On Tuesday, for the first time, both the VReds and ECS 92 had a day off and took advantage of touring downtown Stockholm and the Vasa Museum before heading on the cruise to Finland.
The Vasa Museum houses the restored VASA. The VASA was the most expensive and richly ornamented naval vessel built in Sweden at the time. When the VASA sailed forth on August 10th, 1628, Stockholmers stood along the shore to wish her good luck. They were eyewitneses to the disaster.
"When the ship left the shelter of Tegelviken, a stronger wind entered the sails and she immediately began to heel over hard to the lee side; she righted herself slightly again until she approached Beckholmen, where she heeled right over and water gushed in through the gun ports until she slowly went to the bottom under sail, pennants and all. " Struck by a powerful gust of wind, the VASA capsized and sank after a voyage of only 1300 metres. The VASA capsized and sank inside Stockholm harbour.
On September 13, 1956, a notice in the evening paper, announced:
"An old ship has been found off Bekholmen in the middle of Stockholm. It is probably the warship VASA which sank on her maiden voyage in 1628. It then took 5 years for the divers to prepare the VASA for the arduous salvaging operation.
When the VASA was salvaged, everyone thought it was a remarkably well preserved ship. But more than three centuries on the seabed had also wrought a great deal of destruction. The brackish, deoxygenated water and mud on the seabed had saved the VASA. After the salvaging, the hazards were considerably greater.
What the VASA tells us?
Time stopped on the VASA at five o'clock on 10 August 1628. When the ship salvaged 333 years later, the seamen's chests were still packed with provisions, clothes and small personal posessions. Barrels of meat lay in the hold, the admiral's table stood in the cabin, the officers' beautiful pewter dinner service, bronze candlesticks, lamps - and the ship's cat - were all on board. The VASA is a time machine that witnesses to life on board ship and on Land in the early 17th Century, and to events on that peaceful, beautiful Sunday in August 1628.
The Warship VASA now has her own museum in the middle of Stockholm. If you look out the windows of the VASA Museum, you can see the site where the VASA was built and it is only a few hundred metres to the spot where the VASA sank. The fact that the museum also occupies the site of the former naval dockyard conforms to the long historical tradition. The VASA museum was opened on June 15, 1990.
Please check out the photo album for more photos of the museum.
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