ECU Vasa Beakhead Project

Wrapping Up

2007-12-21T08:48:00.000-05:00

I've been given the honor of writing up the final project blog. As I try to decide what to write I find myself wondering if it isn't actually a penalty of some sort as there is so much left to tell!

This 3rd week has been a whirlwind of activity as we set about finishing our various tasks. One motto for the project was to "start big, finish small" in the sense that we recorded the largest structures first and worked out down to the small, minute details. It seemed that this week most of us were firing out 2-3 drawings a day on small things such as individual steps, single timbers, or small fastening details.

On Tuesday we finished the last of the total station work, coming up with a grand total of approximately 650 points shot. Shooting the points and taking measurements on the exterior of the beakhead proved to be a remarkable feat of organization due to time constraints (we only had 3 hours each morning to use the cherry picker), weight restraints (the lighter the load in the cherry picker the further it could reach), and availability restraints. Poor Theresa seemed the busiest this week finishing up all the work in the areas that only she could access due to her distinction as the lightest one in the group. It seemed she was constantly bouncing from one take to the next and back again. Lyz spent much of the time operating the cherry picker having had previous experience. She also became the official organizer of the group, keeping drawings and data in order. Eric and Professor Stewart were constantly having to pick up and move the total station to captures those 3 points here and 5 new points there and oooh, those 2 points can only be seen from there. Peter avoided a lot of the chaos as he worked diligently at drawings that needed to be completed on board. I spent much of my time either upside down or reaching from precariously odd angles at extreme heights. If I wasn't hanging out of the cherry picker straining to reach that far corner location to place a target, I was at the top of a ladder reaching only slightly more cautiously for yet another important joint or edge that needed to be shot. I had a blast, I cannot say the same for those "spotting" me.

By Wednesday individuals would frequently find themselves with nothing to do, though some odd job could always be found. Pulling off all the labels from the hull, rescuing all of the sticky tack from the back of targets, typing up the point catalogue, gathering scattered gear, and helping those who were still drawing take those difficult measurements helped the week fly by. Thursday morning found us wrapping things up for good. We took our last pictures and gathered up our gear for the last time. We spent the afternoon on a field trip to Stockholm's Maritime Museum where we saw an amazing collection of ship models. The museum is also home to some archaeological remains of other vessels. And today we've all been going different directions as we finish last minute shopping and packing as we prepare leave Sweden tomorrow. That reminds me, I hope someone remembered to clear out the fridge...

To wrap things up, the project was on overwhelming success. It was an incredible learning experience for all of us involved, students and instructors alike. In one of the earlier posts I was labeled the "veteran," this being my fourth ECU field project. I can honestly say that this project went the most smoothly, was most satisfying, and most fun out of the four. We worked incredibly well as a group and we can all step back and be proud of what we accomplished these past three weeks. The 3-D model of the beakhead is well underway, the notebook for sketches is full, and after three weeks of climbing around we managed NOT to break the Vasa (and a huge sigh of relief is given by all)!

One Week Left

2007-12-15T11:26:00.000-05:00

Hej!

Week two is over. We're doing well enough that week three should be mostly finishing up loose ends, and cleanup. The amount of work we've finished over the past two weeks has astonished me, and I'll try to summarize it briefly.

We've almost finished total station work, which gives us a "point cloud" in three dimensions. This information is in the museum's coordinate system, which allows our work to be tied back to the drawings of other parts of the ship. When you look at the cloud, the curves of the different surfaces are readily apparent.

Using the total station as the skeleton for our drawings gives us several freedoms you don't normally enjoy. First, it frees us from having to do measured detail drawings, because once you reference a point in your drawing, that work is precisely located in space. Another benefit is that we can establish a baseline between any two total station points, which means we don't have to run our own datum lines.

In addition to the several hundred total station points (and the associated 16 pages of catalog), we have sketches of nearly every part of our work area. This fills in all the details of construction that aren't captured electronically. More points for the 3D model will be generated from these sketches.

