
Why the Swedish Vasa Ship Sank – An Engineer's Explanation - Tomte
https://www.simscale.com/blog/2017/12/vasa-ship-sank/
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rixrax
I recently read Wikipedia[0] article about Vasa which in my opinion is a
worthy read that covers many aspects not covered by the linked article.

Fun fact: statue of 20th-century Finnish runner Paavo Nurmi, was placed (by
SCUBA) on the ship as a prank by students of Helsinki University of Technology
the night before the final lift and remains till today as part of cataloged
artifacts.

[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasa_(ship)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasa_\(ship\))

~~~
danielvf
There's a little bit of extra context there.

A Swedish led committee prevented Paavo Nurmi from entering the 1932 olympics,
on what people, then and now, regard as trumped up charges. (Nurmi had won
nine gold medals in the previous three olympics) The affair was dragged out
over many months, with the committee constantly ignoring the usual way these
things were handled, and the final appeal denial happening at the olympics
with Nurmi there to compete.

Finland was mad! They cut off all sporting cooperation with Sweden. And as
this prank shows, they have never really forgotten it.

[https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=kONFAAAAIBAJ&sjid=EL4M...](https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=kONFAAAAIBAJ&sjid=EL4MAAAAIBAJ&pg=3666,6782915&dq=nurmi&hl=en)

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KineticLensman
In slightly fewer words - Vasa sunk because it was built tall and thin, and
because of its high centre of gravity, tipped over on its maiden voyage in
1628.

Like the Mary Rose in England, the ship turned out to be an archeological
treasure trove, and the museums make an excellent visit.

I had to work in Stockholm a few years ago with some colleagues from various
nations at a standards meeting. We visited the Vasa museum and had a great
time soaking up the history. But to our modern eyes, the height of the ship
looked crazy compared with its width, and we were all amazed that anyone could
have ever thought it would ever stay afloat, even back in the 17th century.

By the way, the redundant diagram of nautical terms lacks the one term
relevant here: beam, the width of a vessel

~~~
Tomte
I think they said on the tour that only some centimeters were missing in
width, and everything would have been fine.

~~~
gokhan
On tour, we've been told that a sister ship made at the same time was one
meter wider and served 10+ years without problems.

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JshWright
This is an interesting story, and is going to lead to a bunch more research on
my part, but this feels very much like someone just trying to fill space on a
page...

For instance, the bit about defining the "terminologies related to
shipbuilding" with a diagram with all sorts of very specific labels, of which
exactly one gets used later...

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cbanek
I've actually gotten to visit the Vasa museum, and although it sounds a bit
strange, it was totally worth it. Totally recommend it if you're ever in
Stockholm.

~~~
pavelpokorny
I visited the museum as well and it's a fantastic experience. Well
recommended, the best thing to do in Stockholm.

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dosshell
This reminds me of a quote from Scott Myers:

The Vasa was a 17th-century Swedish warship which suffered such feature creep
during construction that it sank shortly after leaving the harbour on its
maiden voyage. In the early 1990s, the C++ standardisation committee adopted
the Vasa as a cautionary tale, discouraging prospective language extensions
with "Remember the Vasa!" Yet C++ continued to grow, and by the time C++ was
standardised, its complexity made the Vasa look like a rowboat.[0]

[0]
[https://youtube.com/watch?v=ltCgzYcpFUI](https://youtube.com/watch?v=ltCgzYcpFUI)

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WalterBright
> the heart of the mystery

It was top heavy.

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gerdesj
The Vasa and the Mary Rose
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Rose](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Rose))
appear to be rather similar on the face of it. They suffered similar fates -
sinking unexpectedly, however the Mary Rose was over 30 years old (I had no
idea until reading the WP article - I thought the MR was much younger on
sinking) whereas the Vasa keeled over in a eight knot wind on her maiden
voyage. Both were cutting edge and designed to do the "shock and awe" of the
time.

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Animats
Ad for engineering software. But well written.

~~~
antonvs
"Well written"? I take it English isn't your first language.

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nottorp
That's an advertorial not an explanation...

~~~
acqq
I was also somewhat annoyed reading it. At the fist look, it looks like it
will contain some real technical details of some very specific issue. But in
fact it just reproduces some seriously-looking diagrams which are very loosely
related to the topic, and then the explanation is just:

"Henrik Hybertsson just “scaled-up” the dimensions of the original 108-ft ship
to meet the length and breadth of the new 135-ft Vasa." "At this point, the
Vasa was becoming much wider at the top than the bottom. The ship’s center of
gravity was much higher than designed."

Duh.

And then not a single detail about why would "scaling-up" from 108 to 135ft
really disastrously move the center of gravity or anything comparable follows,
and there's no any specific analysis of the relevant dimensions of the very
ship. So all the diagrams are more the "decoration."

At least is is nicely written that the "political wishes" dominated the
construction and that it's not known that the proper calculations were
performed.

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pavelpokorny
And the ultimate reason of this catastrophe was: Ignoring the System test
result and prematurely releasing into production.

'test was stopped at the ship rocked so violently that it was feared that it
would heel'... yet nobody did anything about it.

Nothing new for IT - shipping too early :)

~~~
perl4ever
"In the months that followed, King Gustav changed his orders several times,
leading to total chaos and confusion for the builders."

This also sounds typical...

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perl4ever
The diagram at the top has a 13th item labeled, yet the 13th term's definition
is skipped! It seems like there was a difference of opinion as to whether 13
is unlucky, perhaps?

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oh5nxo
'From Acorn to Arabella', ongoing shipbuilding series on youtube, recently
taught me how insane lead ballasts even a small ship can/must have.

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based2
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUaI2fnK9io](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUaI2fnK9io)

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kpil
On the tour, they claimed that feature creep wasn't so much of a factor,
rather it was an experimental build. No theories existed.

