September 15, 2025, Stockholm- Beata and Cesar died in each other’s arms, as the “greatest ship” of their time capsized and sank, shortly into its maiden voyage. Cesar served in His Majesty’s Navy and Beata, his wife, was along for the stationment as flagship of the Reserve Fleet guarding the Stockholm Archipelago, in the midst of the Thirty Years War. The warship Vasa, with 64 guns and as many as 250 people aboard, did not make it out of Stockholm Harbour. 50 people went down with the ship that day-August 10, 1628.
A horrified public alerted the King’s Council, as Gustavus Adolphus was in Poland with his commanders, seeing to Sweden’s part in the conflict that had started as a civil war between rival princes of the Holy Roman Empire (essentially modern day Germany and Austria, with parts of northern Italy). France, Denmark, Poland and Russia had taken sides in the conflict. The Swedish king, styling himself a modern-day Augustus Caesar, was not to be left out.
Thus, in 1626, he commissioned the building of Vasa, named for his own royal house. Two years later, the great ship was deemed complete and seaworthy. The king had seen the completed ship with his own eyes, just prior to leaving with his army for Poland. He heartily approved of what he saw, and left the ship to its captain to steer towards the battle front.
The reality was, however, that the great ship was top-heavy, and in short order it became a testimony to the falsity of hubris. Gustavus Adolphus, and the Swedish nation, as great a military power as any of the era, were fighting on several fronts, feeling beleaguered by Catholic forces in Jutland, to the southwest, as well as by Poland and France. The king was therefore impatient to get the Vasa built and underway. Those immediately under him were cowed by the force of his personality, and kept their misgivings about the vessel’s seaworthiness to themselves. Further, an inquest after the ship’s sinking established no culpability in the matter. Vasa’s bronze guns were salvaged, but the ship itself was forgotten for centuries.
In the 1950s, King Gustav VI Adolf, namesake of the ship’s patron, commissioned a salvage operation, which was completed in 1961. Vasa’s hull was found mostly intact, owing to the brackish waters that impeded parasitic damage to the vessel. Its structure is now mounted in a dry dock, for all to see at the Vasa Museum.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasa_(ship)
Here are some scenes from my visit to Vasa Museum, this afternoon.
I left the Vasa Museum feeling somber at the massive sense of loss that the Swedish people must have felt in the wake of the capsizing and sinking. It was surely on a scale similar to America’s losses at Pearl Harbor, or the attacks of 9/11/2001. Now, however, the country has chosen to share its great ship with the world. It is a cautionary tale, about hubris and impatience.
The Viking Museum, which I visited after taking lunch in Vasa’ cafeteria, was much more presentational, less graphic. Three docents were on hand to detail different aspects of Viking life. It was pointed out that the term, “Viking” refers to an inhabitant of a vik, or seaport. To that extent, only a fairly small percentage of Norwegians, Danes and Swedes were Vikings. Most were small farmers or inland fishermen.
After an hour or so of listening to discourses, one of which was almost nonstop for thirty minutes, I took a walk in Djurgarden, the royal public park, east of the Museum Quadrant. This, too, is one of Stockholm’s crown jewels.
I walked for about a half mile into the park, along the river, then doubled back to the tram and on back to Nomad Cave. Stockholm’s heritage is engraved in my memory.
A Sagittarian Seeker 