We've also been taking lots of pictures (which I'll try to get posted here pretty soon). A question was raised regarding our photography process, since the conserved wood is very dark and hence hard to photograph. We've found a couple methods to get around this. Exterior pictures are difficult, since the museum itself is very dark, and the ship is very big. The best method is to turn off the flash, and use a long exposure. This also has the benefit of negating the "Christmas tree" effect that comes from all the total station reflectors we've been using. Since the sticky points are designed to reflect light, your flash pictures end up looking like a constellation of red stars! Inside the ship, things are a little easier, since we can get close to wood and since we can turn on fluorescent lighting. Hopefully that answers the question and provides a little bit of help if you're ever trying to take Vasa pictures.

In other news, Stockholm has chilled considerably since we arrived - it's 28 degrees at the moment. Combined with the short days (sunset was at 2:47 this afternoon), it's a little hard to see the city.

I'll try to get Week One and Two pictures up sometime soon, but in the meantime, enjoy this picture of Vasa's bow, courtesy Wikipedia.

Fishbowl view

2007-12-13T13:43:00.000-05:00

I'll start with todays most exciting news- It finally snowed!
Also today is Saint Lucia day which for us meant a nice chance to see some Swedish culture in the form of children's choir processing in candle light and singing traditional songs.
The rest of the crew has done a fantastic job filling you in on what we have been doing and how it effects the project. I just keep thinking of how we effect the museum and the visitors. So i figured I'd go over the experience of a typical Vasa Museet visitor sees.
Coming in the entrance most people are shocked by how large and imposing the ship really is. As they get closer to the ship the first thing they encounter is the enormous beakhead. They try to take a great flash photo of themselves in front of this 17th century ship. Instead they ring of bright red glare in the photo that almost resembles a Christmas tree. These are the total station targets we have placed all over the exterior and interior of the beakhead and bulkhead in the past week and a half. Today we placed, shot and catalogued number 465. Before the visitors were allowed in we set up a large cherry picker near the beakhead and posted targets all over the exterior starboard portion. This would have been quite a fun thing for the tourists to see, but they missed that show. We have put on many other interesting ones though.
Amy has been hanging out of hawse holes to get expedite the placing of targets on the exterior of the beakhead. At times visitors get a nice view of her half dangling outside the ship recorded the exact position of the points placed. Not wanting to be left out Prof. Stewart and myself have also taken turns reaching out gunports to place points in other hard to reach areas. Looking up the beakhead towards the 1 ton lion figure head tourists are treated to Theresa climbing around in a harness to get the full view of all the fastener holes and connection points for her sketches.
These acrobatic techniques have led to many questions from the visitors. Many people want to know if they can get on the ship, and stand by the gate we walk through. Thankfully we have official sweaters and key cards so we look more offical then our peg stained cloathes let on. We often have to shut the gate and explain that we work on the ship. We've all gotten used to telling visitors that we only speak English, which poses no real problem here and then explaining about ECU and the beakhead drafting program. We also try to advise them on the best way to take a photo of the beakhead, with no flash and a steady hand. We arent the only people explaining why there are people climbing all over the Vasa. The tour guides have many things to tell the visitors about us. Peter was refered to as "the boy next to the toilet" and provided a great marker for a difficult spot to locate. We try to keep the guides aware of what we are doing so they can explain our project if they need to.
Visitors can also spot us lugging around the total station, flashlights, clipboards, walkie talkies and ladders. We shine flashlights where ever we need to in order to find prisms and point markers. The beakhead hasnt been exposed to this much light and action in quite a few years.
We are officially over halfway done. Were moving rapidly through detailed sketches with important measurements and markings. We've started the fun adventure of placing points on the exterior using a cherry picker which suspends two people in a plastic box many feet above the ground. This new toy also comes with an earlier wake up because it can only be used before the museum opens to the public. We are shooting points on both sides to get a 3-d network of points for the beakhead. I am excited to what new things we'll learn in the next week and a half.

