Now 250 miles north of Kalmar is the seaport Stockholm, the capital of Sweden.
I once visited the Vasa Museum, there where a sunken 17th century ship was recovered and partially restored after almost 400 years of being buried in the Baltic Sea.
Remarkable, though the story must be an embarrassment to engineers at Ericsson and other tech firms in Sweden.
You see, Vasa was a warship that sunk on its maiden voyage. The engineers didn't supply enough ballast to counter the heavy weight of the iron cannon on deck. And that instability led the Vasa to keel over and drop to the bottom in less than 30 minutes after it left port in Stockholm. It was its maiden voyage.
Yet because the Baltic Sea's high fresh water content, the Vasa, buried in mud was found remarkably well-preserved after it was dredged up in the 1950s. A fascinating experience to walk around what looks like a classic 17th century warship, the kind you see in paintings and the movies.
Well worth a visit if business/pleasure takes you to Stockholm.
Thanks, I’ll probably never go, but it’s fascinating.