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by mherdeg 1340 days ago
I hope they treat it right!

My biggest takeaway from visiting Vasa was that it only has decades left, after being essentially immortal underwater, due to some preservation-related choices that seemed right at the time. A final irony for the vessel I guess.
1 comments
gambiting 1340 days ago
That's not quite what the museum page says:

"Vasa lay in the grimy waters in Stockholm for 333 years. After all these years in the water the ship was attacked by bacteria and rust.Vasa was slowly decomposing, and is still doing so today, due to a number of different factors. The museum is conducting world-leading research on how to counteract these decomposition processes. And considering the age, we must say that Vasa is in an impressive shape. Our goal is to preserve Vasa for a thousand years."

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mherdeg 1340 days ago
Maybe the science on this has changed? The display I saw when I visited in 2016 says they attribute significantly accelerated deterioration to the choice to spray the vessel with PEG.

Some discussion on this at https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/pressroom/presspacs/2012/....

But I'd certainly believe them if they've changed their estimates.

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henrikschroder 1340 days ago
When I was a kid in the 80's I visited the old museum where they were actively spraying the ship, and I think they took that decision in the 70's, so I wouldn't be surprised if they know a lot more now about wood conservation.

Anyway, I think they're saying now that the biggest problem is that the old iron is reacting badly somehow, and they're thinking about - very carefully - replacing all the nails.

But the whole thing is very much a work in progress when it comes to conservation, no-one has done anything like this at this scale ever.

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