Anders Franzén

Who was Anders Franzén?

Anders Franzén was a Swedish marine technician and an amateur naval archaeologist. He is most famous for having located the 1628 wreck of the Swedish galleon Vasa in 1956 and participated in her salvage 1959–1961. He also participated in the salvage and exploration of the wrecks after Kronan, Riksäpplet, Resande Man, and Lybska Svan.

Franzén studied naval architecture at the Royal Institute of Technology, but instead developed a strong interest for history and never graduated. He took employment with BP and later changed to the Swedish Naval Administration where he became an expert on oil and fuels.

At the same time, Franzén was conducting amateur historical research in archives, where he was searching for information on old shipwrecks of the Swedish Navy. Early on, he had realised that in the brackish water conditions in Baltic Sea, wrecks of old wooden ships could survive without being attacked by shipworm. Around 1950 he had compiled a list of a dozen or so ships worth investigating further. From 1954, he focussed his efforts on Vasa which he located in 1956 in Stockholm harbour.