num_pages: 250
description: Glorious Vasa is a journey back through time to 17th-century Sweden. It is more than the story of the Vasa, its short journey and its dramatic shipwreck; it is also a broad and intriguing description of the birth of Sweden as a Great Power. On 10 August 1628, the Vasa sailed off on its first and last it was to last little over an hour. Three hundred and thirty three years later, the still largely intact ship was salvaged and conserved, to become one of the world s finest attractions. This is the biggest, most lavish book yet produced about the Vasa and the era when Sweden became a military power. Out from the Shadows of the 17th century steps the truculent Dane Brita Bååt, who sold oak timber to the shipbuilders. Thomas the Dancer engages in petty theft and the seduction of the capital city s maidens, while Admiral Fleming scuttles round the southern Baltic, serving his seamen lemon juice to cure their scurvy. The King, Gustavus Adolphus, is so eager a warrior that he uses every opportunity to teach those around him how to do battle. But he was also very much a statesman and builder, who together with Chancellor of the Realm Axel Oxenstierna, laid the foundations of modern Sweden.
language: English
title: Glorious Vasa : the magnificent ship & 17th century Sweden
publisher: Max Strom