The World Turned Upside Down - 2nd Maryland Continental Regiment.

The 2nd Maryland Regiment origins commenced with the authorising on the 14th January 1776 of the formation of the Maryland State Troops as seven independent companies, and from the 6th July to 15th August 1776 the companies were assigned to the main Continental Army and officially adopted on the 17th August 1776. 

The Independent Companies formally became the 2nd Maryland Regiment in January 1777, with an additional company added, under the command of Colonel Thomas Price, a French Indian Wars veteran and de facto commander of the independent companies which he had led as a major in 1776 at the Battle of Harlem Heights, during Washington's defence of New York.

On 22nd May 1777 the 2nd Maryland Regiment was assigned to the 2nd Maryland Brigade in the main Continental Army under the command of Brigadier General Preudhomme De Borre, part of Major General John Sullivan's Division.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Battle_of_Staten_Island,_1777.svg

On August 21st, the 2nd Maryland joined General Sullivan who gathered 1,000 troops from Maryland, New Jersey, and Canada together, after which they marched to Elizabethtown and began crossing over to Staten Island in the morning. The force broke into several smaller groups with differing objectives, and looking to take advantage of General Howe sailing with most of his army from New York City in July, and potentially leaving the British position on Staten Island vulnerable to a surprise attack.

As a result of not enough boats to effect a retreat, costing the American force two companies, an incompetent guide misleading one of the detachments to the front of the British positions rather than its rear,  American losses of dead, wounded, and captured were each double or more than those of the British, depriving Washington of some 180-300 men needed for his campaign to defend Philadelphia; and although Sullivan was accused of mismanaging the raid, a generous court martial held later in 1777 exonerated him of all charges.

The Philadelphia Campaign of 1777

In late August 1777, after a distressing 34-day journey from Sandy Hook on the coast of New Jersey, a Royal Navy fleet of more than 260 ships carrying some 17,000 British troops under the command of British General Sir William Howe landed at the head of the Elk River, on the northern end of the Chesapeake Bay near present-day Elkton, Maryland (then known as Head of Elk), approximately 40–50 miles southwest of Philadelphia.

2nd Maryland Brigade at Brandywine:

Brigadier General Chevalier Philippe Hubert Preudhomme de Borre

2nd Maryland Regiment - 118 men, Colonel Thomas Price
4th Maryland Regiment, Colonel Josias Carvil Hall - 200 men 
7th Maryland Regiment - 95 men

German Battalion - 305men
2nd Canadian Regiment, Colonel Moses Hazen - 393 men

Source: Greg Novak

Major General Sullivan's division extended northward along the Brandywine's east banks, covering the high ground north of Chadds Ford.

After a skirmish at Cooch's Bridge south of Newark, the British troops moved north and Washington abandoned a defensive encampment along the Red Clay Creek near Newport, Delaware, to deploy against the British at Chadds Ford on the Brandywine river, with Major General Sullivan's division extended northward along the Brandywine's east banks, covering the high ground north of Chadds Ford.

By 4 p.m., the British attacked, with he British Brigade of Guards catching de Borre's 2nd Maryland Brigade by surprise on the American left.

The British appeared on the Americans' right flank at around 2 p.m. and took a much-needed rest on Osborne Hill, a commanding position north of the Continental army, meanwhile having received intelligence from Colonel Bland's scouts, Washington ordered Sullivan to take overall command of Stirling and Stephen's divisions (in addition to his own) and quickly march north to meet the British flank attack. 

Howe was slow to attack, which bought time for the Americans to position some of their men on high ground near Birmingham Meetinghouse, about a mile  north of Chadds Ford. 

By 4 p.m., the British attacked, with the British Brigade of Guards catching de Borre's 2nd Maryland Brigade by surprise on the American left, before they had had time to fully form, and immediately sent them into disarray, causing the entire division to rout. Initially, Stephen's and Stirling's divisions held firm, aided by a battery of artillery on a knoll between their divisions, however, the British light infantry battalions, aided by the Jaegers, eventually caused Stephen's division to fall back, and a bayonet charge by the British grenadier battalions, in the centre, similarly forced Stirling to retreat. 

Charles Lefferts interpretation of a

Private, 2nd Maryland Continental Infantry in 1777.

