Engineering Fail

In 1628, Sweden and Poland were at war. They were fighting because King Gustav Adolf of Sweden and King Sigismund of Poland were cousins. Sigismund had been king of Sweden, but he was catholic and Sweden became Protestant so they kicked him out because he wouldn't convert. But he wanted to be king of Sweden and king of Poland because Sweden is pretty. So he and cousin Gustav went to war.

Sigi was doing a little too well in this war so Gus decided Sweden was going to build the biggest boat it had ever made to help win the war. The swedes spent almost two years (I think. This was a couple days ago.) building their huge ship. Finally it was ready. They loaded it up with the sailors and the cannons and the sailors' families for the celebratory maiden voyage. The ship, called the Vasa, sailed out into the port of Stockholm.

Then a breeze came.

Then the ship sank.

The Vasa was top heavy. It had too many cannons and decorations and not enough ballast. It was too tall and too skinny. Engineering fail.



Apparently Stockholm water is weirdly preservative, though, because after sitting on the ocean floor for three hundred years, they pulled the wooden ship out of the water and rebuilt it inside a museum. It's pretty cool. Check it out if you go to Stockholm.

I am in Helsinki now waiting for my traveling companions to get themselves packed up so that we can head out for the day. They should hurry up.