Historic sailing ships varied enormously in purpose and scale. Vasa was a heavily armed Swedish warship that sank on its maiden voyage in 1628; Friendship was a 342-ton merchant vessel that completed 15 voyages; and later working ships such as Balclutha and Avanti reached more than 1,800 tons by their respective source measurements. The statistics below keep each vessel’s period, geography, and measurement system explicit.
Contents
- Vasa: a warship built for concentrated firepower
- Vasa’s crew and watchkeeping
- Balclutha: dimensions of a three-masted ship
- Merchant ships: C. A. Thayer and Friendship
- Avanti and HMS Tyger
- Voyages, wrecks, and recovery
Vasa: a warship built for concentrated firepower
In January 1625, Sweden contracted to build four new ships, including Vasa. When completed in 1628, the vessel measured 69 metres in length and stood more than 50 metres from its keel to the top of the mainmast. Once outfitted, it weighed more than 1,200 tonnes, carried 10 sails, and had 120 tonnes of ballast. These figures describe the ship at completion in 1628, not a modern reconstruction or a current measurement. The Vasa Museum’s Timeline records the construction and outfitting details.
The ship’s stability was tested before departure. At least 30 men took part in the pre-voyage test in 1628. Vasa then travelled only 1,300 metres before sinking on its maiden voyage on 10 August 1628. The short distance between departure and wreck explains why construction scale alone cannot be treated as evidence of a successful sailing design.
Vasa’s armament was substantial for a Swedish warship of the 1620s. It carried 64 cannons on the maiden voyage, although eight gunports were empty when it sailed. Its main armament included 48 bronze 24-pounder cannons. Each of those guns fired a round shot weighing 10 kilograms. The upper deck carried eight 3-pounder cannons, whose ammunition is specified as 1.25 kilograms per shot.
The Vasa Museum’s “machine of war” account states that the guns could fire a 250-kilogram broadside, excluding the stormstycken. The same source describes that broadside as about four times that of a typical Swedish warship of the 1620s. This is a source comparison, not a new calculation from the individual gun figures.
Selected Vasa statistics
| Measure | Statistic | Period |
|---|---|---|
| Length | 69 metres | 1628 |
| Height from keel to mainmast top | More than 50 metres | 1628 |
| Outfitted weight | More than 1,200 tonnes | 1628 |
| Sails | 10 | 1628 |
| Ballast | 120 tonnes | 1628 |
| Cannons carried | 64 | August 1628 |
| Broadside | 250 kilograms, excluding stormstycken | August 1628 |
| Maiden-voyage distance | 1,300 metres | 10 August 1628 |
Vasa’s crew and watchkeeping
Vasa’s planned complement illustrates the difference between a ship’s sailing crew and its battle force. The plan called for 133 mariners and 300 soldiers for battle service in 1628. Among the 133 mariners were 90 ordinary seamen and eight petty officers. A master gunner and 20 gunners were assigned to lead the gun crews. These are planned complement figures, so they should not be read as a surviving passenger or crew manifest for the brief maiden voyage.
The wider recruitment system was also quantified. More than four-fifths of Swedish navy sailors in the 1620s were conscripts. Navy officials selected every 10th man from certain coastal parishes for service. The Vasa Museum’s “Life on Board” source presents these figures as part of the social and operational setting of the ship.
The sailing crew worked in two watches, with each watch scheduled for four hours. A watch system divided the continuous work of sailing between groups, while the planned soldiers and gunners represented a separate military requirement. Taken together, the numbers show a vessel designed to combine navigation, maintenance, and combat roles within one organization.
Balclutha: dimensions of a three-masted ship
Balclutha was launched in 1886 as a three-masted sailing ship. Its overall length was 301 feet, while its on-deck length was 256.5 feet. The beam measured 38.6 feet, and the depth of hold was 22.7 feet. The vessel was rated at 1,835 gross tons and 1,583 net tons. Those two tonnage figures are retained with their source labels: they are not interchangeable measures of weight.
The ship had four decks, including two partial decks. Its dimensions and tonnage describe a large late-nineteenth-century sailing vessel whose usable internal capacity was represented separately from its gross registered volume. The National Register of Historic Places record for Balclutha provides the vessel specifications.