It seems nigh on impossible to make definite pronouncements on Continental Infantry regiments and their appearance but most references agree that in 1777 most of the Maryland companies were uniformed in blue faced with red, as shown, and in the general orders of 1779, Washington desired the Maryland Line to wear blue faced with red, substituting long overalls and waistcoats of white linen in summer, and white woollen in winter, in place of the buckskin breeches shown in the picture. Hunting shirts of homespun were worn on field service in place of the uniform coats throughout the army at the same time, by all the regiments so equipped.

The American retreat was well organized, largely because of the efforts of the Marquis de Lafayette, who, although wounded, created a rallying point that allowed for a more orderly retreat before being treated for his wound, however on September 26th, 1777, British forces marched into Philadelphia unopposed.

After capturing the city Howe left a garrison of some 3,000 troops, while moving the bulk of his force to the outlying community of Germantown, and on the 4th October 1777 Washington's 11,000-strong army attacked the 9,000-man British army through a heavy morning fog with four separate columns designed to converge on the British position.

Battle of Germantown, October 4th 1777, showing the advance of Sullivan's 1st and 2nd Maryland Brigades advance met by Agnew's 4th British brigade and pushed back, as the American attack collapsed.

With the American reserve distracted into a costly attack against a 120 man British garrison holding Chew House, and a friendly fire exchange between the two centre columns, the American attack lost impetus and both columns retreated, whilst the two wide flanking columns numbering 3,000 American militia had little effect on the outcome. American losses were 152 men killed, 521 wounded and 438 captured, while Howe's men suffered 71 killed, 448 wounded and 14 missing.

During his tenure as colonel of the 2nd Maryland, Price's men endured heavy casualties at the Battle of Staten Island, Brandywine and Germantown, and throughout this period, Price was dogged by accusations of poor leadership and cowardice. He requested a court martial in November 1777 and was acquitted, but further complaints by other officers and another court martial, again successfully defended would see him forced to resign his commission.

Washington Rallying the Troops at Monmouth - Emanuel Leutze

The regiment would emerge from the Valley Forge winter quarters under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Woolford, and on the 2nd May 1778 reported a strength of 240 men and the following month would join with the 4th and 6th Maryland Regiments as part of the new 2nd Maryland Brigade in the Reserve at the Battle of Monmouth, June 28th, 1778, under Major-General Lafayette, now boasting some 345 men on strength.

On the 12th May 1779 the regiment was re-organized to nine companies and the 2nd Maryland Regiment, as part of the 2nd Maryland Brigade found itself part of Major General Johann von Robais, Baron de Kalb's Division and in April 1779 reported a strength of 293 men fit for duty from an on strength total of some 388 men.

The Siege of Charleston (1780) by Alonzo Chappel

After the unsuccessful attempt to capture Savannah, Georgia, under the command of General Benjamin Lincoln, the Southern Department of the Continental Army retreated to Charleston, South Carolina, and General Sir Henry Clinton moved his forces to surround the city where Lincoln's army had taken refuge, cutting off any chance of relief for the Continental Army. On the 12th of May, 1780 Lincoln surrendered the city but not before getting a message to Washington and the Continental Congress requesting aid. 

At the end of April 1780, Washington dispatched General de Kalb with 1,400 Maryland and Delaware troops, with the Maryland Line making up a large proportion of this force.

The movements of the various detachments of the British and American armies contesting control of the South after the fall of Charleston to the British in 1780.

General Clinton returned to New York on the 5th June, 1780 after the southern remnants of the Continental Army were defeated in May at the Battle of Waxhaws, tasking Lord Cornwallis with the pacification of the remaining portions of the state.

Battle of Waxhaws - Dale Watson

General de Kalb and his troops arrived at the Buffalo Ford on the Deep River, 30 miles south of Greensboro, in July 1780, to be joined by General Horatio Gates, the "Hero of Saratoga" who arrived in camp on the 25th July, to take command.

Major General Johann von Robais, Baron de Kalb

Two days later, Gates ordered his army to take the direct road to Camden, against the advice of his officers, including Otho Holland Williams, colonel of the 6th Maryland Regiment and serving in the post of Adjutant-General to General De Kalb. 

Colonel Otho Holland Williams
6th Maryland Regiment and Adjutant general to General De Kalb.

Williams noted the country they were marching through;

"was by nature barren, abounding with sandy plains, intersected by swamps, and very thinly inhabited,"

and what few inhabitants they might have come across were most likely hostile. All of the troops had been short of food since arrival at the Deep River.  

