Battleship Texas update.

[PLB]

Drone and Dry dock video of the Texas.
Starting about 1:45 they show the starboard side with most of the torpedo blisters removed. Also can see the plates covering the hole where the torpedo tubes were.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UQAPPe ... CoastDrone

The Foundation that runs the ship isn't releasing much in an official way. Since this videographer had access to the dry dock floor I assume this is at least semi official.

Paul

[OSCSSW]

Drone and Dry dock video of the Texas.
Starting about 1:45 they show the starboard side with most of the torpedo blisters removed. Also can see the plates covering the hole where the torpedo tubes were.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UQAPPe ... CoastDrone

The Foundation that runs the ship isn't releasing much in an official way. Since this videographer had access to the dry dock floor I assume this is at least semi official.

Paul

IMO USS Texas is a treasure, well worth preserving for as long as possible. Also IMO, she is far more valuable than most of the WW II museum ships because she is older and the ONLY Super Dreadnought left. I would rate our Museum ships as:
1. USS Constitution
2. L. A. Dunton fishing schooner Built in 1921,
3. HMS Victory
4. USS Olympia
5. HMS Warrior 1860 first iron-hulled, armored battleship
6. Swedish Vasa 1627 ship of the line
7. "HMS" Mary Rose 1512 The Carrack Ship of the line.
8. HMS Trincomalee & HMS Unicorn 1817 38/46 gun Napoleonic wars Frigates
9. Charles W. Morgan Yankee whaling ship built in 1841
10. USS Cairo
11. Japanese pre- Dreadnought BB Mikasa
12. Russian Aurora 1903 protected cruiser
13. Roann 1947 Eastern rig dragger.
14. Chilian Huáscar 1866 turret ironclad
15. Greek Georgios Averof only armored cruiser preserved
16. HMCS Sackville Flower-class corvette
17. Cuttysark clipper
18. Khufu's 4,600-year-old "Solar Boat",Egyptian Funarary river rowing barge
19. 9th Century the Viking Long Ship
20. USS Jospeh P Kennedy Jr. DD-850 1945 Gearing FRAM I. Why? Because I manned one as a young sailor and when I visit her I feel 19 years old again.

[Micael]

Drone and Dry dock video of the Texas.
Starting about 1:45 they show the starboard side with most of the torpedo blisters removed. Also can see the plates covering the hole where the torpedo tubes were.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UQAPPe ... CoastDrone

The Foundation that runs the ship isn't releasing much in an official way. Since this videographer had access to the dry dock floor I assume this is at least semi official.

Paul

IMO USS Texas is a treasure, well worth preserving for as long as possible. Also IMO, she is far more valuable than most of the WW II museum ships because she is older and the ONLY Super Dreadnought left. I would rate our Museum ships as:
1. USS Constitution
2. L. A. Dunton fishing schooner Built in 1921,
3. HMS Victory
4. USS Olympia
5. HMS Warrior 1860 first iron-hulled, armored battleship
6. Swedish Vasa 1627 ship of the line
7. "HMS" Mary Rose 1512 The Carrack Ship of the line.
8. HMS Trincomalee & HMS Unicorn 1817 38/46 gun Napoleonic wars Frigates
9. Charles W. Morgan Yankee whaling ship built in 1841
10. USS Cairo
11. Japanese pre- Dreadnought BB Mikasa
12. Russian Aurora 1903 protected cruiser
13. Roann 1947 Eastern rig dragger.
14. Chilian Huáscar 1866 turret ironclad
15. Greek Georgios Averof only armored cruiser preserved
16. HMCS Sackville Flower-class corvette
17. Cuttysark clipper
18. Khufu's 4,600-year-old "Solar Boat",Egyptian Funarary river rowing barge
19. 9th Century the Viking Long Ship
20. USS Jospeh P Kennedy Jr. DD-850 1945 Gearing FRAM I. Why? Because I manned one as a young sailor and when I visit her I feel 19 years old again.