The All-Encompassing Station- Today's work blog

2007-12-11T15:03:00.000-05:00

Today began the nitty-gritty. Finished with all interior total station points; the gun deck, lower gun deck, and orlop deck, as well as the exterior beakhead bulkhead and the upper part of the beakhead, we all started drawing. Amy and Theresa had already been drawing the grating, and finished early this morning, allowing us to place plywood boards down over the grating. This allowed for easier movement and more people on the beakhead itself, and the drawing of the beakhead sides and the pin rails.

Total station points are still needed for the lower portions of the beakhead including the lower parts of the headframes and the massive knee holding the bowsprit. These will be recorded in a few days from a lower floor. Currently, most work has been done on the sixth floor, which gives a good sense of scale of this massive ship. The total station points already recorded, over 350, were sent to be translated into a computer format we can use, and will be available for us to work with tomorrow.

Lyz completed a sketch with measurements of the foremost knees on the interior of the gun deck, while Eric began sketching the lap-strake planking and entry ports of the bulkhead. Amy finished the grating and has begun sketching the stairs on the exterior of the beakhead bulkhead. Theresa, also completing the grating, has begun a sketch of the profile of the port side of the beakhead. Dave and Fred, our tireless leaders, have attempted to sketch various parts of the beakhead, but have been unable to get very far due to our questions. Fred is an amazing source of knowledge, there is nothing about ships or baseball that he does not know. I finished a masterpiece sketch of the foremost pin rail, and began the aft pin rail.

Tomorrow morning we have a meeting to check our progress. Fred has told us that he feels we are ahead of where he thought we would be at this point. While done with taking points, we need to analyze how much needs to be drawn and plotted, and estimate how long it will take. Though eight days remain, a few at the end should be saved for cleaning and making sure we have not forgotten any sections. The meeting will provide a complete description of what remains to be drawn, and how the drawings will be used in conjunction with the total station points.

The Vasa Museet has proved extremely hospitable and everyone has shown an interest in our project, as well as giving us encouragement. Besides having a R2-D2 like coffee machine, this museum is top quality throughout the organization. It is truly a wonderful opportunity to work for such a fantastic organization, and on such a unique archaeological site. Not every museum, or country, shows the dedication to preservation and scientific research that the Vasa Museet and the Swedish government have shown with the Vasa. Let it be a lesson, as every tourist who visits the museum sees, that preservation of archaeological material can be a benefit to all.

Tomorrow Lyz will tell the blog how the meeting went, and an estimate of how much work is left. Also, she may know when we will begin to shoot the exterior beakhead points, part of a complicated process involving lifting the cherry picker to another floor with the museum crane (done by the museum staff, not the ECU students who continue to get lost around Stockholm).

The Vasa Project Begins...

2007-12-10T16:14:00.000-05:00

This is take two on the first student blog entry. My first entry was deleted because I could not figure out the difference between the Swedish words for ‘post’ and ‘delete’. Luckily this morning Professor Stewart introduced me to the ‘English’ button and now I understand it all.

The first week of the Vasa trip was absolutely amazing as well as one big sensory overload. Lyz, Peter, and I arrived here on Saturday, December 1 while Amy and Eric arrived on Sunday. Sunday was spent getting settled in our respective ships: the icebreaker, Sankt Erik, for the guys, and the minesweeper, M20, for the gals. Monday, however, was the best day. Dr. Fred Hocker met us at the VasaMuseet, and we were introduced to the ship itself. SO COOL! And what an honor. We travelled all the way from the poop deck to the hold, fore and aft all the while being mindful not to put a foot through a plank and be the first to break the Vasa! Our tour of the Vasa did mean one significant shift in our plan; it meant that our recording strategy went flying out the window, but more on that later. After the tour we were introduced to our new favourite past time, fika! Fika means break and it also means getting a cup of really good coffee and hot chocolate from the coolest coffee machine I’ve ever seen. I do enjoy fika. During fika we met with just about every person working for the VasaMuseet. They all are the kindest, most welcoming people I’ve met. That Monday we also presented our recording strategy to Dr. Hocker and Dr. Stewart and all those interested. It went well and soon we were making changes to the plan to better fit our new perspective on the Vasa and helpful suggestions from both Dr. Hocker and Dr. Stewart.

