On July 15th, 2018 in Stockholm, Sweden, I visited the Vasa Museum, (pictured below above). 

The Vasa is the only preserved seventeenth-century ship in the world and a unique art treasure. More than 95 percent of the ship is original, and it is decorated with hundreds of carved sculptures.

The 69 meter-long warship Vasa sank on its maiden voyage in the middle of Stockholm in 1628 and was salvaged 333 years later in 1961. For nearly half a century the ship has been slowly, deliberately and painstakingly restored to a state approaching its original glory. The three masts on the roof outside the specially built museum show the height of the ship’s original masts.

The Vasa was meant to be the mightiest warship in the world, carrying 64 guns on two gun decks. It was built for Ding Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden between 1626 and 1628 and cost 100,000 dalers, or 2% of Sweden’s GNP. The ship was 53 m from her keel to the top of the mast, with 10 sails and 3 masts, and a capacity for 145 sailors and 300 soldiers.