In the 1628 Sweden was at war with Poland. The kings of the two countries were brothers but the Polish king had been deposed from the throne in Sweden due to the fact that he was Catholic. Ah, holy wars – some things never change. So the Swedes built a huge fighting ship. On her maiden voyage she pulled out into the Stockholm harbor, listed to one side, took on water through the cannon emplacements and sank. In the late 1950’s Anders Franzen, no relation to George no matter how often he claims him, found the wreck and a gargantuan recovery effort began, culminating in the entombment of a fully restored ship, the Vasa, in this museum. Got to hand it to the Swedes for celebrating a spectacular failure.