At Camden, Gates made a fatal decision, with his right wing was comprising 900 Maryland and Delaware infantry, commanded by Major General Johann de Kalb, he placed on the left wing some 2,500 untried North Carolina and Virginia militia and a handful of cavalry and other light infantry behind them, with seven artillery pieces throughout the line. Thus he ended up with the least reliable troops in front of the best British Regulars, this while he stayed 200 yards behind the front line with the reserve, comprised of three small Maryland regiments straddling the road. At Camden the 2nd Maryland were estimated to have had a strength of around 170 men with Greg Novak estimating the total number of Continentals to have been nearer 1,344 men.

After brief aggressive manoeuvring which threatened the British position in the Carolinas, Cornwallis moved his forces to engage the American forces, and the two armies met at the Battle of Camden on August 16th, 1780, six miles north of Camden, South Carolina. Due to several tactical errors on the part of General Gates, Cornwallis achieved a decisive victory, and deserted by their commander and facing opposition on all sides, the Continental Army was forced to retreat.

During this engagement, Williams had been stationed to the rear of the army and was unable to contribute until the end and General de Kalb was mortally wounded. Prior to his death three days after the battle, de Kalb paid a glowing tribute to the Maryland Troop under his command.

Late in 1780 Major General Nathanael Greene replaced General Horatio Gates as commander of the Southern Continental Army and divided his new command into smaller forces designed to spread out the fighting and give him time to rebuild the army after its losses at Camden. This strategy of avoidance and attrition against the British, saw the two forces fight a string of battles, illustrated in the movements map above, most of which were victories for the British Army, but with a high cost in casualties that weakened it, while the Continental Army remained largely intact to continue fighting.

The Battle of Cowpens - Don Troiani

On the 18th January 1781 Lord Cornwallis learned he had lost one-quarter of his army at the Battle of Cowpens, but never the less was still determined to pursue Greene into North Carolina and destroy his army.

The Battle of Guilford Court House was fought on the 15th March 1781 near Greensboro, North Carolina, which saw a 2,100-man British force under the command of Lieutenant General Charles Cornwallis defeat Major General Nathanael Greene's 4,500 Americans, but caused the British to suffer considerable casualties, with estimates as high as 27% of their total force.

The three line battle arrangement adopted by Greene at Guilford Courthouse is illustrated, with the third line, 500 yards to the rear on a slight rise near the courthouse, being the main line of battle consisting of 1,400 Continentals from Virginia, Delaware, and Maryland on the west side of the road. The Maryland Brigade now under the command of Colonel Otho Williams consisted of the 1st and 2nd Maryland Regiments each around 360 men strong when they encountered the 2nd British Guards.

After the British forces had broken Greene's first line made up of North Carolina Militia and the second line made up of Virginia Militia they threatened the third line that included the 1st Maryland Regiment, under the command of Colonel John Gunby, and the 2nd Maryland Regiment. The Brigade of Guards, under the command of a Colonel Stewart, broke through the 2nd Maryland Regiment, captured two field pieces and threatened the rear of the 1st Maryland forces whom were already hotly engaged with the British brigade under the command of a Colonel James Webster.

The Battle of Guilford Court House (March 15, 1781) from Soldiers of the American Revolution by H. Charles McBarron. Washington's dragoons are depicted in the background charging to the assistance of the hard pressed Marylanders.

The 1st Maryland Regiment charged and forced Webster's forces to pull back in disorder, allowing them to turn to face the oncoming guards unit, which after a brief exchange of musket fire, in which 1st Maryland's commander's horse was shot from under him, the 1st Maryland Regiment charged the Guards who were driven back and subsequently charged by William Washington's dragoons.

My recent interpretation of the 6th Maryland which fought the rear guard
at Guilford Courthouse under Colonel Otho Williams.
JJ's Wargames - 6th Maryland Continental Regiment

Greene, not able to see this part of the battle from his vantage point, had already ordered a retreat, and thus, unsupported, the Maryland troops were soon forced to withdraw, with the 6th Maryland Regiment under Otho Williams acting as the rear guard of the army, and credited with holding off the British forces to allow Greene to move his forces to safety.

