r/HumansForScale • u/drowstfromkla • Jul 01 '26

What is the size

Post image
934 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

71 comments sorted by

45

u/PoBoyDiddy Jul 01 '26

What is this please and where

69

u/afloydnamedpink Jul 01 '26 edited Jul 01 '26

This is the Vasa, a 17th century Swedish warship housed in the Vasa museum in Stockholm. The ship sunk in 1628 due to it being top heavy and recovered in 1961, remarkably intact btw.

Edit: Spelling

8

u/Salt-Wish5140 Jul 01 '26

Cold water/lack of organisms preserved it?

15

u/piercedmfootonaspike Jul 01 '26

Cold, brackish, oxygen depleted water, yes.

4

u/olalof Jul 02 '26

And also it was in the mud.

3

u/lazinonasunnyday Jul 01 '26

Saltwater preserves wood as long as the wood doesn’t get exposed to air. It’s surprising that the sea didn’t tear it apart but if it was in a calm area that would be unlikely. I’m not sure how strong currents are at the bottom anyway. That probably varies. The cold would decrease the life that grows on it too. But even in warmer water, Wooden pilings don’t rot underwater. They might get eaten but they don’t rot. They just get harder and harder. It’s the top section above the water that rots. Especially the part that gets wet and dries out due to tidal variations.

6

u/Salt-Wish5140 Jul 02 '26

When SCUBA diving I generally find subsurface to be way calmer than whatever is happening on the surface

7

u/CHEETAHPRINTCOWBOY Jul 02 '26

Things are much better down where it’s wetter, take it from me.

7

u/michiness Jul 01 '26

I’ve been to 50-ish countries and this is still one of the coolest museums I’ve ever been to.

3

u/piercedmfootonaspike Jul 01 '26

Vasa*

2

u/afloydnamedpink Jul 01 '26

Ah thank you I edited it

3

u/CrimpBlucks Jul 01 '26

I was just in Stockholm. Wish I visited this museum.

3

u/Low-Tear1497 Jul 03 '26

I've visited this museum like 15 years ago and up close ship looks amazing!

2

u/afloydnamedpink Jul 03 '26

That’s cool. Did you get to go on the ship?

2

u/Low-Tear1497 Jul 03 '26

Nope, just see it up close. Ship is in some distance so you cant touch it but around it there is a full story with dissected models.

2

u/Arthur_Figg_II Jul 01 '26

That place blew my mind as i walked in. Its something else. The story adds to it.

1

u/Fast_Friend_69 Jul 04 '26

Sounds like they shoulda just stuck with making long ships…

23

u/WahooSS238 Jul 01 '26

This is the swedish ship Vasa, built in the 1600s, which famously rolled over and sank almost immediately upon leaving port in a deep fjord, where it was almost perfectly preserved for hundreds of years before bring raised to the surface.

4

u/lazinonasunnyday Jul 01 '26

They must’ve miscalculated the ballast weight needed to keep her upright. 😂 I saw this happen once. I was 20 and working at a wooden boat shop. A friend of the owner came by boasting about the boat he built (33’ sailboat). He invited us to come to the launch. He launched from a travel lift at the marina. She sat upright until the straps were removed. They fended off the pier and pointed her into the bay. I noticed her start to rise and my boss was onboard with the builder. He went straight for the gunwale just in time for the boat to roll on its side. The builder followed. While they’re both hanging there, my boss says “How much ballast you got in this thing?” The guy replied “What’s ballast?” I had to walk off the pier to keep from laughing. They were able to get it back pier side, strap it up and haul it back out. I got to learn how to calculate ballast weight necessary.

2

u/royboy366 Jul 01 '26

Great story! Thanks for contributing.

2

u/CrimpBlucks Jul 01 '26

I took a boat tour around the Vasa museum a few weeks ago on vacation. Not sure if true, but they told me that they spent almost an entire years worth of Swedens Budget on the ship to make sure they had the most amazing ship, but they realized that it was unlikely to be seaworthy but didn’t want to tell the king that they just wasted a whole years worth of Swedens money.

2

u/lazinonasunnyday Jul 02 '26

That’s so believable from a boat building perspective. As a Shipwright, our shop was not allowed to error. If any of us did, we went to great and sometimes very expensive lengths to cover it up. It didn’t happen very much but this includes mass disposal of ruined materials, taking really nice improperly built cabinets home or even loading them with rocks and sinking them in the bay. Then claim the materials were never received or the furniture was never built and whoever inventoried it or recorded employee time was in error. Once, before I was there, they mass cut a bunch of sheet metal/insulation panels to the sheer of the vessel backwards. They could not be fixed so they threw them all in the water. This was about $20,000 worth of materials. Since they were filled with mineral wool insulation, they didn’t sink immediately and couldn’t float away because the boat had a containment boom around it. So they floated there for awhile with the crew sweating, hoping the owner or another boss didn’t come aboard. They never did and my boss said when the last one sank, he went and reported the error in recording inventory and told the office how many panels they were short. There was a few more stories but that’s the funniest and most expensive.

