Vasa Museum

Vasa is a sunken ship in Stockholm that has been recovered. This big naval boat sunk on its maiden voyage due to design flaws. It carried 120 tons of ballast, which were not enough to hold it steady in slight wind. This ship was one of the first naval boats with two gun decks. The builders of the ship were experienced crafts men, but non of them had built such a ship before. Complicated by the political climate (war with Poland) and the King’s eagerness to have it joining the theatre of battle, the ship was hastily constructed from 1626 to 1628. Lack of scientific knowledge in ship building, the war, heavy arms on board, and the passing of the master shipwright resulted in this poorly designed ship (top heavy), which eventually capsized after cruising one nautical miles out of the Stockholm harbour.

After the ship had sunk, the Swedish divers constructed diving bells to recover the cannons from the sunken ship. This was some amazing feat and a good evidence of innovation for the Swedes. In the 17th century, recovering cannons from a sunken ship at 30m below water was really a ‘miracle’.

After the cannons were recovered, the ship was forgotten for 333 years before it was recovered by the Swedes in 1950s.

I am indeed amazed by Sweden’s effort to retrieve this sunken ship and conserving it. It was a technical challenge for the divers to dig tunnels underneath it to set cables to hoist the ship to surface. They spent 9 years to conserve it with chemicals and 5 years to dry it. During this process, many new techniques in conserving historical artifacts were developed. I have to admire at their innovations and commitments to preserving their own history.

About 50 people went down with The Swedes studied meticulously each retrieved item from the ship and they discovered a good deal of information regarding the society and economy of Sweden in the 17th century. During that time, Sweden was plagued by war. It had conflicts with Denmark, Poland, and several neighbouring countries. In one battle, Sweden lost a fortress to Denmark, who asked for one million from Sweden as ransom redeem the fortress back. As a result, the Swedes were taxed heavily to fund the war. Farmers were commissioned to make weapons and young men above 15 were conscripted. During a battle, 2000 men left Stockholm and only 665 of them returned in the next year.

The sailors commissioned to work on vasa were rather small in build. the average height is 1.6+m. Hence, the clothing recovered were quite small in size. The boots and gloves looked miniature.

Contrary to many contemporary portrayal of medieval Europe, the coins minted back then were thin and “flimsy”. Copper coins were more common. The most sailors on Vasa were commoner. There were 2 females corpses recovered from Vasa. The first one is named Beata (B represents she is the second corpse discovered). They were believed to be guests on board.

A fruitful trip. For those who love history, Vasa museum is a good place to go.

Finally! I tried to cook Swedish meatball! Though they looked burnt. Will try again with smaller fire. LOL..

But they taste good, trust me. Even DQ (one of our group of 4) said so. LOL