The Battle of Guilford Courthouse - Don Troiani.
The British Foot Guards are taken in the flank by William Washington's Light horse, which due to the wooded terrain, noise and smoke of battle caused the Guards not to see them coming. The dragoons rode through them and threw them into disorder but they recovered and the British won the battle, though at heavy cost.

The battle was "the largest and most hotly contested action" in the American Revolution's southern theatre, and on March 17th, two days after the battle, Cornwallis reported his casualties as 3 officers and 88 men of other ranks killed, and 24 officers and 384 men of other ranks wounded, with a further 25 men missing in action. Among the wounded was brigade commander, Lt. Colonel James Webster, who died two weeks later, and Lt. Colonel Banastre Tarleton, leading the British Legion cavalry, losing two fingers from taking a bullet in his right hand.

Greene reported his casualties as 57 killed, 111 wounded, and 161 missing among the Continental troops, and 22 killed, 74 wounded, and 885 missing for the militia, a total of 79 killed, 185 wounded, and 1,046 missing.

In the spring of 1781, Cornwallis moved into Virginia, intent on destroying Patriot supply centres, leaving the Carolinas with a garrison of roughly 2,500 men. General Greene sought to take advantage of Cornwallis's absence and entered South Carolina with 2,200 men with intent of driving the British back to Charleston.

Despite suffering setbacks at Hobkirk Hill and Ninety Six, Greene continued to drive the British from the South Carolina backcountry, and toward the end of August, he led his army out of the High Hills of the Santee intent on engaging a British force under Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Stewart.

The armies collided on September 8th, 1781, when Stewart detached roughly a quarter of his force to forage near his camp, and Greene’s vanguard capturing a number of the foragers, before engaging British dragoons and opening the battle.

Greene deployed his infantry in three lines, militia in front of regulars, and advanced towards the camp. Greene steadily drove the British back to their camp where Stewart made a stand at a brick mansion and adjacent palisaded garden. This bought time for the British to rally and launch a counterattack, forcing Greene to break off the fight and withdraw, and after camping on the battlefield, Stewart withdrew toward Monck’s Corner and eventually towards the protection of Charleston.

The 2nd Maryland had about 180 men, about half of Otho William's Maryland Brigade, fighting alongside Smallwood's 1st Marylanders.

Including the loss of the foraging party, and counting the 54 wounded men whom Stewart decided to leave behind on September 9th in the "wounded prisoners" category, gives total British casualties of 85 killed, 297 wounded, 70 wounded prisoners and 430 other prisoners. The final American revision of their losses at Eutaw Springs, compiled on September 25th, 1781, arrived at figures of 119 killed, 382 wounded and 78 missing. The British took 60 prisoners, including the wounded Colonel William Washington, and two artillery pieces.

The 2nd Maryland Regiment was furloughed January 1st, 1783 at Charleston, South Carolina and disbanded on November 15th, 1783.

As with my previous Continental regiments, my veteran 2nd Maryland are composed of the plastic offerings from Perry Miniatures, Regimental colours from GMB Designs and completed with a set of low-profile sabot bases from Supreme Littleness Designs.

Work on The World Turned Upside Down project continues on into 2026 with upcoming showcases of His Majesty's 17th Foot and the completion of my Maryland brigades with a look at the German Regiment.

As always, more anon.

JJ 

JJ's on Tour - Sweden 2025, The Vasa Museum, Part Two.

 

Early last month Carolyn and I spent a few days in Stockholm, Sweden, primarily to enjoy celebrating Carolyn's special birthday, but also to enjoy the delights of Sweden, this our first visit to the country, and in the previous and first post in this planned series covering our trip, I covered our first impressions of the Swedish capital together with a focus on the remarkable preservation of the most complete 17th century warship in the world, the Vasa, and in particular what remains of the hull and her astonishing wood carved decorations, link to that post below.

JJ's on Tour - Sweden 2025, Vasa Museum, Part One

In this post, I will look specifically at the items now preserved in the museum that were discovered in her interior and around the wreck site on the seabed after her recovery in 1961.

With a warship of this era resting on the seabed for 333 years perhaps the last things you would have expected to have survived would have been any of the Vasa's sails, and I would have included myself in that probably large group of sceptics, however the picture above reveals the challenging puzzle posed to the preservation team with the discovery of the remains of some of Vasa's spare and unset sails that remained on the orlop deck the day she sank.

