The Warship Vasa 1628 1:75 by Vlad

Making of gun tackle.

Vlad,
I saw that back in December last year you had a question about boats. I can answer that Vasa certainly carried two boats, and possibly a third. One of the two was the large esping, a heavy, flat-bottomed rowing and sailing boat. This survives nearly intact, including fragments of the sails. It is the size that Witsen specifies for a ship this size. A smaller, clinker built boat was found inside this boat. A third boat, similar to what Witsen specifie as a smaller launch, was found at the stern, but we cannot be sure it belongs to Vasa. Parts of at least seven boats were found on, under and around Vasa, at least one of them dating to the 14th century, so it is not always easy to decide which ones belong to the ship.

Fred

At the time the ship sank, the largest boat (11.7 x 3 m) was being towed alongside, to port, with the small clinker boat stowed inside. The third boat, if it does belong to Vsaa, was being towed astern. It is not a problem to tow two boats, but I agree that towing a third might be tricky. Most Dutch sources suggest that large warships of this era had at least two boats, but sometimes more. It was not yet common in the 1620s to carry boats on deck.

Fred

Hi Vlad,

Lots of questions! Let's see what we can answer.
1. I will email you the mast drawings. These are the lower masts only.
2. I am not sure what you mean by the "corner", can you clarify?
3. Our topmasts do not survive, so I cannot answer this one with certainty, but the geometry of the lower masthead, crosstrees and top suggests that the variation in your Fig. 1 is more likely. We know that the topmast was round at the mast cap, and the hole in the crosstrees is square.
4. The cross trees at the heads of the topmasts and topgallantmasts do not survive, so there is no way to tell if they were straight or curved. Based purely on the date, I would guess straight is more likely. The so-called Ghost Ship, a fluit wreck of the 1660s that I worked on in the Baltic, has straight upper crosstrees, if that helps.
5. The element on the tops appears to be a light bolster of some sort, possibly to reduce chafe on the edge of the lubber's hole, but I cannot be sure. These were relatively light, and held in place by a large number of small nails.
6. Gunports are all square on Vasa, except the farthest forward port on the lower gundeck, which has to be curved to fit the shape of the hull at the bow.

Hope these help!

Fred

Hi, Fred!
This is the question about the corner.



Vlad

Vlad,

The angle of the trestletrees to the mast, the corner you are looking for, is approximately 73 degrees.

Fred