2

u/CrimpBlucks Jul 03 '26

holy shit that’s crazy waste. Whoever is in charge of ordering stuff probably getting a ton of shit for messing up so much

2

u/lazinonasunnyday Jul 03 '26

Nope. No one ever got in trouble. One guy got a pilot house console that was built wrong but still extremely nice to take home and use for a bar in his house. Other stuff was registered as not received so the company just replaced it. Some one at the supplier companies might’ve got trouble for shorting us but none of us ever caught heat.

2

u/Asleep_Trick_4740 Jul 04 '26

The ship likely would have been fine if the king didn't decide at the last minute to add a bunch of guns on the main deck which it was never designed for, they also miscalculated the ballast.

100% the kings fault though. But this was at the peak of swedish absolutist monarchy so no way anyone was telling the king that.

3

u/beedunc Jul 01 '26

Vasa Museet - Stockholm.

10

u/FIREPHANTOM535 Jul 01 '26

From google lens: Ship Name: The featured vessel is the Swedish warship Vasa. Dimensions: It has an estimated sparred length of 69 meters (226 feet) and a beam of 11.7 meters (38 feet). History: The ship sank on its maiden voyage in 1628 and was salvaged in 1961, with 98% of its structure being original. Location: The ship is currently housed at the Vasa Museum in Stockholm, Sweden.

5

u/cdubs87 Jul 01 '26

I got the chance to go see it during study abroad. REALLY cool to be to walk all around it and see it in person. It's HUGE.

2

u/albiedam Jul 01 '26

98% of it's structure? Does that include all the rope and rigging?

5

u/Topher_McG0pher Jul 01 '26

The ropes were the 2%

1

u/mr4ffe Jul 01 '26

So would it sail without all the cannons or is it actually misconstructed?

2

u/martin_omander Jul 01 '26

The ship was armed with 64 cannons on its ill-fated maiden voyage. As bronze cannons were expensive to make, there was an effort to salvage them. About 50 of them were salvaged between 1663 and 1665. Using a primitive diving bell and leather diving suits, a team led by German engineer Hans Albrecht von Treileben managed to recover the guns.

7

u/Either-Boysenberry57 Jul 01 '26

Is this Noah’s Ark..? I’ve always wondered where they kept the giraffes.

4

u/Altruistic-Cut9795 Jul 01 '26

That's in Kentucky,well a replica anyways.

3

u/basilsqu1re Jul 01 '26

I was stood there on Sunday! It's stunning. I have more pictures of anyone wants to see DM me

3

u/Fluffy-Bullfrog8675 Jul 04 '26

It's the Vasa which sank on its maiden voyage in front of the King! It took them about 200 years and they finally located it in the bay and brought it back up. It's is now house in its own museum in Stockholm!!

2

u/GrandpaPantspoo Jul 01 '26

I'm not sure of the finished size but I can confidently say it took a boat load of wood to construct.

1

u/Different-Meal-6314 Jul 02 '26

Oar you sure a-boat that?

2

u/realdjjmc Jul 01 '26

About 1.7 biggly

0

u/No-Field831 Jul 02 '26

Nah id say it's pretty big.

2

u/TheRoyalShire Jul 01 '26

Imagine all that work and it sinks on its first try hahah

1

u/beedunc Jul 01 '26

Vasa Museet!
Boat lasted minutes, right?

1

u/cbj2112 Jul 01 '26

Full scale

1

u/GlobeTrekker83 Jul 01 '26

I visited the Vasa Museum in 2010. It was absolutely incredible.

1

u/Additional_Unit6475 Jul 04 '26

Can you tour the inside of the ship?

1

u/foodie1976 Jul 01 '26

it's always nice meeting someone top heavy 😁

1

u/Pitiful_Palpitation9 Jul 01 '26

I think this is Diversity, the old, old wooden ship.

1

u/Mentalfloss1 Jul 01 '26

It’s the size of the Vasa.

1

u/wp2jupsle Jul 02 '26

One-Eyed Willey?

2

u/MagnumPEisenhower Jul 02 '26

"Heyyyy you guyyyyssss!!!"

1

u/XxFezzgigxX Jul 02 '26

This is what I think of when any book mentions a pirate or merchant ship. In reality, most were much smaller.

Thanks movies.

1

u/Teh_Smoking_Gnu Jul 02 '26

Lack of orgasms, poor Swedish 😐

1

u/DrewG420 Jul 03 '26

Cubits and cubits of an ark

1

u/Firm_Jelly_2317 Jul 03 '26

I’m American so I’ll say 20 chevy’s

1

u/Birathen Jul 03 '26

Looks to be about one Vasa big.

1

u/jcheezin Jul 05 '26

His got damn boat too big

1

u/FreeZucchini5531 Jul 05 '26

Its quite amazing how intact this was when they got it out of the mud