On 9/16/2014 7:30 AM, ruby@m... wrote:
>
>
> GGG
>
> Just got back from a trip to the Baltic and stopped in
> Stockholm.  

Howdy Ed!

Thanks for sharing your experience and insight learned.  I've read 
several articles on the Vasa having first read about it in National 
Geographic years ago.  One of the things I remember having read is that 
the ship was well preserved because it sank into very cold water that 
provided less free oxygen for decomposition than would have been the 
case in warmer climes.

Do I recall correctly that the preservation techniques - although the 
best known at the time - were inappropriate and that the wreckage is 
deteriorating?  Or is that the case with the older English ship?

Finally, I have always been fascinated by the hubris exhibited in this 
episode.  The king ordered a super warship built and presumably hired 
the best designers, marine engineers, and craftsmen to build it; yet he 
superseded their work by ordering that the hull be lengthened.  Is there 
any evidence that the designers, engineers and artisans gave any advice 
for or against this change?  If not, why not?  Deference to a royal?  To 
a twelfth generation colonist and American, I can understand political 
shenanigans and the havoc often resulting form the exercise of political 
power (not starting a flame war here, folks . . .  just making an 
observation without even citing examples from history or the present); 
but I cannot understand deference.  I guess I have benefited too much 
from the principle of freedom of speech and expression.  Of course, if 
the failure to observe the differences in measurements or disregarding 
them is an indicator, perhaps the designers, engineers and craftsmen 
were not as good as they might have been or succumbed to other pressures 
than their own talents.

Again, thank you for sharing your experience and the information gathered.