You are now going to hear a story about the ship called Vasa. Once upon a time– in the year 1628 – it was the greatest warship in Europe. Vasa along with several other ships was meant to sail across the Baltic Sea to Poland. For anumber of years Sweden’s King Gustav Adolph had been fighting with hiscousin Sigismund, who was the king of Poland. Both wanted to be king of Sweden and both of them claimed to have right on his side.
Vasa was named for the royal family and was built at Skeppsgården, which was located right in the middle of Stockholm. Hundreds of people worked there.From big, heavy oak logs the carpenters cut out thousands of parts needed for the ship. So that Vasa would be stable they added weight – called ballast – inthe very bottom of the ship. This ballast consisted of 120 tons of large, round granite stones. Finally, they mounted the huge masts, 64 heavy bronze cannon,the sails, and kilometers of rope.



Hundreds of different wooden sculptures decorated the ship. There were roaring lions, proud warriors, beautiful mermaids, and frightful monsters. All werepainted in bold, bright colors – red, yellow, blue, and green. Some of them were even painted with real gold!
Though Vasa was a beautiful ship, it was also frightening with its many guns.Along both sides of the ship stood long rows of cannon. Every gunport wasa dorned with a snarling lion’s head carved in wood and painted in yellow andred.
The 130 sailors on Vasa climbed to the tops of the masts and worked the sailsand ropes. They would also steer the ship and look after it. There was room for300 soldiers, called knektar in the Swedish of that time, but they were not yet onboard when Vasa sailed.
Sailors and soldiers lived together between the cannon on the gundeck. On Vasathere were two gundecks, that is to say, two levels with cannon. It was crowded,and the crew did not wash very often – so it must have smelled pretty bad onboard. The close quarters were ideal breeding grounds for lice, which itched worse than mosquito bites! To get rid of these small beasts special lice combs were used. In the time of Vasa, hospitals and medicines were not as good as those we have today, and the people onboard easily became ill and infected each other.
Sailors kept their belongings in chests, barrels, and cloth bags. Their clothes were made of thick woolen fabric, which was probably a pretty good idea sinceit could be both cold and windy out on the open sea. The crew were divided into groups of seven or eight men, who all ate together out of one wooden bowl, andthey slept on the hard deck. The food was cooked in a big pot in the ship’s kitchen, which was called the galley. The ship’s food barrels contained salted fish, meat, bread, and peas with which to make pea soup. When they were off watch, that is to say when the sailors were free, they played games and perhaps caught fish // -->