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''Vasa'' (or ''Wasa'')〔The original name of the ship was ''Vasen'' ("the fascine"), after the heraldic symbol on the coat of arms of the House of Vasa, which was also part of the coat of arms of Sweden at the time. ''Vasa'' has since become the most widely recognized name of the ship, largely because the Vasa Museum chose this form of the name as its 'official' orthography in the late 1980s. This spelling was adopted because it is the form preferred by modern Swedish language authorities, and conforms to the spelling reforms instituted in Sweden in the early 20th century.〕 is a Swedish warship built between 1626 and 1628. The ship foundered and sank after sailing about 1,300 m (1,400 yd) into her maiden voyage on 10 August 1628. She fell into obscurity after most of her valuable bronze cannons were salvaged in the 17th century until she was located again in the late 1950s in a busy shipping lane just outside the Stockholm harbor. Salvaged with a largely intact hull in 1961, she was housed in a temporary museum called ''Wasavarvet'' ("The Wasa Shipyard") until 1988 and then moved to the Vasa Museum in Stockholm. The ship is one of Sweden's most popular tourist attractions and has been seen by over 29 million visitors since 1961.〔11 million at Wasavarvet 1961–88 and 18 million at the permanent museum since 1990. The total is based on statistics from the official website of the Vasa Museum: ("Museets besökare" ), 2011; ("Vasas sista färd" ), 2000(?).〕 Since her recovery, ''Vasa'' has become a widely recognized symbol of the Swedish "great power period" and is today a ''de facto'' standard in the media and among Swedes for evaluating the historical importance of shipwrecks. The ship was built on the orders of the King of Sweden Gustavus Adolphus as part of the military expansion he initiated in a war with Poland-Lithuania (1621–1629). She was constructed at the navy yard in Stockholm under a contract with private entrepreneurs in 1626–1627 and armed primarily with bronze cannons cast in Stockholm specifically for the ship. Richly decorated as a symbol of the king's ambitions for Sweden and himself, upon completion she was one of the most powerfully armed vessels in the world. However, ''Vasa'' was dangerously unstable due to too much weight in the upper structure of the hull. Despite this lack of stability she was ordered to sea and foundered only a few minutes after encountering a wind stronger than a breeze. The order to sail was the result of a combination of factors. The king, who was leading the army in Poland at the time of her maiden voyage, was impatient to see her take up her station as flagship of the reserve squadron at Älvsnabben in the Stockholm Archipelago. At the same time the king's subordinates lacked the political courage to openly discuss the ship's structural problems or to have the maiden voyage postponed. An inquiry was organized by the Swedish Privy Council to find those responsible for the disaster, but in the end no one was punished for the fiasco. During the 1961 recovery, thousands of artifacts and the remains of at least 15 people were found in and around the ''Vasas hull by marine archaeologists. Among the many items found were clothing, weapons, cannons, tools, coins, cutlery, food, drink and six of the ten sails. The artifacts and the ship herself have provided scholars with invaluable insights into details of naval warfare, shipbuilding techniques and everyday life in early 17th-century Sweden. == Historical background == During the 17th century, Sweden went from being a sparsely populated, poor, and peripheral northern European kingdom of little influence to one of the major powers in continental politics. Between 1611 and 1718 it was the dominant power in the Baltic, eventually gaining territory that encompassed the Baltic on all sides. This rise to prominence in international affairs and increase in military prowess, called ''stormaktstiden'' ("age of greatness" or "great power period"), was made possible by a succession of able monarchs and the establishment of a powerful centralized government, supporting a highly efficient military organization. Swedish historians have described this as one of the more extreme examples of an early modern state using almost all of its available resources to wage war; the small northern kingdom transformed itself into a fiscal-military state and one of the most militarized states in history.〔Hocker in Cederlund (2006), pp. 36–39; see also Jan Glete's paper ''(The Swedish fiscal-military state and its navy, 1521–1721 )''.〕 Gustavus Adolphus (1594–1632) has been considered one of the most successful Swedish kings in terms of success in warfare. When ''Vasa'' was built, he had been in power for more than a decade. Sweden was embroiled in a war with Poland-Lithuania, and looked apprehensively at the development of the Thirty Years' War in present-day Germany. The war had been raging since 1618 and from a Protestant perspective it was not successful. The king's plans for a Polish campaign and for securing Sweden's interests required a strong naval presence in the Baltic.〔Roberts (1953–58)〕 The navy suffered several severe setbacks during the 1620s. In 1625, a squadron cruising in the Bay of Riga was caught in a storm and ten ships ran aground and were wrecked. In the Battle of Oliwa in 1627, a Swedish squadron was outmaneuvered and defeated by a Polish force and two large ships were lost. ''Tigern'' ("The Tiger"), which was the Swedish admiral's flagship, was captured by the Poles, and ''Solen'' ("The Sun") was blown up by her own crew when she was boarded and near capture. In 1628, three more large ships were lost in less than a month; Admiral Klas Fleming's flagship ''Kristina'' was wrecked in a storm in the Gulf of Danzig, ''Riksnyckeln'' ("Key of the Realm") ran aground at Viksten in the southern archipelago of Stockholm and ''Vasa'' foundered on her maiden voyage. Gustavus Adolphus was engaged in naval warfare on several fronts, which further exacerbated the difficulties of the navy. In addition to battling the Polish navy, the Swedes were indirectly threatened by Imperial forces that had invaded Jutland. The Swedish king had little sympathy for the Danish king, Christian IV, and Denmark and Sweden had been bitter enemies for well over a century. However, Sweden feared a Catholic conquest of Copenhagen and Zealand. This would have granted the Catholic powers control over the strategic passages between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea, which would be disastrous for Swedish interests.〔〔Hocker in Cederlund (2006), p. 47.〕 As it turned out, the Imperial occupation of Denmark ended before Swedish intervention was necessary, and a squadron assigned to assist Denmark was retasked to help lift the Imperial siege of Stralsund. Until the early 17th century, the Swedish navy was composed primarily of small to medium-sized ships with a single gundeck, normally armed with 12-pounder and smaller cannons; these ships were cheaper than larger ships and were well-suited for escort and patrol. They also suited the prevailing tactical thinking within the navy, which emphasized boarding as the decisive moment in a naval battle rather than gunnery. The king, who was a keen artillerist, saw the potential of ships as gun platforms, and large, heavily armed ships made a more dramatic statement in the political theater of naval power. Beginning with ''Vasa'', he ordered a series of ships with two full gundecks, outfitted with much heavier guns.〔Hocker (2011), p. 147〕 Five such ships were built after ''Vasa'' (''Äpplet'', ''Kronan'', ''Scepter'' and ''Göta Ark'') before the Privy Council cancelled the orders for the others after the king's death in 1632. These ships, especially ''Kronan'' and ''Scepter'', were much more successful and served as flagships in the Swedish navy until the 1660s. The second of the so-called ''regalskepp'' (usually translated as "royal ships"),〔''Vasa'' was actually never referred to as a ''regalskepp'' before she was lost, but was classified as one afterwards; Hocker (2011), pp. 147–48.〕 ''Äpplet'' ("The Apple"; the Swedish term for the globus cruciger), was built simultaneously with ''Vasa''. The only significant difference between the design of ''Vasa'' and her sister ship was an increase in width of about a meter (3.1 ft).〔Hocker in Cederlund (2006), p. 39; for more on ''Äpplet'', see Jan Glete, "(Gustav II Adolfs Äpplet )" in ''Marinarkeologisk tidskrift'' nr 4, 2002.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Vasa (ship)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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