| [00:03.67] |
The 'Vasa' |
| [00:11.34] |
What happened to the 'Vasa' almost immediately after she was launched? |
| [00:18.62] |
From the seventeenth-century empire of Sweden, |
| [00:21.74] |
the story of a galleon that sank at the start of her maiden voyage in 1628 |
| [00:27.76] |
must be one of the strangest tales of the sea. |
| [00:31.24] |
For nearly three and a half centuries she lay at the bottom of Stockholm harbour |
| [00:36.53] |
until her discovery in 1956. |
| [00:40.12] |
This was the Vasa, royal flagship of the great imperial fleet. |
| [00:46.86] |
King Gustavus Adolphus 'The Northern Hurricane', |
| [00:50.94] |
then at the height of his military success in the 'Thirty Years' War, |
| [00:55.49] |
had dictated her measurements and armament. |
| [00:59.31] |
Triple gun-decks mounted sixty-four bronze cannon. |
| [01:03.49] |
She was intended to play a leading role in the growing might of Sweden. |
| [01:09.08] |
As she was prepared for her maiden voyage on August 10, 1628, |
| [01:14.49] |
Stockholm was in a ferment. |
| [01:17.49] |
From the Skeppsbron and surrounding islands |
| [01:20.40] |
the people watched this thing of beauty |
| [01:22.84] |
begin to spread her sails and catch the wind. |
| [01:26.99] |
They had laboured for three years to produce this floating work of art; |
| [01:31.89] |
she was more richly carved and ornamented than any previous ship. |
| [01:37.17] |
The high stern castle was a riot of carved gods, demons, knights, kings, warriors, |
| [01:45.16] |
mermaids, cherubs; and zoomorphic animal shapes ablaze with red and gold and blue, |
| [01:52.79] |
symbols of courage, power, and cruelty, |
| [01:56.68] |
were portrayed to stir the imaginations of the superstitious sailors of the day. |
| [02:03.69] |
Then the cannons of the anchored warships thundered a salute to which the Vasa fired in reply. |
| [02:11.45] |
As she emerged from her drifting cloud of gun smoke |
| [02:14.94] |
with the water churned to foam beneath her bow, |
| [02:18.53] |
her flags flying, pennants waving, sails filling in the breeze, |
| [02:24.31] |
and the red and gold or her superstructure ablaze with colour, |
| [02:28.59] |
she presented a more majestic spectacle than Stockholmers had ever seen before. |
| [02:35.26] |
All gun-ports were open and the muzzles peeped wickedly from them. |
| [02:40.98] |
As the wind freshened there came a sudden squall and the ship made a strange movement, listing to port. |
| [02:49.42] |
The Ordnance officer ordered all the port cannon to be heaved to starboard |
| [02:54.14] |
to counteract the list but the steepening angle of the decksincreased. |
| [02:59.67] |
Then the sound of rumbling thunder reached the watchers on the shore, |
| [03:04.25] |
as cargo, ballast, ammunition and 400 people |
| [03:09.36] |
went sliding and crashing down to the port side of the steeply listing ship. |
| [03:14.93] |
The lower gun-ports were now below water and the inrush sealed the ship's fate. |
| [03:21.83] |
In that first glorious hour, the mighty Vasa, which was intended to rule the Baltic, |
| [03:28.29] |
sank with all flags flying--in the harbour of her birth. |
