The Vasa: The Sunken Treasure of Sweden

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Spencer Stewart
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Maggie s Activity Pack! Name Date The Vasa: The Sunken Treasure of Sweden Have you ever put together a jigsaw puzzle? Did you put together a 50 piece puzzle? Maybe you tried to do a 1000 piece puzzle.

1 Maggie s Activity Pack! Name Date The Vasa: The Sunken Treasure of Sweden Have you ever put together a jigsaw puzzle? Did you put together a 50 piece puzzle? Maybe you tried to do a 1000 piece puzzle. In Sweden, many people put together a very big jigsaw puzzle. This puzzle is a ship! It sunk off in Over 300 years later, divers brought up the ship. They looked for its pieces. Then many people tried to put together the Vasa. The Problem Too Many Guns? The story of the Vasa begins around the time the pilgrims landed in America. King Gustav II Adolf of Sweden wanted to build the world s biggest warship. This ship was the Vasa. The King wanted his country to become more powerful. He thought this would help Sweden trade with other countries. Sweden would become richer. King Gustav II ordered a big ship with a deck of cannons called a gun deck. Workers started to build the Vasa. Then the King heard that a Danish warship was being built with two gun decks. The King wanted to change the plans. He told the builders to make two gun decks. The builders were very worried. They thought the ship would be too heavy. The Building Too Fast? The Vasa was built from 1000 oak trees. These trees were from the Crown Forest. This forest belonged to the King of Sweden. The trees were cut.

2 Then they were floated in the water or dragged over the ice to Stockholm. This is the capital city of Sweden. The ship was to be built in four years. Again the King changed his mind. He ordered the ship to be finished early. The builders were worried about these changes. When it was finished the ship had 64 guns. It weighed 80 tons. To balance the tilting action that the wind creates by blowing into the sails of a ship, the builders added heavy weights that lie in the bottom of the ship to keep the ship from tipping too far over. These weights are called ballast. The Tragedy On the First Sail! On August 10, 1628 a big crowd stood on the dock in Stockholm, Sweden. They watched as this new warship set sail for the first time. Everyone was excited about this great ship. But soon winds blew through the harbor. The ship tilted over. It sank as the crowd looked on! This was a tragedy. There were 150 crew and visitors aboard the Vasa. 30 to 50 people died. This was a great embarrassment to the King. He had great hopes for this warship. Three days after the Vasa sunk, someone tried to raise her from the sea. This didn t work. But it is believed that they did move the ship to an upright position. Others tried to raise the ship. They were not successful. The Vasa lay on the bottom of the sea for hundreds of years. Many people forgot about this great ship.

3 The Raising and Restoring Working Together In 1956 the Vasa was found again. People became excited about raising the ship. They thought they could use science. They set to work. Divers dug six tunnels under the ship. Imagine how hard it must have been. They were digging in about 100 feet of water! They ran steel cables under the hull. Then the ship was raised with special pontoons. The year was After 333 years the Vasa was raised from the bottom of the sea! The ship was brought to a dry dock. There was one major problem. The ship had been in water for 333 years. If the wood dried out now, it would shrink, crack, and split. This would be a big problem in putting together all the pieces of the ship. But scientists had a solution. They sprayed the wood with a special chemical. This chemical seeped into the wood. It kept the wood from splitting. This process took 18 years! Now the ship looks much like it did when it was built. Scientists interested in wood preservation travel to Sweden to learn about this amazing project. The Puzzle Putting It Together! Between 1963 and 1967, divers searched the area where the Vasa sank. They were looking for pieces of the ship that had fallen off. They hoped to find other objects from the ship, too. Anything that was made of iron, like the nails had rusted and disappeared. But many objects were buried in mud. The mud protected them. Thousands of objects including beautiful sculptures were found. They have been restored. Today they sit on this ship again.

The Museum Dark and Damp Many people from all over the world visit the Vasa. A special museum has been built around this ship. The museum is near the water in Stockholm.

4 The Museum Dark and Damp Many people from all over the world visit the Vasa. A special museum has been built around this ship. The museum is near the water in Stockholm. This museum is different from most museums. It is dark. The air is damp. This is like the bottom of the sea! It keeps the wood from drying out. This atmosphere makes the Vasa look like a ghost ship. You can walk around the ship and see the beautiful statues and woodwork. You can imagine the great hopes of the Swedish people when this great ship sailed out of the harbor. Today we can think of the many people who worked together to build it and to raise it. The outside of the Vasa Museum.

5 Decisions, Problems, Lessons Some decisions were made when building the Vasa. These decisions resulted in problems. In the boxes below, describe two bad decisions that were made when building the Vasa. Tell what problems these decisions caused. Is there a lesson these decisions can teach us? Tell about the lessons learned. Bad Decision Problem Lesson Bad Decision Problem Lesson

6 There were some decisions made when raising the Vasa and building the museum. These decisions helped save the Vasa. In the boxes below tell about two good decisions that were made when raising the Vasa and building the museum. Explain why the decisions had to be made. Tell what lesson we can learn from this. Good Decision Why did people make this decision? Lesson Good Decision Why did people make this decision? Lesson

7 Dear Colleague, I had the opportunity to visit the Vasa Museum this summer. The cold, eerie feeling you get when you walk into this dark museum and the appearance of this immense ghostly ship impressed me right away as something children would love to study. The trials of building the ship, raising, and preserving it are great lessons for our students. You may want to have your students find out more about the ship and the unique museum that houses it. Perhaps some students may want to write a you were there article describing the first sail of the Vasa out of the harbor and its sinking. Other students may want to draw pictures of the Vasa as it lay on the ocean s floor. Perhaps some students could write a museum brochure describing ways scientists preserved the ship. There are many multiple intelligences activities to coordinate with this activity! And what better time to learn about the Vasa then just before those of us in the United States will celebrate that other famous ship of this time period, the Mayflower! Kathy Suggested answers: Problems in building the Vasa include the decision of the king to include more guns. This resulted in imbalance of the ship and may have contributed to its sinking. We have to be careful about our pride and wanting something just to keep up with others. Another problem was the rush to launch the ship. This resulted in hurried construction and may have resulted in mistakes that led to its sinking. We have to avoid rushing through our work and check it! A good decision in raising the Vasa included spraying the wood with PEG. This kept it from drying out and cracking. A lesson is to consult experts in different fields to arrive at good solutions to problems. People have to work together. Another good decision was to build a museum that was like the underwater grave of the Vasa. This helped preserve it also. Again, people worked together to better understand how to preserve the ship. Goals: Students will read an article about the Vasa, a Swedish ship that sunk in Details about decisions that led to the ship s sinking are included as is information about the restoration and preservation of the ship. Students follow up their reading by completing an activity that shows the results of good and bad decisions. They are asked to explain the lessons learned from these decisions. This activity is available on two levels, primary and intermediate. The activity correlates with the National Social Studies Standards: Individuals, Groups, and Institutions and Power, Authority and Governance.

Why the Vasa Sank: 10 Problems and Some Antidotes for Software Projects

Why the Vasa Sank: 10 Problems and Some Antidotes for Software Projects Fairley, E., R., Willshire, M., J., IEEE Software, March/April 2003. Source : www.vasamuseet.se Sweden was at war with Poland In