On a Sunday nearly 400 years ago—August 10, 1628, to be exact—not far from here at the navy shipyard in Stockholm, the mighty Swedish warship Vasa set sail. Built by command of the king, the ship was to be the mightiest of the sea—a proud symbol of the nation’s wealth and military strength.
Excited crowds gathered to watch the Vasa launch into her maiden voyage. But within minutes, as wind caught the ship’s sails, Vasa heeled sharply, water poured in through the open gun ports, and because of faulty design, the magnificent warship began to sink. As thousands of spectators watched, the Vasa slowly disappeared into the deep waters of Stockholm’s harbor, eventually sinking into the seabed below.
But that’s not the end of the story.
More than three centuries later, a group of intrepid engineers, divers, and marine archeologists determined to bring Vasa back to life. After years of painstaking work to locate and rescue the impressive gunship, the Vasa finally emerged from its dark, watery grave—to the cheers of a new crowd of thousands of onlookers.[1] Today Vasa is the world’s best-preserved 17th-century ship, living on in the world-renowned Vasa Museum here in Stockholm, Sweden, where over a million visitors each year learn its remarkable story.
It’s a story of lost and found, of dashed dreams and restored hopes. The Vasa provides so many lessons: about careful planning and wise execution, about hard work and perseverance, about teamwork and community, about redemption and recovery.
There’s something universal about this story. Don’t we all have lofty expectations and high hopes that go unfulfilled? Tragedy or disappointment can make us feel sunk. But that isn’t the end of our story. None of us is a shipwreck, destined to remain alone and abandoned in the dark depths of heartache and pain. Everyone is worth rescuing, and even those journeys that got off to a rough start can have a heroic ending.
The Vasa is a testament that what was once lost can be found, and what was once great can be made great again. Courage, renewal, and hope, always hope—that is the story of Vasa.
[1] For more about the Vasa and the Vasa Museum, see vasamuseet.se/en.
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March 13, 2022
Broadcast Number 4,826
The Tabernacle Choir
Orchestra at Temple Square
Conductor
Mack Wilberg
Ryan Murphy
Organist
Andrew Ferguson
Host
Lloyd Newell
Guide Us, O Thou Great Jehovah
John Hughes; arr. Mack Wilberg
He Shall Feed His Flock
John Ness Beck
Fanfare
Jacques Lemmens
Meditation
Johann Sebastian Bach/Charles Gounod; arr. Mack Wilberg
Love Is Spoken Here
Janice Kapp Perry; arr. Sam Cardon
Brightly Beams Our Father’s Mercy
Philip Paul Bliss; arr. Ryan Murphy
Standing on the Promises
Russell K Carter; arr. Ryan Murphy