Don’t Blame the King

Here we have the famous Vasa, a 64-gun ship of the line commissioned (and largely designed) by Gustavus Adolphus, which capsized and sunk after sailing something less than a mile on its maiden voyage.  It was salvaged intact in 1961, and now is permanently moored in a house built for the purpose.

You have to say that the Vasa was the largest monument to hubris until they launched the Titanic nearly 300 years later.

All the swag and ornaments would have been brightly colored, but a few centuries in the Baltic tends to fade even the brightest wooden cherub.

The wreck is enormous and impressive, but even I could see, looking at that tall, narrow stern balanced atop a tiny, shallow bilge, why the thing would topple right over.

There was a commission of inquiry afterwards, but it reached no verdict.  It turns out you can’t blame the king.