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Sailing rig

One of the many blocks recovered from the wreck. This is a double block with two sheaves. It is made entirely of wood, using ash for both the shell of the block and the sheaves. Though it is not visible in this picture, this example had the less common wrought iron strop to attach it to a fixed surface or the object being moved.

The preservation of so many items from the sailing rig of Vasa is unique among shipwrecks that have been fully investigated. Generally, the masts, sails and rigging, if not lost in the original wrecking event, are much more exposed to contemporary salvage, degradation or loss than the lower hull components that usually make up the remains of wrecks. With Vasa, virtually all of the lower fore and main masts have survived, much of the bowsprit and two yards which are likely derived from the ship. To this are added the six sails (out of a complement of ten) that were not set on the maiden voyage, but stored below in the sailroom, the 412 gun tackle and rigging blocks (plus 143 pieces) recovered out of a possible outfit of about 600, the deadeyes used to adjust the tension in the shrouds, of which 125 were recovered, parrel ribs and trucks, and ropes. By comparison, the Red Bay wreck 24M yielded 48 standing blocks (equivalent to deadeyes) and 24 running blocks whilst the Mary Rose produced only blocks that were stored below decks – and the recovered sail has yet to be investigated. Neither of these had surviving masts, with their size only being estimated from the dimensions of the mast partners and steps. Vasa's sailing rig finds easily outnumber the aggregate total of finds from these two wrecks plus those from La Belle (sunk 1686) and Santo Antonio de Tanna (sunk 1697).

Masts and spars

Vasa's lower mainmast and foremast largely survived, the topmasts and topgallants were salvaged soon after the sinking and so were not recovered with the wreck. The mizzen and mizzen topmast did not survive.

The foremast is made from a single pine tree with extra material to make the cheeks and the hounds. Because this mast was left standing for so long, its original surface at levels above the gundeck is largely eroded away. It has one historic break, which means that its exact length is slightly uncertain.

Strangely, since Sweden was the country with the best mast making timber in Europe, the lower mainmast is a "made mast" – assembled from a number of pieces of timber that reinforce a central core – rather than being from a single tree. The best mast-making timber of this time was described as "Gothenburg masts", that being the port from which they were exported. Dendrochronology shows that some timber from the hull ceiling was sourced from the Gothenburg area. However, it seems the mast was purchased through the Amsterdam timber market.

Blocks and deadeyes

Blocks (commonly called pulleys) are a means of redirecting the path of a rope or providing a mechanical advantage, either on its own or in combination with other blocks, to increase the force applied. The majority of blocks have a sheave which rotates on an axle – the rope that goes through the block fits into a groove cut in the sheave. The load in the rope is transferred from the axle to the shell of the block, which, at the time of Vasa, has a rope strop (usually) or wrought iron strap which goes around the shell and is used to fasten the block to another object. More rarely, a block does not have a sheave. It is then termed a "dead block".

Deadeyes are used in the standing rigging. These are the pieces of wood that, operating in pairs, allow adjustment of the length of shrouds or stays. A lanyard passes through a number of holes in each pair – tightening the lanyard shortens the distance between the pair of deadeyes. Since natural fibre ropes can change in length depending on the amount of moisture in them, the standing rigging of a 17th century ship needed much more adjustment than a more modern sailing vessel.

Bibliography (copied from Vasa (ship))

• Adams, Jonathan (2013). A Maritime Archaeology of Ships: Innovation and Social Change in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe. Oxford: Oxbow Books. ISBN 9781782970453.

• Anderson, Roger C. (1927). The rigging of ships in the days of the spritsail topmast: 1600 - 1720 (1994 reprint ed.). New York: Dover Publ. ISBN 978-0486279602.

• Cederlund, Carl Olof (1997). Nationalism eller vetenskap? Svensk marinarkeologi i ideologisk belysning (in Swedish). Stockholm: Carlsson. ISBN 91-7203-045-3.

• Cederlund, Carl Olof (2006). Hocker, Fred (ed.). Vasa. 1: The Archaeology of a Swedish warship of 1628. Stockholm: National Maritime Museums of Sweden. ISBN 91-974659-0-9.
• Dal, Lovisa; Hall Roth, Ingrid (2002). "Vasa vittrar". Marinarkeologisk Tidsskrift (4).[1]
• Grenier, Robert; Bernier, Marc-Andre; Stevens, Willis, eds. (2007). The Underwater Archaeology of Red Bay, vol 4. Ottawa: Parks Canada. ISBN 978-0-660-19652-7.
• Hocker, Fred (2011). Vasa: A Swedish Warship. Stockholm: Medströms. ISBN 978-91-7329-101-9.
• Hocker, Fred; Pipping, Olof (2023). Hocker, Fred (ed.). Vasa II: Rigging and Sailing a Swedish warship of 1628. Lund: Nordic Academic Press. ISBN 978-91-88909-11-4.
• Kvarning, Lars-Åke; Ohrelius, Bengt (1998). The Vasa: the Royal Ship. Atlantis. ISBN 91-7486-581-1.
• Marsden, Peter, ed. (2009). Mary Rose - Your Noblest Shippe: Anatomy of a Tudor Warship. Portsmouth: Mary Rose Trust. ISBN 978-0-9544029-2-1.
• Hamilton, Edward; Sandström, Anders Z. (1982). Sjöstrid på Wasas tid : taktik, artilleri och eldhandvapen. Vasastudier (in Swedish). Stockholm. ISBN 9185268151.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Sandström, Magnus; Jalilehvand, Farideh; Persson, Ingemar; Gelius, Ulrik; Frank, Patrick; Hall Roth, Ingrid (2002-02-21). "Deterioration of the seventeenth-century warship Vasa by internal formation of sulphuric acid". Nature: 893–897. doi:10.1038/415893a.
• Soop, Hans (1992). The Power and the Glory: The Sculptures of The Warship Wasa (Second ed.). Kungliga Vitterhets-, historie- och antikvitetsakademien. ISBN 91-7402-168-0.
• Van Duivenvoorde, Wendy (2015). Dutch East India Company shipbuilding : the archaeological study of Batavia and other seventeenth-century VOC ships (First ed.). College Station: Texas A&M University Press. ISBN 978-1-62349-231-1.
• Modellen : Vasamodeller från när och fjärran (in Swedish). Vasamuseet. 1997. ISBN 91-85268-69-0.