Initially a troubled enterprise, the successful expedition is considered to be among the highest achievements in the history of Swedish science.

Constructed as a whaler, the vessel was acquired and rebuilt for Arctic exploration by Nils Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld with financial assistance from King Oscar II of Sweden and others.

Blocked by ice on 28 September of that year only 120 miles (200 km) short of the Bering Strait marking the eastern end of Asia, the ship was not freed until 18 July 1879.

[1] Returning by way of the Western Pacific, Indian Ocean, and Suez Canal,[3] Vega also became the first vessel to circumnavigate the Eurasian continent.

The ship was reported sunk in Melville Bay west of Greenland in 1903, sailing under the Scottish owner Ferguson of Dundee.