Rope hair

Today I realised there was a ship that sank even earlier into its maiden voyage than the Titanic. The Vasa went down within Stockholm's harbour many moons ago and was salvaged in the 1960s by a guy who made it his life's mission to restore this ship.

Now it is housed in a museum in Stockholm and it makes for an interesting visit. Most fascinating is the way they have pieced together the medical problems and life histories of the victims by doing various tests on their bodies, which were preserved well underwater. Everyone in 17th century Sweden looked at least 80.

Of course, some of us preferred to pretend to have hair of rope than soak up a nation's maritime history.