On a warm day in
August
1628,
Captain Söfring Hansson ordered his crew to cast off lines
on King
Gustav
Adolf’s newest warship, Vasa. The
crew raised the anchor and set sail for the summer fleet
base. Aside
from her
crew, this most expensive and largest vessel carried
dignitaries and
passengers
– men, women, and children – who expected a pleasant maiden
voyage.
After all,
this was a new class of warship with two gundecks armed with
a new kind
of
weaponry. Having traveled no more than a single nautical
mile, however, Vasa heeled over and water
poured through
her open gun ports.
While many readers may never
have heard of the Vasa, anyone who
spends time reading about maritime or naval history probably
has. This
book
tells her story from conception to rebirth as a museum in
Stockholm.
She was
built at a time when war was a constant as nations battled
for control
of trade
routes and resources; when ordinary people dealt with food
shortages,
disease,
and violence; and when Europe realigned itself along
religious lines,
Protestantism on one hand and Catholicism on the other.
Today, fifty
years
after the Vasa was raised, more than
one million people visit her each year.
The book opens in 1628 soon
after Vasa sets sail. A seaman, who
is below deck, knows something is wrong even before the gust
of wind
strikes.
Flash forward to 1958 when divers dig beneath the hull and
one of the
tunnels
collapses. Three years later, the skeleton of the seaman is
found,
trapped
under a gun carriage. Subsequent chapters examine different
aspects of
the ship
– construction, rigging, staffing, sinking -- and focus on
an
individual involved
in each phase, such as Margareta Nilsdotter, the widow of
the
shipwright who
had contracted to build the new warship, or Lieutenant
Petter
Gierdsson, who
worked with the ship’s master to set up the masts, yards,
sails, and
rigging.
Perhaps one of the most
fascinating chapters concerns the symbolism in the carvings
and
sculptures
found on Vasa. Hocker discusses not
only the usual ornamentation, such as the figurehead, but
also those
found in
the ship’s heads. This chapter also features a fold-out,
color spread
of the
ship’s stern that showcases the intricate sculptures as they
appear now
and how
the stern looked at the time she sailed.
Equally intriguing are the
skeletons and what they tell us about the men and women who
lost their
lives on
that fateful day. “The Sinking” includes a forensic
sculptor’s
reconstruction
of these people, which makes them real, rather than merely
bones. This
chapter
also examines the questions that arose after Vasa
sank:
How did a light breeze prove so fatal? Since she was
built by a master shipwright and commanded by an experienced
captain,
why did
she sink? Who was at fault?
The final chapters discuss
the consequences of the sinking; attempts to locate,
salvage, and
refloat the
warship, beginning in 1664 and culminating in 1961; and Vasa
today. While much of the historical evidence for this book
comes from original documents, Hocker includes a list of
sources that
is
subdivided according to the book’s chapters. An index is
also included.
Each page is beautifully
illustrated with color photographs and images of the
artifacts, places,
people,
and documents. The double-page spreads provide glimpses of
displays and
exhibits from the museum to provide readers with
well-labeled and clear
explanations about the illustration. For example, the one of
the
Stockholm Navy
Yard in 1627 shows the men building Vasa while
insets
enlarge the small details of the various activities
occurring in
the
shipyard. All the visual material reinforces and enhances
the narrative
to
provide readers with a more comprehensive understanding of
this warship
and her
importance in history.
Used with permission from
publisher
Fred Hocker, an
archaeologist
and historian, has written a compelling and riveting
account of this
famous
warship. He also spins a fabulous story that brings to
life the
seventeenth
century and the people who built, crewed, and raised the
Vasa.
He dispels some of the myths that have surfaced over the
years as to why she sank, and he explains how guns were
cast and
battles were
fought in this period of history. Hocker understands his
principal
audience,
for his explanations on various aspects of ships and
shipbuilding are
crisp,
clear, and succinct so the general layman can quickly
grasp the
content. As
readers absorb the wealth of material found within the
pages of this
book, they
gain a better understanding of the importance of the Vasa
and a king who understood how naval warfare would change
long
before those alterations occurred.
Review Copyrighted ©2012
Cindy Vallar
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Pirates
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