Recovering the Vasa

"RacinBob" (racinbob) 06/11/2019 at 08:01 • Filed to: None

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Arch Duke Maxyenko, Shit Talk Extraordinaire > RacinBob 06/11/2019 at 08:20

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Dyslexia’d the headline there and was really wondering why anyone was recovering a Versa

facw > Arch Duke Maxyenko, Shit Talk Extraordinaire 06/11/2019 at 08:38

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I did the exact same thing.

In any event the Vasa is incredible, and anyone going to Stockholm should pay a visit.

facw > RacinBob 06/11/2019 at 08:40

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It is really fascinating. I did a 5-country trip to Europe in 2000, and I’d say the Vasa was really the highlight.

RacinBob > RacinBob 06/11/2019 at 09:02

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Fixed it, but it does look like it would still capsize....

kanadanmajava1 > RacinBob 06/11/2019 at 11:22

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The technical university students in Finland are known for their student pranks. One of the most successful pranks was done at the Vasa ship recovery project in 1961. A group of Finnish students were having their Mayday party in Sweden . One of them had a proper press card as he was an editor for the university’s magazine.

They had thought up an extremely good prank. The prank was to place a certain statue in the ship. They infiltrated the recovery site during daytime using the press card and did research for the area. They returned in the evening wearing wetsuits (they were diving enthusiast) covered by regular clothing.

The Vasa ship was still in the state of being completely submerged but still at low depth (like it is in the video at 3:00). Two of the students managed to reach the ship without being detected using a raft to carry the statue . Then they dropped a statue so that it would stay at the ship until it would be properly investigated by the Swedish marine archaeologists. A fter this they continued to their Mayday party held in Göteborg .

The group was still in Sweden when the Swedish archaeologists discovered the statue. The statue wasn’t immediately identified and the first guesses had been that the running man might be god Hermes. After a while the runner was correctly identified as Paavo Nurmi who i s the most famous Finnish runner. The prank was a major success!

The statue wasn’t randomly selected. It was a scaled down model of larger statues that stand in five different place s. Paavo Nurmi was a great runner (9 Olympic gold medals, 22 world records ) but h is career had been tarnished by accusations being a professional runner (which was prohibited) in early 30's. The accusations had been raised by the Swedish representatives in the Olympic committee. Paavo had been excluded from the 1932 Olympic games in Los Angeles and general population in Finland was very bitter against Sweden for this.

The Swedish university students were of course very happy about the well executed prank. The tradition of making students pranks extends to Sweden too and good ones are always celebrated. But t he Swedish press wasn’t so impressed about this and t he story is pretty much forgotten in Sweden. T he statue was eventually placed at the museum but it still went missing years ago .