A fun thing about the Vasa is that you can now buy spirits recreated from those found in the ship when salvaged.

It looks pretty neat. I haven’t tried it so can’t attest to how it tastes though. I’ve seen some describe it as sweeter than schnapps, or a bit like calvados.

[Drunknsubmrnr]

Drone and Dry dock video of the Texas.
Starting about 1:45 they show the starboard side with most of the torpedo blisters removed. Also can see the plates covering the hole where the torpedo tubes were.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UQAPPe ... CoastDrone

The Foundation that runs the ship isn't releasing much in an official way. Since this videographer had access to the dry dock floor I assume this is at least semi official.

Paul

IMO USS Texas is a treasure, well worth preserving for as long as possible. Also IMO, she is far more valuable than most of the WW II museum ships because she is older and the ONLY Super Dreadnought left. I would rate our Museum ships as:
1. USS Constitution
2. L. A. Dunton fishing schooner Built in 1921,
3. HMS Victory
4. USS Olympia
5. HMS Warrior 1860 first iron-hulled, armored battleship
6. Swedish Vasa 1627 ship of the line
7. "HMS" Mary Rose 1512 The Carrack Ship of the line.
8. HMS Trincomalee & HMS Unicorn 1817 38/46 gun Napoleonic wars Frigates
9. Charles W. Morgan Yankee whaling ship built in 1841
10. USS Cairo
11. Japanese pre- Dreadnought BB Mikasa
12. Russian Aurora 1903 protected cruiser
13. Roann 1947 Eastern rig dragger.
14. Chilian Huáscar 1866 turret ironclad
15. Greek Georgios Averof only armored cruiser preserved
16. HMCS Sackville Flower-class corvette
17. Cuttysark clipper
18. Khufu's 4,600-year-old "Solar Boat",Egyptian Funarary river rowing barge
19. 9th Century the Viking Long Ship
20. USS Jospeh P Kennedy Jr. DD-850 1945 Gearing FRAM I. Why? Because I manned one as a young sailor and when I visit her I feel 19 years old again.

I’d add HMCS Haida, USS Pampanito (San Francisco) and (ahem) HMCS Ojibwa to that list. HMCS Onondaga as well, although I’m pretty sure she’s still carrying stores I signed for

[OSCSSW]

I’d add HMCS Haida, USS Pampanito (San Francisco) and (ahem) HMCS Ojibwa to that list. HMCS Onondaga as well, although I’m pretty sure she’s still carrying stores I signed for

Scratch; The name of that sewer pipe (only kidding but what can you expect from a Tin Can Sailor? ), reminded me of a National Geographic video about your old boat. Enjoy

Why Dragging a Giant Submarine Onto Land Is Very Risky[/size]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZGH70P1dIQ

__

[OSCSSW]

A fun thing about the Vasa is that you can now buy spirits recreated from those found in the ship when salvaged.

It looks pretty neat. I haven’t tried it so can’t attest to how it tastes though. I’ve seen some describe it as sweeter than schnapps, or a bit like calvados.

Micael, now this is intriguing. My first question is did anyone actually drink some of the original from the wreck? If so, did they live long enough to provide a useful report?

How accurate is this?
Rum
Archeologists found a liquid identified as Rum in a tin bottle recovered from the wreck of the Swedish warship Vasa, which sank in 1628. (Regalskeppetvasa.se, 2013)

I really don't care for sweetened liqueurs like Schnapps.
However, I do like French Brandy, especially St. Rémy to spike my winter coffee, and Courvoisier Cognac as an after dinner drink.

I have had Calvados straight and found it too fruity for my tastes. However, it is passable for spiking coffee.

So you can see I'm both intrigued because of the nautical connection and suspicious because of the reviewer writing it is like Schnapps or maybe Calvados. Long story short I'd like to try it straight and in coffee before investing in a bottle of VASA 1628. No saloon around here, TTBOMK carries it.
I must say I have been searching the net of my local liquor stares and none seem to have VASA 1628 Rum. Too bad I really wanted to taste it.

