Monday, August 8, 2016

One Big Boat

To Sollentuna, Sweden

Mom wanted to get to the Vasa Museum at 8:30, but... Kylie and I couldn't make that happen due to our "sleeping-in" problem.

It was closer to 9:00 rather than 8:00 when we left and more like 10:00 when we got to the museum itself. I was amazed at how fast the line moved though, so it only took about 5 minutes to get inside.
In the downtown park on the way to the Vasa
Metro stop
The Vasa is an old Swedish warship.  It was built to be the pride of the Swedish fleet and had two gun decks, which was practically unheard of.  It was built in 1628, and there were only about four other ships in all of Europe that had two gun decks.
Because the ship was built to be the leader of the royal fleet, it was heavily decorated with breathtaking, hand-carved wood sculptures all over the boat.

Scary faces

Model ship painted to look like the original
It was what you call a grand entrance.  The Museum was one huge room, about seven stories tall and in the center was one big boat.  And when I say big, I mean big.  The masts were no less than four stories high, and there were six crows nests. Since there were about three cruise ships in the city today, and the museum was very crowded, we were able to listen to two tours where they told us that the ship had 72, one and a half ton canons and enough cannon balls to fire each canon five times.  The only bad thing about the boat was it was top heavy.  The king wanted the boat narrow so it would be fast, but tall so there could be two gun decks -- a bad combination.


The Vasa's first journey was only supposed to be a few days long, to pick up members of the army, so some of the crew members took wives and children aboard.  On August 10, 1628, the Vasa set out for its maiden voyage.  Practically the whole of Stockholm had come to watch the ship launch. The crew opened up all the hatches to fire a celebratory shot; then they sailed off.  After only 20 minutes, a slight wind hit the ship and it leaned over, but since the hatches were open, water spilled in and the ship sank in only a couple of minutes.  Luckily, only 30 to 40 of the 200 people on board died, but some were women and children.

Shoes, spoon, old square coins
Backgammon boards
One thing that I found really interesting was that if Vasa hadn't sunk so quickly, we wouldn't have it right now.  In the bay where the boat sank, the river carried polluted water (low oxygen) and that is the reason we still have the boat.  There is an animal called a shipworm that feasts on sunken ships, but since the water was so polluted, they couldn't survive.  Therefore, they didn't eat the ship.

Today, the Vasa is 98 percent original, and here are some pictures of a scale model.  (Dad's note: the ship was under water, in the Stockholm harbor for 333 years before being raised in 1961 with six cables slung underneath.  Once again, practically the entire city (and nation) was there to watch the Vasa. Incredibly, they pumped out the water and it floated!)

Tonight we planned to stay with our neighbor Tina's mom and stepdad outside of Stockholm (in Sollentuna).  After the usual hassles of trolleys, trains, and buses, we made it to Kerstin and Åke's house.  They have a great house in a nice rural neighborhood.  We loved their beautifully prepared dinner including salad, boiled potatoes, and reindeer meatballs with an awesome gravy.  We also got to meet Tina's brother, Göran. After dinner, there was more food, cheese and crackers with cloudberry jam, then ice cream and apple pie, and of course the adults had beer, wine, and coffee.

After dinner, Mom, Dad, and Kerstin went for a walk while Kylie and I played in the upstairs attic where we were spending the night.  We learned a lot about the Vasa, and it was a fun day.

3 comments:

  1. Great history lesson Dex - thanks for sharing. I think it is amazing that you are seeing items that were made over 400 years ago. I went to the Field museum here this summer and saw a traveling exhibit of the Terra Cotta Warriors from China. The artifacts were thousands of years old. I wonder what kids from the future will think when they dig up our technology trash in 400 years? Keep the post coming! Love and miss you guys! Aunt Jody

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great post Dex! I feel like I got a nice little history lesson and I love reading it from your point of view!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Dex I got to see the Vasa when I worked for ABB, I like the story about the ship builder. The original design of the boat was just one deck but 3/4 of the way through building the "Kung" demanded another deck. The ship builder pleaded with the king not to do it but after threatening a beheading the ship builder gave in. Days before the launch they would fill the bottom of the boat with rocks for ballast, the weight keeps the boat up right, anyway the ship builder himself loaded the boat, a job usually reserved for the young kids. Well you know the rest of the story.

    ReplyDelete