Was Wasa aka Vasa painted WHITE below the waterline?

[Fever 4 the Sea]

Ahoy there mateys!

I'm still gathering information on the colouring of the Was ship.

I have the basic wood colour sprayed onto the hull and decks as well as the red. I've also drilled out ALL of the holes in the deck and forebeak gratings.

I'm wondering if the Was was painted WHITE below the waterline? Does anyone here know?

Cheers

 

[AndyA]

Seventeenth century ships are often depicted as whitish below the waterline. This was not paint but a coating of tallow and other stuff. The color might vary depending on the other stuff. With tar, darker. With lime, lighter. With sulfur, yellower. In any case, I would suggest that a model shouldn't be too white but look kinda dirty. Pictured is my idea of the schooner Sultana of 1767. Fair winds!

 

[Short John Bronze]

Very informative. Thank you. This resurrects the old chestnut of authenticity vs aesthetics! Dirty white vs bright white; Blackened vs shiny brass fittings; guns out (both sides) but courses not brailed and capstan bars in place etc. Let us all do what we are happy with and not bow to the approach (or reproach) of others.

 

[AllanKP69]

If you want to be 100% sure, these contacts may be helpful. The bottom was probably coated as described by Andy. Metal sheathing did not come about until about 150 years after Wasa was launched and promptly capsized in the harbor.
vasamuseet@smtm.se
Fred.Hocker@smtm.se I think this is his email
46 08-519 548 80 ( 10 am-5 pm, Wednesdays 10 am-8 pm)

 

[Greyfox]

This text is copyed from Wasa museums web-site. Translate from swedish with google.

In the years 1990-2002, the conservator and art historian Peter Tångeberg researched how Vasa was painted. Approximately 1200 paint samples from the ship were analyzed and the results are fascinating: Vasa was a very colorful ship when she set sail in 1628. The sculptures were painted in many and strong colors and some were gilded with gold leaf.

The hull was tarred and this gave it a reddish-brown hue. But a lot of Vasa was painted bright red: the gangway, that is, the upper parts of the ship's sides, the transom at the rear and the galleon. The upper part of the gangway, the railing, was pale yellow. Moldings and panels were often painted yellow.

Link (in swedish): https://www.vasamuseet.se/utforska/vasas-historia/skulpturerna-pa-vasa

 

[Van]

The Vasa museum has a very large, highly detailed model of the ship (as well as the actual ship). The paint is as Greyfox describes. The carvings in particular are exquisitely painted in many colors. The model has no paint below the waterline. There doesn't seem to be any visible paint on the actual ship below the waterline

 

[Van]

Just for amusement I asked chatgpt "Was the Vasa painted white below the waterline?"
Here is the answer I got...

No, the Vasa was not painted white below the waterline.

Historical and archaeological evidence suggests that the hull below the waterline was treated with a mixture of tar, pitch, and possibly animal hair or other fibrous materials, giving it a dark brown or black appearance. This coating was common practice in the 17th century to protect wooden hulls from shipworm and rot.

The above-water parts of the ship, on the other hand, were richly painted in bright colors—reds, blues, golds, and greens—based on pigment analysis of the recovered ship and historical records. But below the waterline, white paint would have been highly impractical and uncharacteristic of the era.

If you’re working on a model or reconstruction, a dark, tarred lower hull would be historically accurate.

 

[AllanKP69]

If you’re working on a model or reconstruction, a dark, tarred lower hull would be historically accurate.

I think that depends on the country of the model. English ships were commonly coated with a mixture of horse hair and sulfur, bound together with tallow, not tar or pitch (which probably would have done a better job ) Felt was sometimes used by the British instead of horse hair.

Interestingly, Goodwin comments in The Construction and Fitting of the English Man of War page 226 that regardless of the coating, a layer of board was nailed over it, I had never read this before or heard anyone comment about this. Do you or does anyone have any more information on this? While most contemporary models show no coatings or plating, those that I have found with payed bottoms are all whitish yellow in color with no sign of cover boarding.
Allan