Vasa Museum, Skansen Open-Air Museum, and Nordic Museum - Stockholm, Sweden

The Vasa warship is ornately decorated with carvings such as those seen in this photo. The Vasa ship and the artifacts were well-preserved in the cold, brackish Stockholm Harbor for over 300 years. However, the brightly painted decorations lost their luster, and all that was left was the raw wood. Look at the next two photos to see how marine historians think the ship looked in 1628.