The Swedish King Gustav II Adolf was known as an aggressive warrior king. Once upon a time in Sweden that very King allegedly uttered these words
“Next to God the welfare of the nation depends on its navy”
In 1625 he ordered four new warships and the finest of them all was named after the ruling dynasty; The Royal Warship Vasa.
The King wanted a truly magnificent warship and specifically added an extra gun deck. It was a never before seen design but would add firepower that would come in very handy in battles.
The extra gun deck also affected the balance of the ship, it specifically made her top heavy. Tests showed that the Vasa was very unstable, but nobody dared tell the king about the problems.
In august of 1628, on it’s maiden voyage, Vasa capsized and sunk after sailing around 1300 meters. Around 50 sailors drowned and the ship never fired any of it’s guns in battle.
Read more @ hopperman @ blogs.forrester.com, wikipedia.com:Henrik, Johan Avard’s Corner & vasamuseet.se
Image by Debarshi Ray
Herbjörn Wilhelmsen
One Response to Innovation failures: The Royal Warship Vasa