A great Swedish king who ruled Scandinavia in the early 17th century had to have a fleet of warships to patrol the Baltic and ordered 4 new galleons. One was to be the royal mighty battle galleon called Vasa, greater than any ship ever built at that time. The king himself dictated the Vasa's measurements and no one dared argue against him. It was of the type we call skeleton-build, same build as the Sovereign of the Seas.
The Vasa sank within one nautical mile of the start of her maiden voyage in 1628 before she even left the Stockholm archipelago. Anders Franzén had already found some 17th century wooden ships, as his hobby and obsession was looking for old wrecks. He was bent on finding Vasa and did. Franzén found her in 1956. Although she is now housed on public exhibition, more than 30 years after she was initially brought up, and 95% of her is original parts, some reconstruction work remains to be done.
This ship was not excavated first and then lifted out of the water, but the reverse. She was lifted up from her claybed and moved in several steps to shallower locations until she could be excavated in "dry-dock." This was possible only because the hull was in good condition. The Baltic Sea is brackish water. It does not have a wood destroying organism called Teredo navalis which is found in the oceans. Therefore timbers long sunken in the Baltic are well preserved.
Recovery and restoration techniques done for the Wasa were both innovative and at a scale never before attempted. At the time, it took decades of chemical treatment and slow environmental exposure to have the resultant restored ship. 90% of all materials in the entire ship and associated displays are original.
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