Vasa was a Swedish warship that was built from 1626 to 1628. The ship foundered and sank after sailing less than a nautical mile (ca 2 km) into her maiden voyage on 10 August 1628. Vasa fell into obscurity after most of her valuable bronze cannons were salvaged in the 17th century. She was located again in the late 1950s, in a busy shipping lane just outside the Stockholm harbor. She was salvaged with a largely intact hull on 24 April 1961. She was housed in a temporary museum called Wasavarvet ("The Wasa Shipyard") until 1987, and was then moved to the Vasa Museum in Stockholm. The ship is one of Sweden's most popular tourist attractions and, as of 2007, had attracted more than 25 million visitors.
Vasa in 1632[]
In the summer of 1632, Fermin Mazalet was planning a swindle based on a proposal to raise, or at least salvage, the Vasa, using information from books he had stolen from Grantville's library. Up-timer Ginny Cochran, an assistant librarian newly assigned as the assistant to the New United States' consul in Stockholm, had her own plans to salvage it using a pump-fed diving bell.
Notes[]
- Summer of 1632 is an estimate based on internal references in "Diving Belle".
- Diving bells existed in 1632, but the idea of pumping air into them was not suggested until 1689, and was not used until 1789.
- In 1663–1665, many of the Vasa's cannon were recovered by divers working from a diving bell. While this is not explicitly mentioned in "Diving Belle", it is implied that Ginny Cochran may have been aware of it.
References[]
Ring of Fire II, "Diving Belle"