The weather in Stockholm at that time of year [October] is probably not very different from what you might experience in New England (if you are unlucky). At this latitude the weather is dominated by travelling low-pressures from the Atlantic which gives you alternating SW winds with rain and N winds with clear skies.
A word of warning for the airport cab rates as this business has been completely deregulated. The drivers are free to charge anything they want and they take advantage of unwary tourists. However, there seems to have been a recent change and the taxi cabs from the larger companies will not charge more that SEK 390:- [295-350] for a trip to Stockholm. These companies are identfied by their names and telephone numbers on the side of the car. There is an airport bus leaving for the Central Station in Stockholm every ten minute, but you will still need a cab for the short ride in the city. The bus fare is SEK 60:-. There is a new railway from the airport to the central station which opened as late as December last year.
What you do not see on this map is the underground system (T or "tunnelbana"), there is a station a couple of block to the South of your hotel. The central rail and underground station is just across the bridge to the North. I recommend that you get a tourist one or three day ticket for SEK 60 or 120 respective. This gives you unlimited travel on the network of Stockholms Lokaltrafik, including underground, buses, trams, commuter rail and harbour ferry. You also get a free entrance to the Tram Museum [literally "Railway Museum"]. It is not clear from the information I have if you could also travel on the "steamships" of the Waxholmsbolaget and other special service (the airport buses are excluded), but I will find out.
Motor vehicle transport is restricted in the Old Town, but most attractions are within walking distances. Besides, there is an underground station in the Old Town and the Central Station is just across the water to the North. There is also a harbour ferry service from the South end of the Old Town to Djurgården and the "Wasa" Museum. In a way, the Old Town could be considered a tourist trap, but since ordinary people live there you should be available to avoid the worst traps.
Many restaurants are open for lunch, the customers in the city are mostly office workers. Look for "Dagens rätt" (dish of the day) which normally means a small selection of dishes at a fixed price, the dishes variy from day to day.
BTW, any drink with more than a minimal amount of alchohol is very expensive in Sweden, especially at restaurants and hotel minibars. If you have a need for drink, buy it tax-free in the States and bring it with you.
Hotels with a maritime flavour:
The hotel is situated in the centre of the Old Town, just a block or two away from the Royal Castle and housed in a 17th century building which in turn is built on a 14th century foundation, the Lejontornet [Lion Tower]. This hotel is furnished with maritime objects collected by the owner, which makes into almost a maritime museum. Across the street is the hotel's conference facility also jam packed with maritime objects. There are two more hotels in the same chain, the Lord Nelson and Lady Hamilton, also located in the Old Town of Stockholm and also decorated with maritime artefacts.
If anyone has any special interests outside maritime history, please let me know and I will do my best to help you with information. If your want to get away from Stockhom for a day, you have plenty of choices.
Birka, a 9th century viking community on the island of Björkö in Lake Mälaren is currently being the subject of a modern excavation. There is probably very little of direct maritime interest there, except for the boat trip to the island.
It is too late in the season to suggest a consert at the probably unique Drottningholm Court Theatre to cater for your other interests, but it might still be open for visits. This 18th century theatre is in its original condition, including the stage machinery. You travel by boat to the theatre of course. See: <URL:"http://www.drottningholmsteatern.dtm.se/">
The mid 17th century castle Skokloster, which is halfways between Stockholm and Upsala, is in a wonderful state of preservation. It is said that Count Karl Gustaf Wrangel stopped the completion of the castle at the death of his son. The Great Hall is left unfinished with the carpenters' tools still on their work tables.
When the glazed tiles on the roof where repaired in the 1970s, a reference to the accounts from the building revealed that these had been imported from Holland and new tiles were subsequently ordered from the same company.
Björn Landström visted the castle and especially the library in preparation for his book on the Wasa. The library is kept in an unheated, natural ventilated space providing what is referred to as "Skokloster" climate. Once again, the account books reveal how purchases for the library were made. The procedure was not unlike the modern system of mail order. Most books were ordered from the continent and Count Wrangel, of Battle of the Sound fame (1658), obviously looked for literature to keep him up-to-date with the development of most aspects of science and technique.
A couple of other tips:
Upsala does not have very much of a maritime nature to show, except for the oldest active ship listed in Lloyd's Register, a couple of Viking-time boats, and my own library of course.
The two major ferry lines between Stockholm and Helsingfors are the Silja Line and Viking Line. These ferries are the largest and most modern combined car and passenger ferries in the world.
