Vasa (ship) - Historical Background

Historical Background

During the 17th century, Sweden went from being a small, poor, and peripheral northern European kingdom of little influence to one of the major powers in continental politics. Between 1611 and 1718 it was the most dominant power in Baltic, eventually gaining territory that encompassed the Baltic on all sides. This rise to prominence in international affairs and increase in military prowess, called stormaktstiden ("age of greatness" or "great power period"), was made possible by a succession of able monarchs and the establishment of a powerful centralized government, supporting a highly efficient military organization. Swedish historians have described this as one of the more extreme examples of an early modern state using almost all of its available resources to wage war; the small northern kingdom transformed itself into a fiscal-military state and one of the most militarized states in history.

Gustavus Adolphus (1594–1632) has been considered one of the most successful Swedish kings in terms of success in warfare. When Vasa was built, he had been in power for more than a decade. The navy was in poor shape and Sweden was embroiled in a war with Poland, and looked apprehensively at the development of the Thirty Years' War in present day Germany. The war had been raging since 1618 and from a Protestant perspective it was not successful. The king's plans for a Polish campaign and for securing Sweden's interests required a strong naval presence in the Baltic.

The navy suffered several severe setbacks during the 1620s. In 1625, a squadron cruising off the Bay of Riga was caught in a storm and ten ships ran aground and were wrecked. In the Battle of Oliwa in 1627, a Swedish squadron was outmaneuvered and defeated by a larger Polish force and two large ships were lost. Tigern ("The Tiger"), which was the Swedish admiral's flagship, was captured by the Poles, and Solen ("The Sun") was blown up by its own crew when it was boarded and near capture. In 1628, three more large ships were lost in less than a month; Admiral Klas Fleming's flagship Kristina was wrecked in a storm in the Gulf of Danzig, Riksnyckeln ("Key of the Realm") ran aground at Viksten in the southern archipelago of Stockholm and, perhaps most inopportunely for the Swedish crown, Vasa foundered on its maiden voyage. Gustavus Adolphus was engaged in naval warfare on several fronts, which further exacerbated the difficulties of the navy. In addition to battling the Polish navy, the Swedes were threatened by Catholic forces that had invaded Jutland. The Swedish king had little sympathy for the Danish king, Christian IV, and Denmark and Sweden had been bitter enemies for well over a century. However, Sweden feared a Catholic conquest of Copenhagen and Zealand (Denmark). This would have granted the Catholic powers control over the strategic passages between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea, which would be disastrous for Swedish interests.

Until the early 17th century, the Swedish navy comprised primarily smaller single-decker ships with relatively light guns; these ships were cheaper than larger ships and were well-suited for escort and patrol. For both tactical and economic reasons, the single-deckers were more suited to the Baltic environment, and were generally favored by the privy council and senior officers. However, a fleet of large ships was considered a bold statement and an effective way to impose respect on enemies and allies alike, possibly even beyond the Baltic. For the ambitious Gustavus Adolphus, a navy with a core of powerful capital ships was an opportunity that could not be missed. Vasa was the first in a series of five ships intended to be among the heaviest and most splendid of their time. The four other ships, Äpplet, Kronan, Scepter and Göta Ark, were successful and formed the backbone of the Swedish navy until the 1660s. Of these so-called regalskepp (usually translated as "royal ships"), Vasa was meant to be the grandest. The second of the large ships, Äpplet ("The Apple"; the Swedish term for the globus cruciger), was built simultaneously with Vasa. The only difference between the design of the Vasa and its sister ship the Äpplet was a mere 1.5 meters (5 ft) wider.