The Vasa
9/5- As I am writing this we have been in Sweden 4 days and have finally mastered the subway system. My first day in Sweden basically consisted of getting lost twice and carrying 60lbs of baggage around, because halfway through the 1 mile walk to the hotel from the subway station my mom could not carry one of her backpacks anymore. So of course I ended up with it.
On the next day we went to the Vasa museum. The Vasa museum is a museum built around the Vasa, a 17th century warship built by Swedes to fight the Catholics. It was to be the biggest warship on Earth at the time, a 64 gun ship with two gun decks. Another main feature of the Vasa was the fact that it had standardized cannons. All the cannons on the ship were the same size, so the ship did not need to juggle between several different types of ammunition. This increased efficiency and eased the logistics of supplying the ship. This was also an issue however because the ship was top heavy. This was because a normal ship has small cannons on top to avoid this, but the Vasa did not. By the end of construction the Vasa was so top heavy that the bottom gun ports were only 1 meter above the water line. On its maiden voyage the Vasa pulled out of Stockholm harbor and set sail. 30 minutes into the voyage it opened all of its gun ports and fired all 64 guns in a salute. 15 minutes later a strong wind picked up which rocked the already top heavy ship. The wind caused the gun ports (that were open from firing the salute) to dip below the waterline. This caused water to rush into the ship and it sank in less than a minute. It sat at the bottom of the ocean for 333 years before in 1961 it was raised from the bottom of the ocean to be put in a museum.
Thank you for sitting through the history rant. I’m a major history buff, so that might happen a lot in the future. On day three in Sweden we went to the royal palace and walked around old town all day. This is what we have been up to for the last three days. I will probably blog about once a week so stay tuned for more. For daily updates follow me on Instagram @laffertycaleb. – CLaff
Front of the Royal Palace with Mounted Cavalry. Click and zoom to see them better
I love the history so rant on!
Will do!!!
Caleb, this was a very good blog! I learned a lot of information- I had no idea!! They would have had Great power, if the ship could sail!! I, too, enjoy history. Keep the blogs coming. Stay safe. Love ya. Gigi
Thank you I will continue with the history.