If you send me a fax-number, I will try to send you a Stockholm map with the maritime attractions marked. I assume that you would also like to visit the oldest modelshop in Stockholm, time permitting.
[As I indicated in a previous note, Stockholm has been declared the Cultural Capital of Europe for 1998.] For this reason the Sjöhistoriska Museet (National Maritime Museum) has opened a special exhibition featuring Nordic boats. This could imply that some of the other exhibits have been (at least) temporarily dismantled. If this is the case I could try to make special arrangements for you to see these models. Please let me know well in advance.
Another attraction which might require prior arrangements is guidance at the building-site of a brig which takes place in the middle of the city.
I could probably set aside a day to guide you and it would be useful for the planning if you could let me know where I could be of help. Considering that I have worked at the Wasa-museum, this is probably one the places you may want my guidance.
I will fax you a copy of a map from 1945 with some maritime attractions marked on it.
The map is in the scale 1:12000, i.e. the grid is 900 meters or about 3000 feet. The opening hours are given in parenthesis.
Attached to the exhibit of Nordic boats, there is an open air exhibit at the bay shore. One of the exhibits is the repair and reconstruction of the hundred year old "sandkil" Helmi, which originally was built around 1874. Maybe it is to0 late in the season, but earlier you were allowed to borrow replicas and reconstruction of viking time and later boats for a trip on the bay.
See: <URL:"http://www.sshm.se/sjohistoriska/">, I am afraid that the information in English is limited compared to the information in Swedish. Choose "Utställningar" on the pendant for the exhibition pages. At least you could look at the pictures.
All [or most?] of the collection on display at the Victory Hotel was brought together by Stig S. Petterson. He started his collection already as a youth when these things were normally considered to be of little or no value. One of the most valuable items in the collection today is a gilt "crown compass" or crowned tell-tale compass from the cabin of King Gustav III's yacht Amphion, designed and built by Chapman in 1777. The figurehead, stern and cabin of the Amphion are preserved at the Sjöhistoriska Museet. This compass was offered to the museum many years ago, but the offer was turned down by one of the curators with the excuse that the museum already had too many compasses.
It was feared that the collection would be broken up when Stig S. Petterson died but eventually it was sold in, I believe, one piece to this chain of hotels. I had the pleasure of meeting Stig S. Petterson, who was a very generous person, two times in the early eighties. Most of the collection was kept in two large rooms in the basement of his house. How much he had in other parts of the house is more than I know. E.g. on our way out from the hotel, Clay Feldman showed me an exquisite bone POW model named Foudroyant which I cannot recollect that I have seen before.
The collection of all sorts of martime objects has never been described as whole and is not catalogued, except perhaps for insurance purposes. I will leave it to Clay to further comment on of what he saw of this collection in the hotel.
The quality of this collection cannot be compared with that of e.g. the Kriegstein family or other famous private collections, but it is valuable for other reasons.
There is a harbour ferry from the south end of the Old Town to Djurgården, another island, and the Wasa Museum. We were too late to see the fleet of ships serving the numerous islands in the inlet to Stockholm leaving the quays. This fleet comprises among many modern ships:
While passing the islet Skeppsholmen we saw the full-rigged ship af Chapman ex Dunboyne built in 1888, since 1949 a youth hostel. From 1915 serving as a Swedish sail training ship, first under the name G.D. Kennedy and in 1923, when sold to the Swedish Navy, renamed to af Chapman. On the other side of Skeppsholmen is the building place for a new sailing ship, a reconstruction of a brig from 1857.
On our way we also passed close to the place where the Wasa sank on August 10, 1628. She was found in 1956 and was raised on the 24th of April 1961 after first having beeg moved step by step into shallower water where the final lift took place.
Attached to the Wasa Museum are two other museum ships, the city icebreaker ss St Erik (1915) and the light ship Finngrundet (1903). The ss St Erik is fully functional and is usually taken out for trips each summer. Next to the museum you will of course find the "eternal" ex-Russian submarine, a private museum.
Entering the Wasa museum for the first time is almost like a religious experience for anyone with the slightest interest in ships. The ship still rests on the original pontoon she has been resting on since 1961. A destroyer dock at the old naval base that was used as the foundation for the new museum lets the ship rest with its approximate waterline at the level of the entrance floor. This presents the visitor with the magnificent view of the ship when he enters the museum. At an early stage it was decided not to fully rig the ship, partly because of the height of the rig, partly due to the fact that little is known of the upper part of the rig. Instead it was decided to show her laid up in "ordinary", i.e. with top- and topgallant masts taken down.
