Stuff Swedish People Like: The sunken boat

Swedes, and especially those in the capital, Stockholm, are so fond of a sunken ship, that it boarders on worship. The Stockholmers will hold this sunken old scooner as their top pride and joy of the city, and recommend all visitors to travel to the museum in which the wreck has been put up for display.

The actor Zach Braff, was interviewed about his recent visit to Stockholm, and told the interviewers how baffled he was over the fact that what all Stockholmers recommended him to see, was just one thing: "The boat". Zach also commented he was not so impressed, since the "boat sank after half an hour" and was a "tribute to failing engineering".



Now, why do we Stockholmers feel so insanley proud over this old royal ship? The fact alone that we found the wreck where it sank in the middle of Stockholm (Stockholm is based on five islands, where a huge lake, Mälaren, meets the Baltic Sea), and that it is almost 400 years old is part of the explanation. But we have many buildings in town that are much older that this, as well as regalia, sculptures, books, weaponry, and so forth.

The logic behind the worship of "the boat" goes beyond our grasp. An explanation might be that back in the day of its rediscovery, 1956, there wasn't much media, so Vasa and its salvage became a serial in the newspapers and the only TV-channel.

The capital Stockholm and its inhabitants are not aware of that the fact that Vasa sank after only a few hundred meters, makes up for some ridicule by the more media-savvy tourists of today. Sweden's second largest city, Gothenburg, has a huge little brother-complex, and has of course built a fully working replica of an old ship from their city, called Goteborg. This ship has sailed to China and back, and is a huge PR success. So why the Stockholmers cling to their sunken wreck, and don't build an operable replica of Vasa, is something of an enigma. Gothenburg: One point. Stockholm: Zero points.