The Wasa was a Swedish warship that was built during the early part of the 17th century. The construction of this warship was commissioned by the King of Sweden, Gustav II Adolf, whose aim was to increase the military might of his country. This accomplishment of this objective was urgent, as Sweden was at that time engaged in a war with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Although the Wasa was expected to be one of the most powerful ships of its time, it was, ironically, not sunk by enemy guns, but by a gust of wind. Even more humiliating for the Swedes was the fact that the Wasa sunk just shortly after it left the harbor of Stockholm on its maiden voyage in full view of the inhabitants of Stockholm who came to watch the spectacle.

in January 1625, when Gustav II Adolf signed a contract with the Dutch master shipwright, Henrik Hybertsson, and his business partner, Arendt de Groote. According to this contract, the two men were to build for Gustav four new ships, one of them being the Wasa. In the following year, work on the Wasa began. The master shipwright, however, was already ill at this time and died in 1627. Following Hybertsson’s death, his assistant, Hein Jakobsson, was left in charge of the project.

The Wasa was launched during the spring of 1627, around the time of Hybertsson’s death, and was completed by the summer of 1628. The Wasa has been measured to be 69 m (226 ft.) in length, and 50 m (164 ft.) in height (when measured from the keel to the top of the main mast). The ship weighed over 1200 tons and had 10 sails, 64 cannons, 120 tons of ballast, and hundreds of sculptures. The Vasa was indeed an impressive warship to behold, though it had a problem – it was unstable.

One reason accounting for the instability of the Wasa was the numerous changes that were made to the ship when it was being built. For instance, the initial plan was for Hybertsson to build two smaller ships and two larger ones. The former were to have keel lengths of 39 m (127 ft.), whilst the latter 41 m (134.5 ft.). Originally, the Vasa was intended to have been one of the smaller ships. When it was completed, it had transformed into a big one.

Swedish navy officials at that time seemed to have been aware of the problem with the Wasa. In the summer of 1628, the captain supervising the building of the ship, Söfring Hansson, called Vice Admiral Klas Fleming to the Wasa, which was at that time moored at the royal palace. Hansson was worried and expressed his concern to the admiral that the ship was unstable, and not safe to sail. To demonstrate this, the captain had 30 men run back and forth across the deck, which caused the ship to roll alarmingly. Fearing that the Vasa would sink if the men continued running, Fleming had the demonstration stopped. Despite this, Fleming, under pressure from the king to get the ship sailing, orders his captain to sail anyway.

On the 10th of August 1628, the Wasa embarked on its maiden voyage. 1300 m later, a gust of wind heeled (tipped) the ship to port (the left side of the vessel when facing forward). As the gun ports were left open, water started gushing in, and within minutes, the Vasa had gone 32 m below the water. An inquest is launched soon after, and the blame falls on Hybertsson. The master shipwright, being dead for more than a year, was unable to defend himself, and could not be punished. Thus, the case was closed.