the vessel was already under construction. Vasa was launched in the spring of 1627, with work continuing on completing the upp er deck, the sterncastle, the forecastle and the rigging, once the hull was aoat. In the summer of 1628, the captain responsible for supervis- ing construction of the ship, Söfring Hansson, arranged for the ships stability to be demonstrated for the vice admi- ral responsible for procurement, Klas Fleming, who had recently arrived in Stockholm from Prussia. He sallied the ship by having 30 men run back and forth across the upper deck to start the ship rolling, but the admiral stopped the test after they had made only three cycles as the extent of the ships roll made him fear that the ship would capsize. Naval tactics were in transition in the early 16th cen- tury. Maneuvering alongside and boarding was still one of the primary means of maritime ghting, but change was underway to line-of-battle tactics that focused on vic- tory through superior repower. e designers of the Vasa attempted to create a ship that could be used with both tactical approaches. She was armed with a large num- ber of guns and also had a high sterncastle, to be used as a ring platform in boarding actions. What made it arguably the most powerful warship of the time was the The Vasa on exhibit in the Vasa Museum, Stockholm. PHOTO: KAROLINA KRISTENSSON