The warship that never went to war

"Vasa (or Wasa)^[1] is a Swedish warship built 1626-1628. The ship foundered and sank after sailing less than a nautical mile (ca 2 km) into her maiden voyage on 10 August 1628. She fell into obscurity after most of her valuable bronze cannons were salvaged in the 17th century. After she was located again in the late 1950s in a busy shipping lane just outside the Stockholm harbor, she was salvaged with a largely intact hull in 1961. She was housed in a temporary museum called Wasavarvet ("The Wasa Shipyard") until 1987 and then moved to the Vasa Museum in Stockholm. " credits to wikipedia!

SO yes i was in Stockholm over the weekend and i visited the Vasa warship!! Its very similar to Singapore army, has all the latest technology of that time but never actually been to an actual war. The only difference is that our army didnt sink yet, i pray not. Wanted to go to an amusement park and sit roller coasters and have fun but it was so darn expensive, how they charge is an admission and for all the rides you have to pay individually so it really can add up to quite a bit. I hit up "places to visit in stockholm" and i got this Vasa on lonely planet's number 1 must visit in stockholm. Reviews tell me that it takes 3 hours so i was really like woah, this is going to be a good tour. I can get self-absorbed just reading about artifacts so if anyone needs baby sitting ideas for me just throw me in a GOOD museum. Throw me at Singapore art museum and i would prob make a run for it after 30 minutes. I am not particularly into ships but since this is so well recommended and cost 100sek (20sgd) it would be a waste not to see what the fuss was about.

 Geese on the way to vasa, seeing birds before museums are always a good sign ya know

 The queue was like mega long but it moves really fast cause everyone just pay and u can go in, they dont really have a limit to the number of people allowed inside so its good! only queued for around 20 minutes, faster than USS ride

 The first glimpse of the vasa! okay not really glimpse since its in your face but you can see how big it is as it spans up to 5 stories actually. the front of the boat just juts out like a rhino horn

 My amazed face

VASA

My awkward attempt to try to be a pirate for the tour

 For all those who use this as a postcard please pay me royalties 

 Very interesting, the body consist of only four homours which are namely gross, grosser, grossest and squashed tomato

 The back of the ship! It has like one zillion carvings each having its only symbolism and meaning. UBER COOL OMG 

 sorry if its quite blur, jostling with all the ang mo trying to get a clear shot

 I actually took a video during the English guided tour but the tour guide told me no filming :/

 All these carvings are replicas of the real one with the colours that the scientist think it should have been painted in. Reminds me of those statues in little india

 The ship is really tall, but the reason why it sank was because it was too top heavy and it just sank 20m out in the sea. Poor engineering sigh, the asians are still better at math

 This is the king Gustavus Adolphus depicting himself in the carving. Hes apparently supposed to be only 10 in this painting but you can see he already knows he has the crown and his biceps are like mega big. Talk about egoistic 

 This is the royal symbol at the back of the ship, to show that it has been commissioned by the king himself

 SVEN FROM DOTA WOOO

 I have multiple shots just trying to capture the size of the vasa 

 I thought this is damn cool, cause hercules is carved on the vasa to lend its protection which obviously failed. 

 This is hercules okay, obviously skipped back days

 They also consulted the zodiac for the date of the ships sail. I think Batman over there must have sprouted nonsense thats the real reason why the ship sank. 

 Top deck! they build this bridge across it to show you that if you wanna cross it you have to work at the vasa museum

 Double level canons! super high tech in those days!

 Draw me like one of your french girls

 A better view of the ship after climbing to the 5th floor

 Since sweden was at war with Poland that time, this is a polish nobleman carved on the ship, as you can see hes carved in an inferior position. The man in red is the guy in real life hahaha 

 Its Vasa museum, not cause i type wrong or anything

 Apparently they uncovered some people who died inside the ship when it sank, these are their remains. RIP 

 They even commemorate the giant stone that crushed the person and was the reason for his/her death. How tragically inappropriate 

 Had to take this for the aspiring linguist in me

 This is damn funny, its a piece of wood from the vasa and they mount it here for visitors to touch it. ITS JUST A PIECE OF WOOD WTF. nevertheless i touched it. My hand didnt turn gold sadly, thought it was a midas wood 

 Very detailed labelling of the carvings, kudos to you curator.

 Wikipedia actually has a clearer picture but yes these are the colours they think were used to paint the vasa's statues/carvings

 The collection of all the more significant carvings at the back of the ship, now in full colour!

 I like how their explanations are so detailed

 The king actually compares himself and aspires to be like King David. As seen in this carving King David has very bad fashion sense. Who wears boots with a skirt and a crown, gustavus you can do better

 Evidence that i was at the vasa museum lolol

 The back in all its spendour

 How they managed to uncover the vasa! using a diving bell! I am often amazed at how in history mankind are just so ingenious at creating ideas from very simple concepts. e.g. in this its just that air cannot be compressed that easy after awhile i think. LOL

 The more advanced years of recovering the ship using a divers suit

 Reminds me of bioshock the video game. i always think that the helmet is quite freaky and if i see it in the ocean i would shit my pants

 The recreated the scence of lifting up the vasa with some models. Vasa is below and on top the ships that cranked it up

 This was a device used to determine the location of the vasa. Even though the vasa sank in the stockholm harbour which is not very big, after awhile everyone forgot where it was and this scientist had to use this device to plunge it into the seabed to see if it hit the old oak vasa was made of. So after several tries he found it. What it does is that it cuts a small hole and extracts it upwards to the surface of the water for the scientist to examine if its possibly the oak of the old vasa ship. 

 TO show the depth of how far the vasa is from the small boat used to determine its location 

 Officers place in the vasa ship. 

 RULES EVERYWHERE

 They did a cross section of the vasa and how things operated inside, from the storage to the captains lodge. 

 Dead people's possessions

 Barber also doctor okay, dont play play

 What a sailor looked like last time

 Nikes'

 This is actually a pot to cook food

 cool stuff

 a bigger pot for the witches on the ship, just kidding

 GOLD

 Old sch combination lock. such ingenuity 

 seriously obsessed with the shape square here

 I knew board games were sure to be a hit on the ship

 Different kinds of canonballs! for different locations to hit

 Battle advice okay

In a mockup of the ships interior, the ceiling is really low, i wonder how tall people walked around

 Sail also so well kept

 This is at the top floor of the vasa!

Just how big the vasa is!

Sorry if the last few pictures not much description but yes! the vasa museum is surely a good place to visit! though i did try to capture as many parts of the museum but there are still parts that were left out like the film that they show how it was recovered and the English guided tour which goes in depth of how exactly the ship sank and the recovery process. Of course if you are very interested and want to be a smarty pants you can just read up wikipedia and try to make the English tour guide feel out of place. So yes do visit the Vasa museum if you can in stockholm and bring along 3 hours with you cause i only spent 2.5 hours and there were alot of parts i had to skip as they close at 1800 everyday. If you can try to go on weekdays even though it doesnt matter cause the place is huge and even if there are alot of people you can read at your own pace. English tours are given every 30 minutes so dont worry. I give this museum 4/5 stars. 1 star missing because they didnt have a vasa ship ride simulator where you can sink with the ship and try to escape, but thats just me. 

Heres a random clip of Stacy and I trying to catch geese