The decorations of the Wasa represent the largest collection of profane sculptures in Sweden or maybe even the world, comprising some 700 sculptures and ornaments. It has been estimated that about 95 % of all scuptures have been found. In contrast to the Sovereign of the Seas, little doubt should exist as to what the sculptures and other decorations looked like.
The woods used for the sculptures are oak [Quercus robur L] 57 %, linden/limewood/basswood [Tília cordáta L] 26 %, and pine [Pinus silvéstris L] 17 %. It seems that the sculptures made of linden have fared less well than those of oak and pine during the 333 years they were submerged. But since the spikes that held the sculptures attached to the ship soon rusted, most scultures fell to the bottom where they soon were protected in the mud and clay.
Copies cast from moulds taken off the original sculptures have been painted in what is believed to be the original polychrome colours. It has been possible to find identifiable traces of paint in cracks in the wood. E.g. crimson has been used on the lips of human figures.
The names of four master sculptors were entered into the dockyard books for 1626. All of them should have been fully occupied with the carving the decorations for the Wasa together with their apprentices for the next few years. It has been possible to associate many of the sculptures with a certain sculptor. E.g. the German Master Sculptor Mårten Rhedtmer carved the lion figurehead.
The fully rigged 1:10 waterline model of the Wasa made by Göran Forss of the Sjöhistoriska Museet (SSHM) attracted special interest. This model is made of Japanese oak, which was considered to be of the approximate correct texture for the scale. It was built using a simplified "plank-on-frame" technique, i.e. the "frames" are a couple of cm thick and spaced widely apart. The model is extraordinarily strong and there are photographs showing the model builder standing on the deck while rigging the model.
All of the fastenings, treenails, bolts and spikes have been indicated with "dummies" on the model. Although, as have already been reported, there is no particular pattern there are certain underlying principles for the use of the various types of fastenings. E.g. bolts were primarily used to fasten the structural timbers to the side. This would show up as a row of irregularly staggered bolts for the length of the timber. When documenting the fastenings of the ship a small error in registration is introduced. It seems that the model builders have been following this documentation closely but have not paid attention to the underlying principles. In this way a further error in the placement of the fastenings has been introduced, resulting in an even more dis-organised picture.
Exhibited at the museum is what is considered to be the oldest preserved sails. Of the ten sails of the Wasa, four were set at the foundering, the other six and the mizzen bonnet were found in the sail-locker. These sails were all new and had never been used. It has not been possible to determine if the cloth is made of flax or hemp due to the decomposition of the fibres. There is a Dutch sail cloth loom in the SSHM that dates from (1644) and which is of a model which may have been used to weave the cloth for these sails.
One of the great mysteries presented by the Wasa is the run of the mainstay. There are two holes in the deck in front of the foremast of the correct diameter for the mainstay collar. The holes are further protected by wooden covers or cowls. However, there are no provisions below deck to fasten the mainstay collar. Landström suggests that the collar would have been taken back around the mast, but that would have subjected the deck beam against which the collar rests for undue strain. In the reconstructed rig these holes are ignored and the collar taken around the bowsprit.
Twelve sea chests were found on the Wasa in a more or less good state of preservation. Most were made of pine [Pinus silvéstris L.] or spruce [Picea abies L.] and only a few of oak [Quercus robur L.]. The sides were vertical with a flat lid and all had once had a lock, now missing. All chests were joined with the short sides set in rabbets in the long sides and treenailed together. There are no ledges underneath the bottom and no foot panel. Most of them were equipped with a "läddika" or small compartment ("ditty box") on the left-hand side. No traces of paint have been found. Of the chests, two were found in the hold, two on the orlop, one on the lower gun-deck and seven on the upper gun-deck.
In addition to the twelve chests, seven casks with personal belongings were found, of which one was located in the hold, two on the orlop, and four on the lower gun-deck.
These personal chests and casks probably did not belong to the common seamen or soldiers but rather to the warrant officers.
The sanitary facilities provided for the crew on the Wasa were two seats of ease with square chutes in the heads of the ship. While it has not been proved, the galleries of the Wasa are spacious enough for a stool and a chamber pot (or rather bucket) to be used by the captain and other high ranking officers. Clay pointed out that there was an opening in front of the galleries which would have been convenient for anyone who was using the galleries for whatever purpose.
As far as I know, the only preserved complete whipstaff assembly is the one found on the Wasa. The joint between the tiller and the whipstaff consists of a swelling of the lower part of the whipstaff with a hole to take the tiller-end. Without reinforcements, e.g. in the form of an iron band, this swelling would split along the grain if subjected to sufficient force.
