How do you save a shipwreck? | BBC News — Transcript

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1. 0:04In the early 17th century, Sweden's King
2. 0:07Gustaf II commissioned a magnificent
3. 0:10gallion. Wow, just look at that. Isn't
4. 0:13that incredible?
5. 0:15A warship like no other, the Vasa was a
6. 0:17symbol of the nation's great power and
7. 0:20wealth. Decorated with [music] fine
8. 0:22carvings by the most skilled of
9. 0:24craftsmen, rather unusually, it also had
10. 0:27two gun decks. The idea was simple.
11. 0:30Double the amount of Gandex, double the
12. 0:32firepower of the ship. Vas would have
13. 0:34been the most powerful warship in the
14. 0:35whole Baltic. [music]
15. 0:38In 1628, the Vas set sail on its maiden
16. 0:41[music] voyage. But after leaving
17. 0:44harbor, catastrophe struck. A strong
18. 0:46gust hit the vessel, rolling [music] it
19. 0:48to the side. Water gushed in through the
20. 0:51open gunports and it [music] sank to the
21. 0:54bottom of the sea.
22. 0:59The wreck was discovered in the 1950s,
23. 1:02but it was in 40,000 pieces.
24. 1:07Marine archaeologists raised it from the
25. 1:09seafloor and began putting together one
26. 1:12of the world's biggest jigsaw puzzles.
27. 1:14>> The ship is [music] 98% original, so
28. 1:16very, very few pieces are lost. And
29. 1:19that's unique that you have such an
30. 1:21intact [music] object. It's a moment in
31. 1:25time. The 10th of August of 1628
32. 1:28actually frozen. [music]
33. 1:30>> For almost 50 years, this museum in the
34. 1:33heart of Stockholm has been the Vassor's
35. 1:35home.
36. 1:36>> It's truly astonishing. This ship is
37. 1:38almost 400 years old. And yet, it's so
38. 1:42well preserved even after spending more
39. 1:44than three centuries on the seabed.
40. 1:47[music]
41. 1:47>> Welcome aboard the Barcelona. But this
42. 1:50national treasure is facing new
43. 1:52problems. Although the Vasa is truly
44. 1:55impressive in scale, it's also very
45. 1:57fragile and so a major preservation
46. 2:00effort is underway to save it for future
47. 2:03generations. [music]
48. 2:05>> One is the deterioration of the wood,
49. 2:07but the second big problem is gravity.
50. 2:10The ship is slowly moving downwards upon
51. 2:12the steel structure you're standing
52. 2:13upon. What's the risk [music] if you
53. 2:16don't step in now to do all this work?
54. 2:19>> The ship is once again leaning towards
55. 2:21the port [music] side. In the long run,
56. 2:23it will actually be a whole different
57. 2:25shape that it was originally, [music]
58. 2:27but it will also start to break.
59. 2:31>> A multi-year rescue plan was launched
60. 2:34and technology is giving a helping hand.
61. 2:37>> It started with a three-dimensional
62. 2:39model of the ship. We have scanned the
63. 2:41whole area of the ship and then we had
64. 2:43to figure out the quality of the
65. 2:45structure itself. [music]
66. 2:47>> Using the latest techniques, a new
67. 2:49support structure and an internal steel
68. 2:52skeleton [music]
69. 2:52are being built before the ship is
70. 2:55pulled upright again. [music]
71. 2:57>> You can see that it's isometrical and
72. 2:59that's because it's mirroring the
73. 3:01structure of the ship itself. [music]
74. 3:03The whole external street structure is a
75. 3:05machine and there's a lot of [music]
76. 3:06movable parts
77. 3:09>> paired with sensors placed around the
78. 3:10ship. A monitoring station in the roof
79. 3:13also tracks the [music] tiniest of
80. 3:15movements, recording measurements almost
81. 3:17100 times a day.
82. 3:20There's also digital preservation
83. 3:22underway.
84. 3:24Capturing every detail floor by floor is
85. 3:27painstaking work. So, we're right in the
86. 3:30base of the ship now, and this is where
87. 3:32a lot of the work that Hawkins been
88. 3:34doing has been taking place to build up
89. 3:36a a 3D model of the lower part of the
90. 3:40ship.
91. 3:42[music] Almost a quarter of a million
92. 3:44images have been taken and processed
93. 3:46with photoggramometry software, and
94. 3:48that's used to make a [music] 3D digital
95. 3:51twin of the Vasa.
96. 3:52>> What you see here is uh a preview of the
97. 3:55model. It's part of the hold, [music]
98. 3:57the lowest deck in the ship. I used to
99. 3:59think it as painting the surface of the
100. 4:01ship and every part of the surface must
101. 4:04be painted with two images. [music] A
102. 4:07deck like this, it needs about between
103. 4:0920 and 30,000 photographs to to cover
104. 4:13completely.
105. 4:18>> [music]
106. 4:18>> This will save a highly detailed visual
107. 4:20record of the ship, both for historians
108. 4:23and for the 1.5 million visitors who
109. 4:26come here every year so [music] that
110. 4:28they can also explore what it's like
111. 4:31inside.
112. 4:32>> At some point, [music] we won't know
113. 4:34what will happen with the ship, but we
114. 4:36will have a digital copy of it. But
115. 4:38[music] also a bit in the shorter run
116. 4:40when we'll do the internal steel
117. 4:42structure. It's a last opportunity for
118. 4:44us to actually see how the ship looked
119. 4:47like.
120. 4:48>> And it's hoped the Vasa will soon be
121. 4:50ship shape again [music] for its 400th
122. 4:52anniversary and far beyond.