[Micael]

A fun thing about the Vasa is that you can now buy spirits recreated from those found in the ship when salvaged.

It looks pretty neat. I haven’t tried it so can’t attest to how it tastes though. I’ve seen some describe it as sweeter than schnapps, or a bit like calvados.

Micael, now this is intriguing. My first question is did anyone actually drink some of the original from the wreck? If so, did they live long enough to provide a useful report?

How accurate is this?
Rum
Archeologists found a liquid identified as Rum in a tin bottle recovered from the wreck of the Swedish warship Vasa, which sank in 1628. (Regalskeppetvasa.se, 2013)

I really don't care for sweetened liqueurs like Schnapps.
However, I do like French Brandy, especially St. Rémy to spike my winter coffee, and Courvoisier Cognac as an after dinner drink.

I have had Calvados straight and found it too fruity for my tastes. However, it is passable for spiking coffee.

So you can see I'm both intrigued because of the nautical connection and suspicious because of the reviewer writing it is like Schnapps or maybe Calvados. Long story short I'd like to try it straight and in coffee before investing in a bottle of VASA 1628. No saloon around here, TTBOMK carries it.
I must say I have been searching the net of my local liquor stares and none seem to have VASA 1628 Rum. Too bad I really wanted to taste it.

I had a look around and found a lenghtier article about that I ran through a translator. Seems like it is towards the licorice side of things. But it was tried, and they did survive.

The Vasa ship's 17th-century brandy is resurrected
This is what Vasa 1628 tastes like

by Henrik Aflodal July 27, 2022

Vrakbrännvinet Vasa 1628 is a reincarnation of the world's oldest preserved spirit that was carried on the Vasa ship's maiden voyage on August 10, 1628 and was salvaged from the Salt Lake in the spring of 1961.
SUNDAY 10 AUGUST 1628 . The ship's wharf below Tre Kronor castle is thronged with curious people, the coves Skeppsholmen and Kastellholmen are full of people. The stream is a spawn of small boats.

The warship Vasa sets out late, late afternoon. At the current Slussen, sails are set and salutes are fired. After fifteen minutes of sailing, a gust of wind causes the bottom open gun ports to take in water.

The warship sinks quickly and settles down at a depth of 32 meters. Two masts stick up where people cling. Most can be saved, but about 30 people drown, the majority trapped below deck inside the ship.

The failure was a blow to the stomach of the great power Sweden. A faulty build from start to finish. Vasa was too heavy at the top but a lightweight at the bottom, a giant that was not seaworthy. The human tragedy was quickly forgotten, but the engineering skills people talked about for generations to come.

The incident would have been completely forgotten and obsolete today, were it not for the heroic salvage effort of the 1960s that resulted in the world-unique museum on Djurgården with a 17th-century ship so well preserved.


The Vasa ship on its way into the dry dock at Beckholmen in 1961. Photo: Vasa museum archive (SMTM).
With up from the depths in the late summer of 1961, the divers also received a bottle of brandy. In itself, nothing to worry about, one might think. But alcohol surrounds itself with a romantic shimmer. No person can for any reason remain unmoved in front of a bottle of alcohol.

You wonder what it tastes like? What did 17th century people drink? Was it terribly bad, or can a modern person appreciate the spirit.

First, alcohol itself is a preservative. Food items that are several hundred years old are more rare. But spirits will do. And it tickles the imagination.

Even then, in the 1960s, thoughts were raised about making a replica of the brandy and letting people other than the wreck searchers taste it. In 1961, the Wine & Spirit Center made an analysis of the contents.

The 0.6 liter bottle, which was made of pewter, a material reserved for the Swedish upper class, was half filled with a light yellow alcoholic liquid with a strength of 33%. The spirit reeked of anise.

Part of the liquid was redistilled and run in a gas chromatograph. The curve was compared with curves for rum, arrack, grain spirit, eau-de-vie and whisky. The conclusion then was that the liquid resembled rum or arrack.