This illustration in the museum vividly portrays the sails a ship like Vasa would have carried, together with her flags and pennants, which based on a document from 1626 detailing those carried by the ship Tre Kronor, suggests she would have probably been similarly equipped, with five large flags and three long pennants, none of which survived the sinking.

From the heap of mushed three-hundred-plus year old canvass, restorers managed to piece together several recognisable sails that included the Vasa's mizzen bonnet, mainsail, spritsail topsail and fore topgallant.

The mizzen bonnet was just under 56-feet long and 5-feet 6-inches wide, and probably made of hemp, designed to fasten under the mizzen sail to enlarge its area.

Vasa's mizzen bonnet.

In the section reconstructed above, about three quarters of the one-hundred threading loops seen along the top of the sail piece and used to fasten it to the mizzen sail have been preserved, and the sections of cloth can be seen seamed together with a round seam.

The Vasa's mainsail was stowed in the sail locker on the orlop deck, folded and tied up with pleated gaskets, knotted with square knots.

A small section of Vasa's mighty mainsail.

The mainsail consisted of 34 sections of cloth, probably made of hemp and seamed together with double round seams, and three sections are preserved from the starboard side of the sail.

The spritsail topsail was carried at the end of the bowsprit, and consisted of canvass made of flax, with the bolt rope along the top and used to attach it to the yard, almost completely intact, and with about one quarter of the canvass preserved.

The spritsail topsail.

 

The fore topgallant illustrated below was the smallest of Vasa's sails, and when discovered lay protected between other sails in the sail locker, carefully tied up with rope yarn.

The canvass is probably made of flax, and it is thought that the sail was newly made as its loose seams suggest it had never been used.

Vasa's fore topgallant in tip-top condition, never having been used.

The replica of Vasa's main top vividly illustrates the size of this platform used in the process of furling and unfurling the main topsail.

A replica of Vasa's main top.

Another vital component in the machinery needed aboard an age of sail man of war, reliant on manpower to do the heavy lifting, leading to the sailors common complaint in his latter years, the dreaded hernia, were blocks of various shapes and sizes, with some used to increase mechanical advantage and others used simply to change the direction of a line.

Vasa was originally estimated to require an outfit of about
600 rigging and gun tackle blocks.

The Vasa, like the Mary Rose in Portsmouth, is a time capsule, holding a unique insight into the lives and deaths of the people aboard when the ship sank, entombing them, their remains and their belongings that today reveal more about the story of the respective catastrophes at a very human level.

The catastrophe - A gust of wind has caught the Vasa and caused her to start heeling, with water already pouring in through the open gun ports, and despite the crew's efforts to right her, the Vasa sinks in twenty minutes; with most of the people on board managing to save themselves, but seeing some thirty souls following Vasa into the depths, and for the remains, clothing and belongings of about half of them to be discovered after the ship is salvaged 333 years later, revealing who they were and what they might have been doing aboard the ship.

The man, now named Helge, was 30-40 years old when he died, and was 5' 6" tall, and was referred to by the archaeologists who found him on the lower gun deck as 'the skeleton with the shoes'.

When Helge died, chaos reigned, as one last desperate measure was ordered to attempt to save the ship by dragging the heavy guns from port to starboard in an attempt to right the ship’s list.

A single gun could weigh 1.5 tons, a difficult piece of equipment to move at the best of times, but with the quick severe list made worse by the masses of water rushing in over the gun deck, the task was likely impossible.

Helge may have been one of those who helped Vice Admiral Erik Jönsson in his attempt to move the guns.

Archaeologists found him on the lower gun deck, lying on his side with hist feet under a gun carriage, and there was something peaceful about the body, despite the signs of tumult around him.

Most of Helge's clothing lay protected between his body and the deck and are relatively intact, with both the jacket and knee-length breeches showing signs of having been mended with patches of blue-green wool.

The large wheel from the gun carriage that had trapped Helge, although mercifully, it is likely from the position of the body that he was already unconscious when he ended up there under it, and the remains of his shoes found still on his feet, made of moose hide, with insoles of birch bark, worn and mended, with little decorative incisions on the upper side.

The man named Ivar, was 40-50 years old when he died, and was about 5' 7"tall, and was found deep in the vessel on the orlop deck, and was discovered to have had an injury to his skull and on his right calf bone.

