Maybe we didn't need a bigger boat

Our last day in Sweden, we headed to the Vasa Musuem. Basically, the monarchy built this huge ship in the 17th century and on her maiden voyage, it sank... 20 minutes after launch. So it sat at the bottom of the Stockholm harbour and was only recovered around the 1960s. Then they built a musuem around it, commemorating this engineering fail.

The boat was too top heavy and when a strong wind push it over, it wasn't able to right itself and water rushed into the open gunports.

Some of the photos are blurry because it was super dark. I guess the museum is keen to preserve the boat.

Also, I had originally titled this post "We're going to need a bigger boat" and then realized I already made that joke. Oddly, we didn't quote that line to each other while at the museum.

An overview of the boat.

Another overview. There are five levels to the museum, because the boat is that big. The boat didn't have the sails because in the winter, you wouldn't have it rigged up like that. Also, those are not the original ropes. They did find some of the original canvas sails in the bottom of the boat.

I think this is the bow. Or at least the front of the boat.

This was a reproduction of the space at the top of the mast. It creaked ominously as you got on it.

The back of the boat was carved beautifully.

About 95% of the boat is original. The lighter colour wood (ie the statue holding the flag) is new. The restoration crew purposefully kept the new stuff smooth and lighter coloured so you could see how much of the boat was intact.

I think this is on the level second from the bottom.

Apparently, the boat was painted pretty brightly. Would you be afraid of this boat?

This is one of those gun ports that was left opened.

I wish this was in focus. But it's a gun-axe. I'm not sure how you reload it. Carefully?

The second in celebrity WTFs. This was in a section explaining the crew? I'm not sure.

If the boat looks waxy because the preservative stuff they used. The chemical replaced the water in the wood. Apparently, that's not the best way to preserve the wood. And the way the boat is resting is placing a lot of stress on the hull so they'll have to figure out a new way to present it.