It would take over 60 years before the idea came to fruition. Vasa 1628 is now sold by Systembolaget. A spiced brandy that is said to be as similar to the original as possible.

The foundation Vasa Rediviva is behind the project . The money that the sale brings in will go to the Vasaskeppet. And it is the good reputation of the original drink that made the foundation realize the idea.


Dive leader Pär Edvin Fälting was the first to taste the wreck brandy. To the right, heavy divers down in the depths during the salvage phase. Photo: Vasa Museum's archive (SMTM).
The diver Per Edvin Fälting, who led the salvage, tasted the drink together with colleagues in 1961. The cork jammed, so two small holes were drilled in the bottom to get the liquid out.

- It certainly tasted good, because some of it disappeared, especially during the first years, says Mikael Stenbom, board member of Vasa Rediviva.

The fact that the original idea was taken seriously today has, of course, financial reasons. Many years ago, the foundation had a collaboration with Wasabröd, when a small sum per sold package of Wasa Husman went to the preservation of the Vasaskepet.

- Vasa Rediviva owns the trademark for Vasa for certain applications, explains Mikael Stenbom. With Wasabröd becoming such a success for us, the thought has arisen that we might be able to do something similar with the spirits found on the ship.

The real driving force behind the project is the advertising agency Bloomy Ideas , headed by Marcus Holmlund and Jon Rönström. In a completely different context, Marcus Holmlund worked with Mikael Stenbom who happened to mention the brandy find and that it would be fun to do something with the idea. That was 10 years ago, and Marcus has been working ever since to make it happen:

- For a while I looked at starting my own distillery in Gamla Stan to make the spirit myself, but that will have to come later. The first step was to conceptualize the brandy find and develop the product itself. A long and exciting process where it was incredibly important from our side to get everything right from the start. So that both the Vasa Museum and the foundation feel that it is being done the right way.

Prior to the realization of the Vasa brandy, new chemical analyzes have been carried out which mapped the contents in more detail. The liquid contains traces of several ethereal substances, of which anise is the most prominent.

The base is not rum or for that matter potato spirit, which became more common after 1746 when Eva de La Gardie figured out how to mash potatoes - it was only at the beginning of the 19th century that this type of spirit spread.

And that they would have used leftovers from sugar beets and made rum also falls on its absurdity because sugar beets had their breakthrough as a commercial crop at the beginning of the 19th century. When Emperor Napoleon began growing beets on a large scale to replace sugar from the Caribbean after a trade conflict with the British.

This political decision also affected the cultivation of sugar cane in the French colonies which then established the tradition of making rum from fresh sugar cane juice. What is known today as agricole rum. To believe that the Swedish upper class embraced Roma in the 17th century is not even credible, just historically ignorant.

Nor is arrack , which in this country is associated with punch, a viable route. Another ship, more fortunate than the Vasa, Friedricus Rex Sueciae, anchored in Gothenburg harbor in 1733 and brought the first arrack with it.

A distillate of rice, sugar cane, palm sap. Arrak did not even exist in Sweden at the beginning of the 17th century. The people of the 1960s were all out cycling.

Spirits were originally made by distilling wine. Consider the expression bränn-vin. The first distillates up here were made from wine after a southern model. They hardly went out of their way to mix up an alcoholic drink themselves when there were casks of wine in the cellars of the castle.

So after redoing the tests on the 17th century spirit, it has been determined in the 2020s that the signature is eau-de-vie. So a distillate made from imported wine from the continent.

It follows that brandy at that time was not something for the people. It was a royal branch and the brandy that was carried on the Vasa ship was consumed by the officers, not the sailors.

A total of nine tin bottles from Vasa have been recovered. The bottle with the contents left in it was marked with a line, other specimens had two decorative lines, indicating that they came in pairs and were in a treasure chest on board.

It should be clear to you that the spirit decoctions of the time were "elixirs of life" and not meant to induce pleasure intoxication. It was medication with a benefit perspective. To dissolve the essential oils of the plants, the herbs were placed in strong alcohol.

