The Swedish warship Vasa. It sank in 1628 less than a mile into its maiden voyage and was recovered from the sea floor after 333 years almost completely intact.

The greatest warship of her time. Her time being 4 pm – 4.15 pm august 10 1628.

Now housed at the Vasa Museum in Stockholm, is the world’s best preserved 17th century ship.

It was so well preserved because the Baltic ‘Sea’ is so brackish that shipworm can’t live there, so there was nothing to break down the wood!

A model of the ship at the Vasa Museum, Stockholm

Vasa coins

Vasa cross-section

A mock-up of what the ship’s cross-section looked like, and how the poor design led to the ship’s ultimate demise.

Vasa colors

A full-scale replica of a portion of the carving on the stern of the ship, showing the detail and colors that would have been seen when the ship was launched.

Vasa colors

A projection onto a mock up of the stern of the Vasa. This is how the stern was painted in a rich color scheme, before the years underwater took its toll.

Vasa model

The same model, looking forward from the stern of the ship. As you can see on the model, the ship was painted in full color. A few hundred years at the bottom of the ocean took its toll on the paint job. Also worth noting is that this model only shows the ship from the waterline and up. More of the hull would have been underwater. Here you can also see how much more mast would have been located above those first crow’s nests.

Vasa cannon

One of the Vasa’s original cannons, fitted to a replica stand.

Vasa beakhead

A wider angle view of the beakhead, with the head still located in the center of the photo.

Vasa head

If you had to go to the bathroom while on board… this (in the center of the photo) is one of the two heads located on the beakhead of the ship (the other is directly across from it, hidden from view by the starboard side of the beakhead

Vasa full scale

There was a full-scale mock-up of what one of the gun decks would have looked like inside the ship. The overhead beams were pretty low, and if they didn’t duck in time, tall people would have suffered several head bruises walking through the ship.

what the inside of the Vasa would have looked like.