Our recording strategy, though changed, has retained the same goals. First is to provide accurate data in recording the beakhead structure, second is to discover and understand how the beakhead structure is attached to the hull of the ship, and third to discover the location of what we call the ‘spectacle’ or attachment for the fore staysail sheets. To do so we are taking points on the interior and exterior of the beakhead, and where the beakhead connects to the hull on the upper gundeck, lower gundeck, and the orlop. The points are then catalogued (go Lyz and Peter!) and taken using a total station, which we’ve all helped on, and will eventually be downloaded into Rhinoceros to create a 3D image of the beakhead. Currently, the points are being recorded (Lyz and Peter still have one beck to go) and points have not been place on the exterior of the beakhead. Amy and I are currently working in the beakhead itself taking measurements of the grating, the stringers, and how they all fit together. Amy is also working on figuring out how the heads are fastened to the beakhead as well as record the knee and stem. Soon we will be able to put down flooring over the grating and everyone will be able to walk around more easily although Amy and I could probably step on all the safe grating with our eyes closed. All in all, last week and today were great days. We’ve all been working hard and are excited about the work still ahead of us. We know there is a lot left to do and we’ll be pushing hard, so thank goodness for fika!

Welcome!

2007-12-05T13:45:00.000-05:00

Welcome to the Vasa Beakhead Recording Project blog. My name is Dr. David Stewart, Assistant Professor in the Program in Maritime Studies at East Carolina University, and I would like to take this opportunity to tell you a little about the project. This project is a collaborative effort between the Swedish Statens Maritima Museer (National Maritime Museums) and the Program in Maritime Studies at East Carolina University. We will be working on the ongoing documentation of the 17th-century Swedish royal warship Vasa, which sank on her maiden voyage in Stockholm Harbor in 1628.

The specific goal of this 3-week project (December 3rd – 21st) is to produce an accurate recording of Vasa’s beakhead structure (galjon), which has not yet been recorded in detail. This information will form part of the second volume of the Vasa final publication, due to go to press in 2008.

Preserved in excellent condition due to the cold Baltic waters, Vasa was raised in 1961. Today, it forms the centerpiece of one of Europe’s most popular museums; over 1 million people visit the Vasa Museum annually. Nowhere else in the world can visitors see such an intact warship from the Age of Sail: Vasa is 95-97% original, while others such as HMS Victory or USS Constitution contain less than 10% original timber.

The project directors are Dr. Fred Hocker, Head of Vasa Research, and myself. Dr. Larry Babits, Head of the Program in Maritime Studies, was instrumental in setting up the project, and will be joining us for one week.

Fred and I will also use this as a teaching opportunity for 5 ECU graduate students. These students are professional maritime archaeologists in training; all are working on MA degrees through the Program in Maritime Studies. One of them, Amy Leuchtmann, is a third-year student and veteran of 3 previous ECU field schools. The other 4, Peter Campbell, Theresa Hicks, Eric Ray, and Lyz Wyllie, are first-year students in the program. All 5 will learn how wooden warships were constructed, and how to document them for archaeological publication. In addition, as part of their training in public outreach, each student will write blog entries describing their experiences. Check back often to hear their stories in their own words.

We at East Carolina University are honored to help document this unique archaeological site. I would like to thank the administration of the Statens Maritima Museer and East Carolina University for making this project possible. In Sweden, Björn Varenius, Director of the Department of Cultural Heritage, has been especially helpful in arranging this partnership. Thanks also to Dr. Gerry Prokopowicz, Acting Head of the Department of History at East Carolina University, for his help.

Lastly, thank you for reading, and I hope that you enjoy seeing this story unfold.

David Stewart

Coming soon....

2007-11-28T14:05:00.000-05:00

Over the next few weeks, we'll have posts from Stockholm to keep everyone updated on what we're doing with the Vasa's beakhead. Stay tuned.