When the voice says “go,” you really should GO.

Anyway about the time Mr. Drake finished discussing Columbus, we were advised that the space we were in was about to be invaded by multiple packs of Cub Scouts, so we detoured our trip and learned about the history of the Port Of Houston for a few minutes….

The next part of the tour took us back to the great sailing vessels… models of USS Constitution (Old Ironsides, the oldest naval vessel still in commission), and HMS Victory (Admiral Nelson’s Flagship at Trafalgar)

There’s also a model of the Vasa, a Swedish warship from the late 1620s, which serves as a cautionary tale of why it’s important to keep the round side of the boat down. Her keel was laid in 1626, and one day in August of 1627, she was hauled from the shipyards out into Stockholm harbor, carrying too much weight up high, not enough ballast down low, and all her gunports open to fire a full salute. She cast off, set sail, and made it almost a nautical mile before she caught a crosswind, capsized (driving her still open portside gun ports under water), and sank, right in front of God, a crowd of ordinary citizens, and a bunch of seriously embarrassed shipbuilders. Oops. It was also learned, somewhat later, that some of the shipbuilders had been using Swedish feet, about 12 inches long, while others were using Amsterdam feet, which are about 11 inches long. There were, seriously, different rulers in the toolboxes. Double oops.

Tragic, yes – 30 sailors and soldiers drowned – but also somewhat disconcertingly familiar. Some things don’t change, apparently.

The next room gets into commercial shipping – whaling, oil drilling, oil tankers and container ships… Neat stuff, but between Victory and Houston that exhibit was somewhat doomed from the start…