4. Ships and Waterways

From here you can see the entrances to the two waterways which lead to Stockholm. One is for smaller vessels and goes straight on past Strömma. The other one is for large ships and runs between the islands of Fågelsången and Bullandö.

In the large, sheltered natural harbour on the east of Djurö, entire fleets could wait for weeks for a favourable wind, for troop reinforcements or to guard the waters around Vindö.

The famous royal ship Vasa would have sailed past here in 1628 if she hadn’t capsized in Stockholm’s harbour.

Gustav Vasa was the first person to realize the importance of having a powerful war fleet which could defend Stockholm. In 1552 he purchased a dozen vessels from Lübeck.

The ships from Lübeck made up the main part of what was to become a national Swedish naval force. During the latter part of the 16th century several newly built Swedish ships were added to this navy. By the turn of the century there were fifty or more warships of various sizes.

To get to stop number 5 walk over the rocks to the helipad.