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Vasa was thought to be the world’s most powerful warship and the great pride of King Gustaf II Adolf. Unfortunately, the ship sank on its maiden voyage in 1628, after having sailed less than a nautical mile.

In 1961, the wreck was re-located, rescued from the depths and finally put on display at the Vasa Museum in Stockholm. However, after only fifty years in the museum’s humid environment, the iron bolts put in during the salvage project had started to corrode and leak iron into the ship’s hull. To preserve this extremely popular tourist attraction, a decision was made to replace each one of the 5,000 bolts. The questions was – with what?

Enter Sandvik Materials Technology and its advanced duplex stainless steel grades: Sandvik SAF 2507® and Sandvik SAF 27087 HD™. The extreme corrosion resistance and exceptional strength of these materials could guarantee full support for the weight of Vasa’s hull.

Thanks to the cutting-edge technology from Sandvik, Vasa will be able to welcome even more visitors in the future.

Since 1990, the royal warship Vasa is on display at the Vasa Museum in Stockholm.

Starting in 2011, the old bolts were replaced one by one with the state-of-the-art model designed jointly by Vasa engineers and Sandvik Materials Technology. It took 1,500 days and 15 people to write this chapter. A chapter that would not have been possible without the cutting-edge technology brought by Sandvik.

On 8 May 2018, the last bolt in the Vasa/Sandvik project was finally inserted. A ceremony was held at the Vasa Museum and Pyramid was asked to develop a film that summed up the entire project.

Here’s the result.

Read more about the project at Sandvik’s website.

Should you want to see Vasa for yourself, swing by the Vasa Museum in Stockholm.

 

The project team at Pyramid:

Account Director: Nina Skantz

Copy: Maggie Crusell

Film/Film Editing: Oliver Sjöholm

Production Manager: Filippa Nelson