The world-famous monastery liqueur Chartreuse made by Carthusian monks has a recipe recorded in 1605. So elixirs of this kind were out of date.


Advertiser Marcus Holmlund and colleague Jon Rönström are behind the realization of the 17th-century brandy Vaasa 1628. Chemist Daniel Borg (right) has recreated the recipe based on sensory analyses. Here he sniffs at the remaining sample from 1628 at the Vasa Museum.
So far the investigation . Now on to the replica-making. Felting with pendants that apparently sipped fresh on the 17th century tipple shows that the quality was top notch. Which might surprise the common man today.

Modern people believe that in the past, brandy was seasoned to mask the fennel oils from bad spirit decoctions. But what do we really know about the skills of distillers of the time?

But if the spirit was of good quality, why flavor the spirit with such a dominant spice as anise? For medical reasons of course. Anise is good for coughs and headaches, a sort of general cure.

A side effect is that it is also tasty. Today, the tradition of drinking licorice still lives on around the Mediterranean with the French pastis (or absinthe), the Greek ouzo and the Turkish raki.

Here in the north it is said that we (along with the Dutch) are obsessed with eating licorice. But keep in mind that our caraway brandy contains strong doses of anise and also fennel. So we're still, when it comes down to it, licorice drinkers up here too.

The task of recreating this remnant from the spirit's childhood went to Daniel Borg. An entrepreneur and also trained chemist who for many years carried out private spirits projects that were shared with friends and acquaintances. Among others, Mikael Stenbom, who was impressed by a Calvados-style apple brandy signed by Daniel Borg.

It has taken the gang behind the Vasa brandy 3 years to reach the finish line. The last step was to choose a distillery and of course the choice fell on Norrtelje Brenneri . The spelling alone gives the right vibes. Their versatility was a more important argument for getting the contract, explains Daniel Borg:

- It was quite obvious actually. They are skilled and have the right equipment. They are easy to work with and understand the purpose of the product and are easy to adopt new technologies.

The fruit distillery in Norrtälje makes everything from its own brandy to gin and whiskey. Together with head distiller Kristina Anerfält-Jansson, Daniel Borg has carried out about 30 different distillation experiments to find the final recipe.


The tin bottle of approx. 60 cl which was intact. The cork jammed so two small holes were drilled in the bottom to get the contents out. The spirit is still in the Vasa Museum's custody, but has changed after six decades and lost strength from the original 33% to today's 16% alcohol. Photo: Stefan Evensen/Anneli Karlsson, Vasa Museum (SMTM).
During the production of Vasa 1628, they have started from the new chemical analyzes that were done in the 1990s with more precise technical equipment.

In contrast to the tests of the 1960s, traces of grape distillate were mainly found. Which could certainly be grain spirit aged in wine barrels. But Daniel Borg has still landed on the fact that there must be a wine boil at the bottom:

- The most interesting thing is that the base was eau-de-vie, unlike today's grain spirit, when it comes to spiced brandy. A wine distillate gives a completely different basis with more fruitiness in the spirit base.

Another interesting thing is that the brandy makers of the time chose to go so heavily on aniseed in the taste. The decoction contains other herbs, but the licorice theme is really dominant. Unlike today's aquavit, which is based on cumin.

This "modern" spirit tradition was started in Aalborg by the Dane Isidor Henius, who in 1846 came out with his table brandy, seasoned exclusively with cumin.

Although in the 17th century , anise seems to have been the thing. The spice came to Sweden in the 14th century from the countries around the Mediterranean Sea. Thus, all the pieces of the puzzle fall into place.

But sugar still has a role to play. Vasa 1628 contains caramelized sugar that rounds off the spirit sharpness in the finished product.

The drink is dark golden in colour, which reinforces the impression that the spirit is about to come out of the wreck and has been lying around for 394 years. It has to do with the anise, of course.

