Vasa Museum (Vasamuseet)
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Museum to the Vasa, a 17th Ceuntury warship salvaged almost intact after sinking on her maiden voyage. Weighed down by 64 heavy cannons she sunk less than a nautical mile out of Stockholm harbour, after a light wind knocked her over, yet despite the embarrassment this must have caused for King Gustavus Adolphus - thousands of people were there to watch her set sail and saw her sink, the tops of her masts poking out of the waters - she was pretty much forgotten about until she was found to be in the way of the shipping lanes in the 1950’s. In ‘61 she was salvaged and found to be surprisingly intact, the seabed around her littered with thousands of pieces of archaeological interest including clothes, weapons, coins, cutlery, tools, food and her sails and the extremely ornate and colourful sculptures she was decorated with. These sculptures were designed to deride opponents and buoy up the naval men but their weight, and the way they hampered the maneuverability of the Vasa were one of the reasons she sank. The museum entirely houses the Vasa. It’s been repaired and the missing bits reinstated but you can still see where the original ends – lying under the ocean all that time can really change the colour of wood. Around her are finds from the sea bed around her and smaller models. Four, still floating, 20th Century ships make up the collection, an ice breaker, a rescue boat, a torpedo boat and a merchant vessel. The outside of the building has a copper roof and ornamentation like that on the Vasa.
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