The FT article is an extremely superficial description of the events, which does a disservice to the depth and span of archaeological research and discovery which has taken place since the Vasa's discovery.
If anyone's visiting Stockholm, the Vasa museum is well worth a visit.
For those further afield, the museum's website offers a wealth of details about its conception, history, discovery, and our contemporary understanding of the wreck.
That's what I tell anyone visiting Stockholm: if there is one museum to do, that's the Vasa. It's exceptional and super quick (you can literally get there, see a very old boat in an incredible state, and leave).
I visited the museum two summers ago and it is really impressive. Even though I had caught some kind of cold and felt terrible, I thoroughly enjoyed my visit. Highly recommend.
There's not much older than the Vasa that is essentially intact. The Vasa is in good enough shape to have been recovered as a ship, and not as a shipwreck or an archaeological dig, which is pretty remarkable. I think there's one Ottoman galley a bit older that's been continuously maintained, and that's about it.
The hard part(especially for large vehicles) is to survive that era past when it is valued as a working vehicle and before it is valued as a historical vehicle, At that point is is just junk. Large expensive junk.
I was recently reading about the original great Chicago wheel(The Ferris wheel). it lasted about 10 years, nobody wanted it. The contract said the fair land had to be restored to original form. So they just blew it up, nothing left, did not even try to save a car. The other disappointing part was that Ferris was a bit secretive and no technical drawings for it are known to exist. I really wanted to know how it was powered, more that the blurb you get in the articles. Best I found from the pictures is there are cast wide spaced(not gear spaced) drive slots riveted to the rim and vague mentions of a chain. Some sort of wide spaced bicycle type chain in partial engagement against the rim?
See also: The USS Enterprise(CV-6) if any ship deserved to be a museum ship that one did, but they were not able to muster the enthusiasm needed at the time she was broken up.
The story of the Vasa is one of my favorites for lessons in building software or anything complicated. Though I'm not sure how much of the story is actually true, it's still a good fable if nothing else.
"I'm not sure how much of the story is actually true"
The history and archaeology of the Vasa has been extensively studied by experts in their relevant fields – archaeology, history, dendrochronology, marine biology…
Some stories – like the one published here by FT – are overly simplistic. For a good, accurate, scientific history of the Vasa, the Vasa Museum's site is extremely detailed (and also separates supposition and apocryphal tales from established science).
Yeah I didn't mean the truth is unknown, just that the popular version of the story (major design changes mandated late in the build by an executive who didn't understand the consequences of what they were asking for) might not be exactly true, depending on who is telling the story.
The deeper issue was that no-one had the ability to push back on the king's demands. When the king rules by divine right, pushing back on the stakeholder is pushing back on God. Back in the day that was a great way to expedite the process of your head being separated from your torso.
Finnish technology students played an elaborate prank when the ship was being lifted. Just before the event, a group dived down to the ship and planted a statue of Paavo Nurmi, also known as "The Flying Finn", on the deck. When the ship was finally lifted, the legendary Finnish runner was one of the first things they discovered. This played well with the friendly rivalry between the neighbours, though the Swedes did not appreciate it as much.
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[ 1.7 ms ] story [ 42.9 ms ] threadIf anyone's visiting Stockholm, the Vasa museum is well worth a visit.
For those further afield, the museum's website offers a wealth of details about its conception, history, discovery, and our contemporary understanding of the wreck.
Vasa Museum: https://www.vasamuseet.se/en/explore/vasa-history/inquest
"Why C++ Sails When the Vasa Sank"
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ltCgzYcpFUI
While in Norway you can visit and walk aboard the "Fram". The most successful Arctic Exploration ship.
https://frammuseum.no/our-exhibitions/fram/
I was recently reading about the original great Chicago wheel(The Ferris wheel). it lasted about 10 years, nobody wanted it. The contract said the fair land had to be restored to original form. So they just blew it up, nothing left, did not even try to save a car. The other disappointing part was that Ferris was a bit secretive and no technical drawings for it are known to exist. I really wanted to know how it was powered, more that the blurb you get in the articles. Best I found from the pictures is there are cast wide spaced(not gear spaced) drive slots riveted to the rim and vague mentions of a chain. Some sort of wide spaced bicycle type chain in partial engagement against the rim?
See also: The USS Enterprise(CV-6) if any ship deserved to be a museum ship that one did, but they were not able to muster the enthusiasm needed at the time she was broken up.
Well that's precisely because it made it only 3km before sinking that we can see it.
Some stories – like the one published here by FT – are overly simplistic. For a good, accurate, scientific history of the Vasa, the Vasa Museum's site is extremely detailed (and also separates supposition and apocryphal tales from established science).
Website of the Vasa Museum in Stockholm: https://www.vasamuseet.se/
The bigger issue with that plan was be that the king was off fighting a war in Poland.
Yes, we all remember the Vasa, and understand how it applies to any untested overengineered idea.
We clearly do not given that this story repeats over and over again.
https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasa-jäynä