Der Unfall der WASA. Ursachen für den Kenterunfall des schwedischen Regalschiffes WASA im Jahre 1628

In the year 1628 the newly built Royal ship WASA capsized on her maiden voyage yet in the harbour of Stockholm. 333 years later, in 1961, the wreck was brought up from the bottom of the sea to be restored and placed in an own museum. A grant of Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft allowed to undertake detailed measurments of the ship structures. On the basis of these data stability and strength calculations were made to find out a reasons for the desaster. The results of this investigation led to the assumption that the stability of the WASA should have been sufficient, if iron would have been used instead of stones when ballasting the ship because of the 3 times greater weight-mass-ratio of iron. Nevertheless the results are to be compared with the evidences given by the defendants in the Privy Council of 1628.