We’ve visited a lot of museums on our travels – perhaps more than the younger Pollocks might have wished – but I haven’t written much about them. Often museums forbid photography, and even when it’s allowed, the pictures don’t always turn out well. But this month I’ll try to rectify this omission by writing about a few museums we’ve seen.
The Vasa Museum in Stockholm, Sweden was built specifically to house the Vasa, a ship that sank in 1628 and wasn’t retrieved until 1961.
King Gustavus Adolphus commissioned this ship to head up the fleet that was involved in the Thirty Years’ War in the Baltic region. Sweden had had success with smaller vessels, but the king wanted a monumental ship that would strike fear into the hearts of his enemies. And he wanted it immediately.
From the beginning, his orders were to build the ship as big as possible, as ornate as possible, and as quickly as possible. The Vasa was loaded with more ammunition than any other Swedish ship of the time. Enormous sums of money were spent on decoration; for example, nearly 500 sculptures decorated the exterior of the ship, including renditions of lions, Roman emperors and Biblical symbols.
A stability test was ordered late in the ship’s construction. The testing was cut off shortly after it began because they were afraid the ship would capsize.
You can see this one coming, right?
The Vasa’s maiden voyage was on August 10, 1628. A huge crowd had gathered on the shore to watch it sail away including the king, many of the foreign dignitaries that he hoped to impress, and hundreds of commoners who wanted to be present for the launch.
Everything started well. There was barely a breeze as the Vasa set sail. Truly, this was a ship like no one had seen before.
It left the protection of the harbour, and that’s when the problems started. A gust of wind knocked the ship off-balance. The crew quickly reacted and righted it. Danger averted.
But a minute later, another stronger gust assailed the Vasa. The mighty ship began to list and a lower deck started to take on water. This caused it to list even more and, in full view of the dazed spectators, the Vasa sank.
Unbelievably, the ship had travelled only 120 metres from shore. Rescue ships were sent out immediately and some crew members were rescued, but at least thirty people died.
The Vasa stayed on the bottom of the ocean for 333 years. In the mid-twentieth century, rescue technology was sophisticated enough to attempt a retrieval. After years of preparation, the ship was pulled to the surface and stored in temporary quarters, until a new museum was designed and built in 1990.
We loved seeing the Vasa, still majestic all these years later. In fact, we were so impressed that the rest of my family wrote a poetic homage to it (because that’s what our travels are all about: been there, took the photos, wrote the limerick).
“In Stockholm, the Vasa was grand
They cheered and they struck up the band.
But the Swedish King cussed
When an innocent gust
Made her sink twenty minutes from land.”
That's quite a story, and quite a unique museum. I look forward to seeing what other places you feature this month!
I always learn something new and fascinating with each and every one of your posts! I'm somehow drawn to tall ships and epic sea stories…this was a fun read!
So neat! I would love to see that, I can only imagine what it was like in person. Amazing that they were able to retrieve it all these years later!
What an unbelievable story! wow..the museum was built just for vasa.
Beth, We always do the museum thing, too! I especially love seeing my kids taking their kids to the museums!! Lovely post…very interesting!
Beth, what a terrific post – I love to visit museums with the kids as well, a "must" whenever we come across an interesting exhibit. The museum you wrote about sounds wonderful and I love the "poetic homage"!
You have been to so many amazing places so far! I'm so impressed + awed reading about them. And i love the family limerick about it!
That is some amazing story, Beth. What a disappointment! Would love to see that museum.
That is some story. Love the limerick 🙂 Must have been a sight to see in the museum!
The limerick is pretty grand. I love the idea of writing a a family limerick writing….
Interesting. I've always been fascinated with those majestic ships. Thanks for sharing these pictures.
Wow, you could see that sinking coming. And I'm loving your limerick…such a creative family 🙂
I'd love to visit Sweden one of these days. It seems like the Nordic countries are all the rage these days, what with their celebrated cuisines, fashion and thriller books. 😉
My Father is Swedish, he's the first in his family to be born in the states. I'd love to visit someday. Thanks for the glimpse into Sweden.
that is interesting… thanks for sharing
What a great photo spread. Thanks for sharing!
Love the limerick! The poor Vasa~ what must that have been like, to see all that work/investment go down so close to shore. Bet the King was pretty embarrassed, not to mention a little ticked off 🙂
Oh the stories on that ship! How beautiful – imagine what life was like…
Too bad such a beautiful ship wouldn't actually float. There's a lesson in that, isn't there? You could write a whole book on that idea alone. 🙂
What beautiful pictures for such a lovely ship 😀
I love it!
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
What a unique museum! My parents were always big museum goers (and my sister and I use to roll our eyes) but now we love them just as much. Such a grand ship! Thank you for sharing, Beth!
I have never heard of this ship or the museum. What an interesting story. So tragic that so many people lost their lives, but how cool that they were able to bring it up from the ocean floor and restore it.