Eva Marie Stolth, at the Wasa Museum, has calculated the extreme rudder angle to be only 7 degrees. At greater angles the sculpture above the rowle through which mouth the whipstaff passes would hinder its movement. My personal opinion is that if larger rudder angles were required, the whipstaff simply would have been disengaged and the tiller operated directly or through tackles. Alternatively the mask would either have been removed or split in two to allow larger movements.
The above are only a few observations made during the visit. There are many other interesting aspects on this, the only preserved 17th century ship in the world. A brisk walk took us from the Vasamuseum to the Sjöhistoriska Museet.
Many of the museums ordinary exhibitions have been dismantled to provide space for a large exhibition on Nordic Boats in 1998. This exhibition is the SSHM's contribution to the program for the European Cultural Capital of the Year. As the museum will be extended with additional space in a few years time, it is not likely that the exhibitions now dismantled will be put up again until the museum reopens.
Attached to the exhibit of Nordic boats, there is an open-air exhibit at the bay shore. One of the exhibits is the repair and reconstruction of the more than hundred years old "sandkil" Helmi, which was originally built around 1874. A sandkil is one of several related types of gaff rigged, partly decked, clinker built vessels of the neighbouring coast-line. These types of craft were used to supply the capital with fire wood, sand, fish, hay and other farm produce. Earlier in the season the visitors were also allowed to borrow replicas and reconstructions of viking time and later boats for a trip on the bay. See <URL:"http://www.sshm.se/sjohistoriska/MoB/valkommenmob.html">
One of the curators at the SSHM, Hans-Lennarth Ohlsson, had the kindness to receive us at the museum. He guided us behind the scene and showed some of the models that were not currently exhibited.
In the Memorial Hall the German shippers were crating a 1:16 scale rigged model of late 18th century "bombketch" from the "Chapman Collection", while the 1:32 scale model of the 64-gun ship Hessen Cassel of 1731 was waiting for its turn. This construction model is placed on a slipway ready to be launched. Hans-Lennarth Ohlsson showed us the model's documentation, which was placed between decks, by lifting the upper deck gratings.
We also saw another model from the Chapman Collection, a 1:16 model of an "udema", one of the unorthodox types of ships designed by Chapman in 1760 for fighting the Russian galleys and chebecks in the archipelagos of Sweden and Finland. With these designs Chapman tried to solve the seemingly unsolvable dilemma of obtaining maximum fire-power in a light and shallow hull which should be propelled both by oar and sail. For this reason he tried several new and revolutionary ideas. The udema was originally rigged with three latin rigged masts and equipped with 16 pair of oars. The ten 12-pounder guns were mounted on pivoting slides on the central line and able to fire in any direction. It also had two 3-pounder guns firing straight ahead.
Normally the centre-piece in the Memorial Hall is the stern and cabin of the Amphion, the Royal yacht designed and built by Chapman in 1777 for Gustav III. A boathouse set up for the Nordic Boat exhibition now covered this stern, but we were still able to look into the Royal cabin. Lining the walls in the Memorial Hall were the figureheads of several 18th century naval vessels, including the Amphion.
Hidden in an unlit storage space was a 1:16 scale model of a gun yawl armed with a 24-pounder gun in a fixed mount and firing over the stern, i.e. the entire boat recoiled with the gun. This highly successful class of gunboats, which was designed by Chapman, were built in large numbers during the Swedish-Russian war together with its larger cousin, the gun sloop.
In the same storage space were several other interesting models. One important model was a 1:16 scale rigged waterline model of the 40-gun frigate Bellona. The Bellona-class of frigates of 1782 was the first to be designed to carry 24-pounder guns. This model is one of a series of five models showing the frigate in various stages of completion, two of which are exhibited in the Shipbuilding section. Chapman designed these frigates to be powerful enough to be able to serve in the line of battle where they due to their stiffness would be able use the guns on the gundeck when larger ships were forced to close the ports of the lower gun deck.
Most models exhibited at the museum are contemporary with the original ship or made shortly there after. One notable exception is a series of 1:200 scale models showing the development of the ship from the logboat to the supertanker through some 100 models.
We also had the pleasure of meeting Göran Forss, the museum master model maker, in his workshop. In preparation for his retirement later this year he is no longer working full time. However, he had stayed on when he heard that we were coming to the museum. In his retirement he will hopefully have time to finish the model of the last Swedish destroyer Halland.