The orlop room is a cramped space with just over three feet of head room, and anyone wanting to get into it had to either crawl or crouch.

There were two access hatches to the orlop, one leading up to the main gun deck and the other down into the hold.

The parts of Ivar's musket were found scattered near his remains, that included the butt, stock and ramrod made of alder wood, also found was his powder horn made from a cow horn with a wooden plug and stopper, and the hood of the lantern which was supported by wooden rods, probably framing thin sheets of horn attached to a wooden base plate. Black soot marks on the inside of this hood suggest that the lantern was burning during the accident.

Ivar had a lantern to light up the narrow and dark space, and near him were found a musket and powder horn, leading to researchers assuming he may have been guarding the powder magazine.

The orlop was a bad place to be if the ship was sinking, and getting up through the hatch required some strength and agility even when the ship was tilting, which may have been too difficult for Ivar or maybe he chose to stay at his post.

The woman called Beata was about 25 years old when she came aboard the Vasa on a sunny Sunday morning, hailing from southern Sweden or Denmark and having experienced disease or starvation during childhood. Her shoes once expensive and beautiful, were now worn, and badly mended, and perhaps they were bought second-hand.

Beata, a sailors wife, who died with her husband.

Beatta was found on the upper gun deck, port side, and it is thought she was probably married to one of the sailors, with her jacket made of the same fabric as that of the man found beside her, with the two bodies intertwined suggesting they died together. Interestingly, she had a notch in her front tooth, possibly caused by repeatedly biting off thread.

The woman recreated below was for a long time after the recovery of her remains referred to as Gustav, but with modern DNA analysis later confirming Gustav to be a woman, was renamed Gertrud, and an osteological examination also showed that she had likely given birth.

Gertrud was 25 - 40 years old when she died, having recently had a tooth pulled and was probably a seaman's wife who travelled on Vasa's maiden voyage, like Beata, with the wear and tear on her back indicating that she had led an active life involving physical labour, but it's not certain she was aware of the damage.

Gertrud's remains were found on the lower gun deck, where perhaps she was looking for her husband, or perhaps her child, as according to written sources, children of seamen died when Vasa sank, but no children's skeletons have been found.

The face recreated below is recreated from the first set of remains recovered by the divers, and was later named Adam, who is estimated to have been between 25-35 years old when he died, with marks on his teeth from sickness or nutritional deficiency during childhood. He was found on the upper gun deck, starboard side.

It seems luck might not have been on Adam's side as he had healed fractures on his forehead, nose and upper jaw, indicating that he might have been in a fight or had had an accident such as one of the heavy blocks in the ships rigging catching him unexpectedly in the face.

Whatever the cause, his luck continued to be an issue up to the day he died, as Adam broke his leg during the sinking, with his shinbone subjected to a violent force, and the injury, shock and pain likely resulting in hindering his escape.

However it seems Adam experienced friendship or perhaps love in his short life, if the sheath of his knife is any sign, carved with the initials of names, perhaps family members or friends.

The sheath has been meticulously carved with hearts and the letters LIS, HMS, MSS and DEN, thought to be initials, with DEN possibly the beginning of a date. The letters indicate the authors familiarity with letters and the heart with a cross was used as a religious symbol.

Finally we have Johan who was aged somewhere between 30-50 years old when he died, and whose remains were found scattered about in the hold, in the lowest part of the ship, and it is thought that he might have fallen through a hatch in one of the decks above and was unable to get out.

Based on the state of his bones Johan was likely a worn-out man with many injuries to his legs, typical of ones that occur when someone jumps and lands heavily on their feet.

He was surrounded by many artefacts when he was found, but they were so scattered that it was difficult to associate them with him with any confidence.

Johan was likely one of the oldest men aboard, and its interesting to speculate if he might be 'old' captain Hans Jonsson, the only one of the dead whose name is known.

The captain had served in the navy for almost twenty years and had commanded in both Russia and France.

When the Vasa sailed in August 1628, eight of the planned armament of 72 guns had still not been delivered, due primarily to the fact that the navy yard could build a ship faster than the royal gun foundry could cast its guns, that required all cannons during this time to be made from individually made moulds that could not be reused, but astonishingly the Vasa's guns had such uniform precision in their manufacturing that their primary dimensions varied by only a few millimetres, and their bores were almost exactly 146 mm (5.7 inches).

