In 17th century, Sweden entered a relatively strong historical period. At that time, Swedish Vasa dynasty ushered in Gustav II Adolf, a famous military strategist in modern European history. "Father of War" and Vasa Great from Sweden.

Vase Adolf, as a famous military strategist and military reformer, took idea of ​​joint operations to extreme at that time. He vigorously reformed and promoted artillery as an auxiliary mobile force, and infantry, cavalry and rear branches became elements of group struggle alone.

Modern military scholars generally believe that rapid development of Swedish armed forces at time was closely related to Vasa Adolf's division of labor between branches of service and promotion of idea of ​​joint operations involving several branches of service.

At beginning of 17th century, territory of Sweden increased by 2.5 times compared to its current size. At this time, Vasa Adolf wanted to strengthen fleet in order to increase combat power of army. Vase Adolf built strongest warship, but sailed He sank 0.7 nautical miles. What is reason? Why did Sweden spend huge sums of money to salvage this sunken ship?

Vasa Adolf's military talent stems not only from his military practice, but also from his military innovation. As king, he personally led army and adopted his own vision of joint operations, bringing Sweden, then in a barren state, to its peak.

In a deep battle, it adopts combat tactics of infantry and cavalry assault, artillery support and cover, and each combat unit performs its duties, in particular, logistics unit is also separated from combat unit to supply all its forces. force.

These military innovations are already very advanced theoretical practices in history of modern warfare, but Vasa Adolf did not stand still.

In order to realize a more avant-garde combat concept for land and sea combat, he ordered construction of a single-deck warship 69 meters long and 11.7 meters wide to realize its long-range capability. cherished desire to fight powerful enemies.

Now it seems that length and width of this ship does not have advantages, but at that time this warship was no less powerful than a modern aircraft carrier.

Vase Adolf ascended throne at age of 17 and, after years of hard struggle, held back king's expansion. The construction of warship Vasa was mainly intended to deal with threat from Danish navy, but at time of this warship's construction, there was a plan for a major renovation.

Denmark built a double-deck warship before warship Vasa was built, would be at a disadvantage in combat.

Therefore, Adolf Vasa ignored objections of some technicians and decisively ordered that single-layer battleship Vaza, which was under construction, be converted into a double-layer battleship.

The vase, which is about to be completed, has long missed best time for reconstruction, so how to turn a warship 69 meters long and 11.7 meters wide into a double-deck one? Will he be combat-ready in this way? Does superimposed height match launch conditions?

The reconstruction of warship Vasa was undoubtedly risky. Naturally, in process, some had questions for Emperor Vasa, but Vasa Adolf at that time absolutely did not listen to such voices.

The heart of Vasa Great, who had taken lead, was already greatly swollen at this time. Vasa Adolf, who had above all philosophy of elitist management, not only did not order reconstruction to be stopped, but also issued a technical failure, which made Vasa warship even more unbearable .

To emphasize luxury of warship Vasa, Vasa Adolf ordered second floor of a later reconstruction to be inlaid with large amounts of precious metals. This is also second floor of warship. Vase Adolf wanted to surpass Danish double layer in terms of aura through exquisite decoration.

Under this historical background, battleships began to rapidly rebuild, especially new second-tier battleships, with luxurious decorations and inlays.

On day that completed battleship Vasa was ready for sea trials, a solemn commissioning ceremony took place, at which hundreds of crew members gathered their families to witness this historic moment together.

A taboo issue arose on day of launch. As a battleship, Vasa carried a large number of crew members' families, and there really was no standard for judging whether she was overloaded. On day of launching, there was nothing unusual, except for confident "success of first voyage."

When warship "Vaza" sailed 1.3 kilometers from port, a strong wind was blowing, and warship "Vaza" was heavy on top and light below, and its shortcomings of an unstable center of gravity were fully revealed.

Blowing strong winds, warship capsized, and out of more than 100 people on board, only one survived, while rest were buried on seabed. Due to a displacement of 1210 tons, warship could not be saved at that time, so warship "Vaza" was forced to run aground on high seas.

In fact, three hundred years after Vasa warship sank, Sweden didn't want to save that warship that had been dormant for hundreds of years.

But difficulty of salvage lies not only in difficulty factor itself, but more importantly, how to preserve original appearance of this battleship after salvage, so that carving process, which has artistic value on this battleship, can be seen again. very big.

In 1961, Swedish archaeologists used advanced sonar detection technology off coast of Stockholm to scientifically locate warship Vasa, which had been dormant for hundreds of years.

It took a lot of human and financial resources to salvage this once-advanced warship, using deep and surface salvage techniques to lift this ancient warship that had been dormant for over three hundred years back into sky. .

Despite fact that battleship Vasa sank to bottom of sea hundreds of years ago, oxygen content in coastal waters is only one fifth of that in deep waters, which prevents battleship Vasa from excessive corrosion.

After Vasa battleship was rescued ashore, archaeologists found that 95% of parts of ancient battleship were intact. This greatly pleased archaeologists. To make warship a permanent national asset, after it took 4 years to save her, another 17 years were spent on technical anti-corrosion.

After comprehensive processing, Sweden built Vasa Shipwreck Museum in Stockholm, which has become a world-famous exhibition museum.

Many travelers from all over world come here every year. Many parts of sunken ship "Vaza" are cut out. This is a treasure of ancient European shipbuilding and carving art. There are almost a hundred guns here. This is a puzzle for archaeologists. decide.

The wrecked Vasa ship, which was salvaged at great cost, is an artistic treasure of great importance for archaeological research and of great historical educational value for understanding history of ancient warships.

Of course, sinking of ship "Vaza" also gave a lot of inspiration to future generations. The center of gravity in design of warships must comply with basic norms and requirements of mechanics.

A more important lesson: purpose of building a warship is to fight, and all dazzling decorations are superfluous, and a large number of decorations not only inverts position of battleship's center of gravity.

More importantly, cost of decoration causes warship to lose its original color. A warship cannot be built as a work of art, so it loses its own existence value.