Where the facts come from
Every factual claim on this site links to its source. This is the full list.
How we checked
Each fact was written in our own words alongside its source. Our build script stores the text of every source and, for each fact, checks that the key words and figures really appear in it. 139 of 139 checks passed when this site was last built (10 November 2026). Where we couldn’t find a named source saying something, we left it out. Where good sources disagree, we say so and give both.
Where sources differ
- Keel laid. Late winter 1626 (Vasa Museum timeline) or 1625 (Vrak).
- How many ships were ordered. Four (Vasa Museum timeline) or Vasa “and two other ships” (US Naval Institute, 1969).
- Who finished the ship. Hein Jakobsson, Hybertsson’s assistant (Vasa Museum timeline), and Margareta Nilsdotter, his widow (Vasa Museum exhibition).
- Length. 69 m (Vasa Museum timeline) or 47 m, with a width of 11.5 m (Vrak). Neither says what it measures.
- Aboard and dead. All but 30 survived (Vasa Museum); about 30 dead of 150 to 250 aboard (Vrak); an estimated 134 sailors and a guessed 50 drowned (US Naval Institute, 1969).
- Bolts replaced, 2011–2018. More than 5,000 (preservation timeline) or 4,000 (main timeline), both Vasa Museum.
- Weight. Over 1,200 t fitted out (timeline), about 900 t around 2000 (preservation timeline), 800 to 1,200 t today, exact weight unknown (facts page).
- Museum architects. Marianne Dahlbäck and Göran Månsson (museum page) or Hidemark Månsson Arkitektkontor AB (timeline).
- How long she sailed. About 20 minutes (Vasa Museum facts page; PRI, 2016); both agree on the distance, about 1,300 m.
All sources (30)
- Vasa Museum: Timeline (17 facts)
- Vasa Museum: The Disaster (11 facts)
- Vasa Museum: The Inquest (11 facts)
- Vasa Museum: The Salvage (8 facts)
- GBH News / PRI’s The World: New clues emerge in centuries-old Swedish shipwreck (October 2016) (7 facts)
- Vasa Museum: The Excavation (7 facts)
- Vasa Museum: The Search for Vasa (7 facts)
- US Naval Institute Proceedings: The two voyages of the Wasa (March 1969) (6 facts)
- Vasa Museum: Facts about Vasa (6 facts)
- Vasa Museum: The Museum (6 facts)
- Vasa Museum: Conservation (5 facts)
- Vasa Museum: The Sculptures of Vasa (5 facts)
- Vasa Museum: Timeline for the preservation of Vasa (5 facts)
- Vrak, Museum of Wrecks (Stockholm): Vasa (5 facts)
- Vasa Museum: The Ship Yard (4 facts)
- Vasa Museum: Vasa, the machine of war (4 facts)
- Vasa Museum: Gustav II Adolf (3 facts)
- Vasa Museum: Skeletons from Vasa (3 facts)
- Vasa Museum: Vasa’s new support (3 facts)
- Sveriges Radio (Radio Sweden): Vasa ship was “lopsided” (2 facts)
- Vasa Museum: Always at the Vasa Museum (2 facts)
- Vasa Museum: Deformation monitoring (2 facts)
- Vasa Museum: Life on Board (2 facts)
- Vasa Museum: Opening hours and admission (page updated 8 October 2026) (2 facts)
- Vasa Museum press release: Så snett är skeppet Vasa (June 2012, in Swedish) (1 fact)
- Vasa Museum: Collections (1 fact)
- Vasa Museum: Find in focus, fragment of a carpenter’s rule (1 fact)
- Vasa Museum: Help us support Vasa (1 fact)
- Vasa Museum: His Majesty’s Ship (exhibition) (1 fact)
- Vasa Museum: In Life and Death (exhibition) (1 fact)