Exhibited in his workshop is the toolcabinet of Hugo Åkermark, a modelmaker, who in the early days of this century made 14 models in 1:32 scale of the armoured ships of the Swedish navy now exhibited at the museum. It might be of interest to the members of this list to know that one of the first tools acquired by Hugo Åkermark when setting out as a professional ship model builder was a metal lathe manufactured by Präcisions-Werkzeug-Maschinenfabrik Auerback & Co., Dresden-Pischen.
On the upper deck of the workshop was the beautiful 1:32 scale constructional model of the 60-gun ship Wasa of 1778. This was the first ship to be built under cover in Sweden. See: <URL:"http://www.karlskronalive.com/historia/arkitektur/bildrepslag4.html"> and <URL:"http://www.karlskronalive.com/historia/arkitektur/bildrepslag6.html">
Several of the museum's finest models have been collected in a new exhibition called the "Model Chamber". This exhibition suffers from the common exhibition decease of using a dark room with spotlights to highlight the models. Unfortunately this often leaves interesting parts of the model in an unpenetrable darkness.
One of the oldest English dockyard models in the world is the so-called Naseby model. This model is believed to have been brought to Sweden by the English Master Shipwright Francis Sheldon in 1659. There is a stern ornament with the letters "CR" which if it is original dates the model to before 1649. This date is not unlikely as the model have many old fashioned features and is similar in design to e.g. the now lost model of the Loyal London. The dimensions of the model does not correspond to those of the Naseby, but believed to be a preliminary design for the Naseby or perhaps the masterpiece of Francis Sheldon.
Another well-known model is usually referred to as the Amarant model although it has been proven that the model does not correspond with the known dimensions of the Amarant of 1653. This fully rigged 1:20 scale model is probably one of the most beautiful 17th century models. Most of the original rig and sails have been preserved with the model although the current rigging is a replacement. Although it cannot be seen from the outside, the cabin is fully furnished with a chequered floor and rolled up charts in a rack.
An old model, referred to as of the ship Roland, is exhibited unrestored in exactly the way it was found with broken masts and rigging in a heap on the deck. Admiral Jacob Hägg referred to this model in his restoration of the Amarant model at the turn of the century.
The shipbuilding exhibition, which in my opinion is the most thorough and interesting of the museum's exhibitions, was set up in the mid-50s and has since been largely unaltered.
Here is found another of the museum's unique models, the hull of a richly decorated four-masted galleon of the late 16th century. This model has been the subject of a book by Peter Kirsch with the title Die Galeonen. Grosse Segelschiffe um 1600 which was published in 1988. There is an English translation with the title The galleon. The great ships of the Armada era published by Conway Maritime Press in 1990. Originally this model had hung as a votive ship in the Storkyrkan [Great Church] in Stockholm and is first known from an inventory in 1830. It was sold by the church at an auction sometime in the previous century and presented to the Nordiska Museet (Museum for Nordic Culture) in 1880.
A modern copy of this model made by Harald Åkerlund, which was rigged by Sam Svensson in 1953, hangs in the Storkyrkan today. The copy was made of alder wood and painted with egg tempera paint.
The master shipwright Gilbert Sheldon [1710-1794], one of the members of the Sheldon family which under a period of 1659-1864 served the [Swedish] Royal Navy as shipwrights, conducted tank-tests with ship models already in 1740. Several of these simple models are preserved and exhibited. An account of how to make such models was published in the Kongl. Vetensk. Academiens Handlingar [Proceedings of the Swedish Royal Academy of Science] in 1751 with the title Et lätt Sätt, at förfärdiga Skeps-Modeller .
A day trip with a passenger ferry through the beautiful archipelago of Stockholm will take you to Mariehamn.
A dry dock designed by Christopher Polhem and blasted out of the solid granite rock in 1716-1724 can be found at the Official World Heritage Naval Base at Karlskrona. It was built under supervision by Charles Sheldon starting in December 1716 and the first ship was docked on the 8th of September 1724. This dock is known as the Lindholmen Dock (Linholmsdockan) or the Pohlhem Dock (Polhemsdockan). It was originally drained using windmill powered chain pumps. See:
Next to the Polhem dock is the covered building ways designed by Carl Johan Cronstedt and which dates from 1763. It was built over a slipway from 1753 and was designed to house a 70-gun ship. See:
Other unique docks at Karlskrona are the "Five finger docks" which were begun in 1762. Of the orginally planned five double (or even triple) docks only the first five were completed.
