possible. With the help of King Gustav Adolf VI, the divers of the 

 Royal Swedish Navy, and the resources of the Neptune Salvage 

 Company, the project seemed assured of success. 



The first stage was to blast six tunnels beneath the hull so that 

 lifting cables could be passed under the ship. This task alone 

 required more than a thousand diving hours and had to be carried 

 out in total darkness. Add to this the divers' unpleasant knowledge 

 that they were working under several hundred tons of stone 

 ballast, and the risk of the collapse of the mud walls of the tunnel 

 itself. While the tunnels were being scooped out and the wreck 

 was being cleared for the lifting operation, the divers found thou- 

 sands of objects that had fallen off the ship - among them super- 

 ficial decorations of carved wood in the baroque style. Items 

 recovered during the salvage work include a skull, a boot, rigging 

 blocks, plates and tankards, coins and jugs, and even a keg of 

 butter. The wooden sculptures, a few of which still have part of 

 their gilt finish, required immediate treatment to prevent them 

 from disintegrating after they were removed from their three 

 hundred-year bath in salt water. 



After the tunnels were completed, forty-five hundred feet of 

 six-inch steel wires were looped under the hull and fastened to two 

 lifting pontoons. As water was slowly pumped out of the pontoons, 

 the Vasa rose a few feet from her grave. In eighteen laborious 

 stages of lifting, the pontoons were towed 500 yards to a point 

 near Kastellholmen in fifty feet of water. This operation was 

 completed in September 1959. 



At this writing the Vasa can be seen in full view, propped 

 upright by braces and bathed constantly to prevent her drying out 

 too rapidly. When she is finally installed in a special museum, with 

 all her decorations replaced and her wood preserved, the Vasa will 

 be the oldest fully documented ship in the world. 



In 1628 the Swedish warship Vasa set sail 

 on her maiden voyage, but a squall hit her 

 and she sank just a hundred yards from 

 shore in Stocl<holm Harbor (engraving shows 

 Stocl<holm at the time the Vasa was built) . 

 After several attempts she was finally 

 raised (see diagram below). When eventually 

 she is restored, complete with wooden 

 carvings (far left) , she will be the oldest 

 fully documented ship in the world. The 

 photograph above shows the Vasa in dry docl<, 

 after she was raised. 



167 



