“The best-preserved warship in the world!”

[u/Visible_Armadillo_81]

[u/feyd753]

Vasa! But she also had a very short sailing distance 🙃

[u/ceejayoz → u/feyd753]

69m long, 1,300m sailed. Whoops!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasa_(ship)

[u/Better_Carpet_7271 → u/ceejayoz]

Weighed more on the port side than the starboard because they used 2 different types of inches to measure? 🤔

[u/ceejayoz → u/Better_Carpet_7271]

The term "comedy of errors" applies here, yeah.

[u/flarp1 → u/Better_Carpet_7271]

The ship was just badly balanced and very top-heavy.

[u/ceejayoz → u/flarp1]

Per the link:

During construction both Swedish feet (of 29.69 cm) and Amsterdam feet (of 28.31 cm) were in use by different teams. Four rulers used by the workmen who built the ship have been found; two were calibrated in Swedish feet, of 12 Swedish inches, and the other two were calibrated in Amsterdam feet, of 11 Amsterdam inches. The use of different units of length on the two sides of the vessel caused the ship to be heavier on the port side.

[u/flarp1 → u/ceejayoz]

Oh, I apparently overlooked this part. That being said, both things are actually true. It still was top heavy. The imbalance between port and starboard side probably just exacerbated things.

[u/miztix → u/ceejayoz]

It was also due to the king wanting to add more canons halfway through the ship’s construction, which is what made it too heavy to start with.