Vasa
Today my Math teacher asked me why we built a whole museum for “just some” ship. Well, good question!
As a non-proffessional, I can only tell you my own opinion on things. I’d say what makes the Vasa museum so special is it’s importance for many different historical fields.
For archeologists, the most important part what we found on-board the ship, and the restoration and fixing-up. When the ship was first brought up above he surface, it was only half of what it is today. Lots of scattered pieces of wood and skeletons layed all over the sea bed. making the ship suitable for showing proved to be quite difficult, and would take several decades. It’s considered the most difficult solved pussle in the world for that very reason!
They found clothes, masts, forks, hats, canons and lots of other interesting every-day items from the 1600′s!
For historians, it’s the story surrounding it that’s been so important. Gustav II wanted to build morale by building the biggest and most pompous ship there’s ever been, and it was going to be named after his granfather, the founding father of Sweden. Gustav Vasa.
For architects it was even more impressive. The ship is extremely huge, but is the grand example of how to not build a ship. Too many canons on either side, too tall, and not wide enough. though the paint-job was extraordinary. The ship only sailed for 15 minutes.
My point is, there’s way too much information surrounding the ship NOT to build a museum. The museum is huge, and every time I go there I find something new. It’s not just a boat. It’s a ship.