But when I want to know how the brandy is made in detail, Daniel Borg becomes more reticent. Vasa 1628 has a unique manufacturing process that is entirely secret, he says.

In any case, the spirit is an eau-de-vis from France made from grapes, a raw spirit of 85% that is imported. It is the refinement in the Swedish distillery that you don't want to say much about.

The original spirit is believed to have been stored for some time in oak barrels. After all, there were no other vessels to store liquid in in the 17th century. But in the case of VASA 1628, they did not want to wait for the wine distillate to mature in oak barrels.

- I wanted to achieve a Mailliard effect similar to that which occurs when oak barrels are roasted over an open fire. The result is highly reproducible and has notes of toasted oak and caramelized raw sugar in the flavor which marries very well with the anise and eau-de-vie in the background.

The idea behind it is quite complicated, but the procedure in the distillery is not that complicated. Norrtelje license brews and subcontracts the product, which can actually be made anywhere.

Daniel Borg found the basis for the recipe in "Örta-Book" published in 1628, the same year the regal ship Vasa sank. The author Arvid Månsson from Rydaholm was a physician and an active distiller.

It is very possible that he was behind the spice mixtures that the tin bottles in the Vasa ship contained, Daniel Borg believes. Who is the only person now alive to have tasted the remains of brandy from the 17th century.

Via Rediviva 's persuasiveness, the managers of the Vasa Museum were convinced to let the blender taste the original brandy. Unfortunately, the drink has changed over the years due to improper storage. Of the original quantity with 33% alcohol content, approx. 1.5 dl of 16% alcohol remains.

- It is of course a fantastic honor to have been allowed to taste the world's oldest spirit drink. A real gem from a bygone era. After all these years, the taste is amazingly well preserved, despite the mismanagement of residual liquid. It's a shame that the brandy was left to evaporate, which produced a note of melted snow.



So what does the reincarnation taste like from the time of the warrior king Gustav II Adolf? I am amazed at how authentic the look is. It looks like the concentrated decoctions my father-in-law served over the years.

Homemade seasonings with dull saturated color from all plant parts that have been in the brandy for a long time and hastily decanted into a crystal decanter after the summer's maceration process. This is what the Vasa brandy looks like – this is real, the glass shouts triumphantly!

The first sniff gives salty licorice . In the second turn I associate to pickled anise. It is not fresh, but deepened. The aroma has real body. Here there is a big swimming licorice note that almost knocks you over with its total presence.

All around it smells like the King of Denmark's breast caramel - which after all originates from the end of the 17th century when King Christian V prescribed anise oil with sugar colored with beetroot juice in caramel form! In the middle I have an epiphany of spirit distillate. A fruity note that hides in the mists of anise.

Despite the weight in the nose, the palette is light and round. Non-alcoholic thanks to the sweetening, the oak extract and the relatively modest alcohol strength of 33%.

Gentle anistones are rolled out followed by sweet licorice and carried forward by fruity eau-de-vie. Towards the end, chocolate fondant joins. The aftertaste is medium-long and crisp with fresh anise on top. Fairly dry and tight.

This schnapps is really drinkable, I have time to think, before the provenance hits me. After all, this is no ordinary newly produced schnapps, but something that was formed based on an almost 400-year-old model.

This very fact adds a few extra layers to the experience that are impossible for a contemporary Swede to ignore.

What I like most about the brandy is how light and licorice-round it is with this non-alcoholic, full body that gives a refreshing taste with a drier tighter finish. The fruity eau-de-vie at the bottom is of course part of the secret.

One more sip , and the thoughts float away again. This is more Mediterranean style than Nordic nubbe? Vasa 1628 belongs to another time, which in a way makes it modern.

You can drink it however you like. Pour it over a large block of ice in a balloon glass, or split it with water as a pastis. Simply something for liquid licorice lovers…

[OSCSSW]

Thanks Micael, that was a very enlightening read. All I have to say is Swedish divers must be some very tough men

with a thirst that knows no fear.