Visiting the Vasa in Stockholm a few weeks ago was a highlight of our trip. The Vasa is a Swedish warship which sank after sailing less than a nautical mile on her maiden voyage in 1628. She was salvaged in 1961 and is housed in a stunning purpose built museum that is one of the leading tourist attractions in the city.
You can see something in the same genre in Portsmouth with the reoopening of the Mary Rose, a Tudor Warship, in a purpose built museum. It is the only surviving 16th-century warship in the world. On July 19 1545, after almost 35 years of service, Henry VIII’s warship sank, while the king watched from the shore, during a skirmish with the French navy. She went down quickly, and about 500 men on board died – just 35 swam to safety. She lay in the Solent, untouched, until being rediscovered in 1971. Divers brought up 19,000 objects from the wreck and the museum contains 16,000 of them.
The Mary Rose rises again – FT.com.
