I am a native in this world And think in it as a native thinks

Friday, June 4, 2010

Vasa


None of the pictures I took at the Vasa museum came out very well, as you can see, though I do like the shaky-blurry effect I've got going here with the rigging.

And it's somehow fitting, since the royal ship Vasa didn't turn out all that well, either, which is why it's now sitting in a museum. It sank a few minutes after setting off on its maiden voyage in 1628, barely even making it out of Stockholm harbor, and was found largely intact in the 1950's.

When you look at the ship you're amazed that it made it that far; it's very tall and not very wide, and the minute it encountered its first stiff breeze, it toppled over. If you've ever worked on a major project in a large organization, it will all seem very familiar: political pressure to have bigger ships and more guns, specs changing after the lumber had already been cut, unrealistic deadlines, a lot of finger-pointing afterwards, and then the whole disaster being conveniently lost to memory.

Along with the ship.

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