Vasa Museet, Stockholm, Sweden

As with everything pretty awesome there's a backstory. Here is the Cliff Notes version.  More detail can be found via The Vasa Museum

1625 (NOT a typo):  King Gustav II Adolf commissions four warships to be built. The first will be the flagship Vasa.

1627-1628:  Vasa's completion (which has been rushed).  On her initial voyage in 1628, she sails approximately 1000 meters, gets caught in a squall and sinks. Appoximately 30 of the 150 aboard perished.

Courtesy of the Vasa Museum

The big question was who was at fault.  The conclusion is the King for ordering many sculptures and cannons to be put on the ship.  The designer for building a tall heavy ship with very little ballast. The captain for not closing gun ports and redistributing weight.

Over the next 300 YEARS:  Several attempts to salvage the Vasa don't succeed, including the actual location of the sinking being lost to knowledge.

1956: The Vasa is located.  Foremast is raised.  The story goes that if not for some last minute campaigning, the Vasa would have been buried in several tons of backfill from nearby development.

1957-1959:  Salvage begins, and the story is very interesting.  Due to the cold/semi-brackish water, the ship is nearly intact, even though it is wood.  Historians and government officials alike realize that they have a time capsule on their hands.  New techniques in pumping out sediments and water and lifting the wreck are developed. Human remains are found.

1961: The Vasa resurfaces after 333 years and floats to her final resting place ON HER OWN BOTTOM.

For the next several decades, preservation of the ship and her artifacts and the building of the museum that will eventually hold her take place.  More is learned on the preservation of marine artifacts.

Here are some pictures.  They are dark.  The museum is in low light/humidity controlled.  Incredibly well done and in about 30 languages.  They manage not only reconstruct her, but get paint samples, sail samples and time capsule like artifacts.  My husband wasn't too keen on the presentation of the human remains, but I thought all in all it was well done. I saw it as these people are now living forever teaching their descendants about their lives.  However, I didn't take pictures of skeletons either.

The sterncastle of the Vasa. Over 400 hand carved wooden sculptures
were on the boat.  Solid wood. Makes her a bit top-heavy.

Modern samples of the pigments they used to paint the Vasa.
It was a bit gaudy by the look of the historians re-creations.

Model showing what they think the original Vasa was painted like.

Something that impressed me to speechlessness.
They recovered SAILS. FROM the 1620s. And were able to preserve the remains.

Several of the blocks off the rigging. They recovered line also.

Closer picture of the sterncastle. I believe 90% of the ship is it's original timber.

Upper view of the Vasa.

I can honestly say that this was one of the more impressive historical museums I have been to so far.