Material Culture in the Swedish Navy, c. 1450-1850

Nearly 400 years have passed since the naval ship Vasa sank in Stockholm in 1628, and more than sixty years since its salvage in 1961. Today, Vasa stands as an iconic symbol – a ship, a shipwreck, a museum, and a unique manifestation of the material culture of Sweden’s early modern navy. But Vasa is not the only Swedish naval vessel of its time. Sweden’s naval records reveal nearly 900 other ships, each with a story very different from Vasa’s. Some were sunk in battle, many served in the navy for decades, others were repurposed as construction elements in harbours, or deliberately sunk at the entrances to Swedish cities and naval bases as obstacles for the enemy.

This volume focuses on and examines these forgotten or hidden ships as material culture, broadly defined to encompass all remains of the navy, from shipwrecks on the seabed to museum objects, archives, cannons, and even coffins made from ship timbers. The book highlights how new methods, techniques, and materials can challenge and enrich naval studies. It is the result of an interdisciplinary collaboration between underwater archaeology, history, ethnology, and cultural heritage studies from both Sweden and Finland.

Simon Ekström is Professor in Ethnology at Stockholm University, Sweden. Amongst his research interests are maritime heritage and museums, materiality and death, and human relations to the sea. Currently, he is working on a project depicting the use and circulation of restored guns from the age of the sailing fleet.

Niklas Eriksson is Associate Professor in Archaeology at Stockholm University. He specialises in Maritime Archaeology in widest sense – theories, methods, and materials – and his books include Urbanism under Sail (2014), Riksäpplet (2017), and Stormaktsskärgård (2022).

Anna Maria Forssberg is a historian and Associate Professor working as a researcher at the Vasa Museum. She specialises in European warfare and war propaganda in the seventeenth century. She is currently doing research on the people of Vasa and the everyday life of naval families in early modern Sweden. Forssberg takes a special interest in material culture and museum collections as sources of knowledge.

Leos Müller is Professor of History and Director of the Centre for Maritime Studies at Stockholm University. He specialises in global and maritime history and long-term history of neutrality. His latest publications include Sveriges första globala århundrade (2008) and Neutrality in World History: Themes in World History (2009).