The main armament was 48 of these 24-pounders, powerful bronze cannons that fired round shot weighing ten kilograms each, with the upper deck fitted out with smaller cannons: eight 3-pounders (1.25 kg) and six stormstycken, short, thin-walled guns for firing anti-personnel ammunition at short range.

The 24-pounder was a new type of gun developed in 1620 for the army as mobile siege artillery, and it weighed only half of the traditional naval 24-pounder, allowing so many heavy cannon to be fitted into a ship the size of Vasa, and additionally was part of the king's drive to standardize the weaponry of both the army and navy to make it easier to manufacture and supply ammunition.

Only three of Vasa's original 46 main 24-pounder guns were recovered from the Vasa when she was raised and seen here on display in the museum, as most of the guns were recovered by salvagers in the 17th century by Albrecht von Treileben and Andreas Peckell, using a diving bell and a crane to recover most of them in 1663 to 1665.

The Dutch and the English were at war then and they both needed cannons, and a reference in the British Board of Ordnance Archives, records that they had purchased forty 24-pounder cannons from Sweden in the spring of 1665, which was just at the point when Albrecht von Treileben was exporting forty 24-pounder cannons from Sweden; this while at about the same time the Dutch were buying cannons of the same type from Sweden, perhaps indicating that the entrepreneurial von Treileben was tendering to both parties to get the best price.

As well as the guns, several example of the tools required to man such weapons were also recovered.

The sponge tool, consisted of a long wooden handle with wads of absorbent wool wrapped around the tips, which when dipped into a bucket of seawater (kept on deck nearby) was used to carefully swab out the bore of any remaining burning embers that could pre-ignite any new charge.

Sponge and rammer heads.

The ladle has a long wooden handle with a kind of rectangular scoop at the end (sometimes the sponge and the ladle were combined into a single tool). This scoop is made of copper, to reduce the risk of sparks as it was shoved down the bore with the cartridge seated in it, and was cupped by the scoop’s curved blade. The ladle was then thrust into the bore, and when it reached the end, was given a half twist resulting in the blade of the scoop no longer cupping the cartridge but instead resting free above it, after which it was withdrawn, leaving the cartridge behind.

A ladle used for thrusting home the prepared powder cartridge. 

Firing was done with the linstock, a forked stick with a length of smouldering cord wound round it. You needed the stick so you could reach out and fire off the cannon while standing safely out of the way of the recoil. 

The cord on the linstock was known as a slow match, and was impregnated with a flammable substance (usually saltpetre) so that it would burn continuously but slowly (about four or five inches an hour or thereabouts), and was the standard method for firing ships’ guns right up until the end of the eighteenth century.

A wooden linstock that would have had the slow match wrapped around it.

In 2014, the Vasa Museum carried out an extensive field trial of a replica 24-pounder bronze demi-cannon, based on those found on the warship Vasa.

A two-week program of fire revealed not only the ballistic characteristics of this type of artillery, but trials against a replica section of ship structure demonstrated that conventional interpretations of the effect of cannon fire on warships is oversimplified. 

The museum displays a section of the replica hull based on that of the Vasa's construction, used in the 2014 field trial, and bearing the scars of the round shot hits demonstrated in the video above.

The guns could fire several different types of ammunition. Round shot being the most common, and used to damage the enemy ship and create clouds of splinters wounding men over a large area. Crossbar shot (a round shot with a large spike in it) and scissor shot (crossbar shot in two pivoting halves, which opened in mid-air to form a wicked cross) were used at longer range against enemy sails and rigging, to slow down and cripple the enemy so the he could not escape or manoeuvre. 

Chain shot (two half shot connected by a chain) opened in mid-air and were used at short range to destroy rigging and sails. Case shot (a wooden tube filled with musket balls or scrap metal) was used at short range, especially in the stormstycken, to cut bloody swaths through enemy crew massed on the decks just before boarding. 

Men positioned in the tops with muskets could also act as sharpshooters, to eliminate enemy officers.

 

The Vasa opens an amazing window on the life of the men and women who served aboard her, from their personal possessions, clothing, weapons and equipment, to the simple items of storage and cooking utensils that were an every day item that would have been in regular use aboard ship.

 

The crew kept their belongings in chests, casks and bundles, often with several men sharing the same chest or cask.