Balclutha’s later preservation history also has a measurable feature. During the 1955–1956 restoration, its restored hold received 819 tons of concrete-block ballast. This is restoration ballast, not the original cargo or a claim about the ship’s 1886 sailing load. Keeping that distinction matters when comparing historical specifications with museum-era preservation work.
Merchant ships: C. A. Thayer and Friendship
The C. A. Thayer was built in 1895 from native Douglas fir. It was 156 feet long at the waterline, had a beam of 36 feet 8 inches, and had a gross tonnage of 452 tons. The waterline length and gross tonnage measure different aspects of the vessel, so neither should be substituted for overall length or net tonnage. These figures come from the National Register of Historic Places record for C. A. Thayer.
Friendship belonged to an earlier generation of merchant sailing ships. The original Friendship was a 342-ton merchant sailing vessel during 1796–1797 and was launched on 28 May 1797. It was a two-decked, three-masted, square-rigged ship. Between 1797 and 1812, Friendship made 15 voyages to countries including China, Indonesia, India, Venezuela, Spain, and Russia.
| Vessel | Source-period build or launch detail | Length or tonnage statistic | Rig or service detail |
|---|---|---|---|
| C. A. Thayer | Built in 1895 from native Douglas fir | 156 feet at waterline; 452 gross tons | Merchant sailing ship |
| Friendship | Launched 28 May 1797 | 342 tons | Two decks, three masts, square-rigged; 15 voyages from 1797–1812 |
| Balclutha | Launched in 1886 | 1,835 gross tons; 1,583 net tons | Three-masted sailing ship |
The National Park Service account of Friendship of Salem records the vessel’s construction and voyage history. The 15-voyage figure refers to the original Friendship’s recorded service, not to a modern replica’s voyages.
Avanti and HMS Tyger
Avanti represents a late age-of-sail iron-hulled vessel. It was built in 1875, measured 261.4 feet in length, had a 17.5-foot draft, and had a gross tonnage of 1,862 tons. The available record gives those dimensions for the 1875–1907 period. Avanti later sank on 22 January 1907 while sailing from Pensacola to Montevideo. The National Park Service’s “The Windjammer Wreck” provides these vessel and wreck details.
HMS Tyger was a smaller eighteenth-century warship by length and tonnage, but its armament and complement were military rather than commercial measures. In 1741, it measured 130 feet long and weighed 704 tons. Its guns included six 6-pounders, 22 9-pounders, and 22 18-pounders. Its complement in 1741–1742 included 281 men, among them five commissioned officers and 57 marines.
| Vessel and period | Length | Tonnage or weight | Armament or complement |
|---|---|---|---|
| Avanti, 1875–1907 | 261.4 feet | 1,862 gross tons | 17.5-foot draft |
| HMS Tyger, 1741–1742 | 130 feet | 704 tons | 6 six-pounders, 22 nine-pounders, 22 eighteen-pounders; 281 men |
The National Park Service’s “Rediscovering HMS Tyger” gives the Tyger measurements, weapons, and complement. Because the sources use different conventions—gross tonnage for Avanti and weight for Tyger—the figures should be compared as reported rather than treated as identical measurement categories.
Voyages, wrecks, and recovery
HMS Tyger’s survival story includes a long escape voyage. In 1742, the surviving crew travelled more than 700 miles to reach Port Royal, Jamaica, and the escape voyage took more than 55 days. Archaeologists later located five cannon about 500 yards from the main wreck site during a modern archaeological survey. The distance and duration are historical voyage records; the cannon location is a later archaeological observation.
Friendship’s commercial career ended during wartime. It was captured in the Atlantic on 5 September 1812 and sold at auction in London on 17 March 1813. Those two dates distinguish capture from the later sale and mark the end of the original vessel’s documented service in the supplied record.
Vasa’s wreck also continued to produce measurable archaeological results. Almost all of its cannons were raised 35 years after the sinking, in 1996. The date identifies the recovery event rather than a measurement of the ship’s original armament. Combined with the 64 cannons carried in August 1628 and the eight empty gunports, it shows why armament statistics need both an original shipboard context and a recovery context.
Across these vessels, the numbers describe different kinds of maritime history: construction contracts, hull dimensions, registered tonnage, planned complements, gun inventories, voyages, wreck distances, and restoration materials. Dates and measurement labels are therefore part of each statistic, not optional details.