A rather splendid wool-felt hat would have been an expensive item for most sailors, and in an age when most men would have worn a cap or hat of some sort, both at sea and on land, a hat was very much a status symbol showing who you were in the society.

An expensive hat.

Under the hat in the chest was found a pair of leather mittens, a pair of shoes and a pair of mules, leather for shoe repairs, a shoe last made of birch, a keg, a wooden spoon, a tool handle, probably from an awl, some sealing wax and 66 copper coins worth 65 öre; these large copper öre coins were standard circulation currency at the time, and a total of 65 öre in 1628 would have had some purchasing power (e.g., perhaps enough to buy basic goods like some grain or simple clothing).

The range and variety of finds, together with the state of their condition considering how long they had been lying in the mud of Stockholm harbour is astonishing, that and the detail of various items that has been identified by the conservators, giving yet more insight into the world in which these people lived.

 

A lot of the textiles recovered are only fragments, with leather items surviving in a much more complete state. That said, the dyed woollen trouser fragment, bottom left, still has its silk decoration down the seam.

A woollen doublet with shoulder wings, fastened with a series of hooks and eyes.

The musket seen at the top of the picture below is an interesting weapon, identified as a snaplock musket a precursor to the flintlock, using a spring-loaded hammer to strike steel to ignite powder for faster, more reliable firing than matchlocks, and used by Swedish forces in New Sweden and Europe, known for its robust construction and sometimes ornate design, as seen in artifacts from the period.

Swedish snaplock gun from the early 16th century.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snaplock#/media/File:Snappl%C3%A5sb%C3%B6ssa,_1500-tal_-_Skoklosters_slott_-_103605.tif

The musket at the top is a Dutch made snaplock hunting musket, a very modern weapon for 1628, whilst below is a more usual wheel-lock German type hunting rifle, dated mid 16th century, and just below it can be seen a shot mould and lead shot.

Having done a walk around of the Vasa's hull in my first post, I thought I would conclude the post with a look at the very lowest tier of the display gallery and the area given over to the support cradle that underpins the whole structure of the ship.

The Vasa has had the same support cradle since the 1960's, and like me, also around since the 1960's, the technology moves on and things can be done better.

The old cradle was damaging the ship by creating deformations in the hull due to the weakening wood, with the ship leaning slightly to her portside and requiring straitening, thus work is planned to commence in 2028, just in time for the ship's 400th anniversary, to provide a whole new external cradle , whilst at the same time providing the Vasa with a new internal skeleton made of steel.

 

As well as getting a good look at the support structure for the Vasa I noticed that in this part of the gallery one can see other pieces of the ships equipment including two of her anchors.

Whilst the other item I was keen to see up close was the longboat, spotted when looking at the stern galleries from the upper landing.

 

The longboat is just over 39 feet long and was rowed or sailed, being mainly used for communication with other ships or the shore, and for towing or warping the ship.

Finally the wargamer in me was immediately drawn to these 25mm figures from the age of Gustav Adolphus, recreating the men of his army and navy and on sale in the museum shop, and I was intrigued to see who manufactured them.

I thought I recognised the look of the castings, being very nice sculpts but very much in the retro style of yesteryear, and then the memories came flooding back of an old shop in London that I visited back in the day, when I turned the label over to discover that these are made by Tradition Miniatures. 

The business grew originally from the Tradition magazine started by Roy Belmont-Maitland in the 1960s, with the name eventually applied to the shop and soldiers, and figure range had sculptors like Charles Stadden and David Scheinmann, who were instrumental in Tradition's classic painted ranges, and were very active in the UK miniature scene around Nottingham.

It now seems that Tradition are now based in new premises in London and jointly promoted there and in Sweden, and for me being a wargamer from an age time forgot, still getting used to 3D prints and plastics, these were a nice reminisce.

So that concludes my look at the Vasa Museum, which was very much a highlight of our stay in Stockholm and a place I would highly recommend visiting if the opportunity presents, particularly if like me you like to see old historic warships, and in this case a very unique one indeed.

In the next post looking at our short break in Sweden I will include our boat trip around the Stockholm harbour area and its many islands, plus our visits to Royal palaces and the Swedish Parliament and our car trip to Gamla Uppsalla, the ancient pre-Viking Age religious and political centre of the kingdom of Svitjod, established at around 550 AD and the forerunner of modern Sweden. 

As always, more anon.

JJ