Royal Wedding

Yesterday, the whole of Sweden celebrated together with the Royal Family when Crown Princess Victoria married Daniel Westling, who now became Prince Daniel. My main interest in this festivity was the couple’s transport by the Royal Barge Vasaorden from the Stockholm Cathedral to the Castle. Vasaorden, which has nine pairs of oars, was built in 1923 and is a replica of an older Royal Barge that was destroyed in a fire in 1921. Vasaorden, which is built almost entirely of Swedish oak, is very heavy to row and difficult to steer. This was shown the other week when sailors from the Swedish Navy were out training in her. The officer in charge of the steering made a slight mistake in maneuvering the craft and she ran into another boat. No one was hurt but she needed a little paint work before she could be used yesterday.

Yesterday was 34 years ago, exactly on the date, that Princess Victoria’s parents got married. They, now King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia, were also rowed up to the Castle in Vasaorden. For that occasion, in 1976, I organised a celebratory telegram that was sent to the King and Queen from ‘the oarsmen of the Malmö Roddklubb’ – honestly, we were only boys, but a very nice thank you note was sent from the Castle. The note is now in the club’s archives somewhere…

A Royal Outing

On 19 July 2010, the Swedish Crown Princess, Victoria, is going to get married with a commoner named Daniel (he seems to have lost his family name when the Swedish tabloids are writing their gossip stories about the couple). After their wedding, they young couple will be rowed up the river in the Royal Barge Vasaorden. According to newspapers in Sweden, the Swedish Royal Navy has just begun to train 29 sailors for working the oars. They will be training rowing for hours every day (so the papers claim) to be able to not upset the boat and give the Royalties a smooth voyage on the river in Stockholm.

The original Vasaorden, which was built in 1774 by order of King Gustaf III and designed by the famous shipbuilder Fredrik Henrik af Chapman, was at that time used for Royal outings on the different rivers in and around the Swedish capitol. Later it was used to row foreign heads of state (see 30 December 2009). In 1921, Vasaorden was destroyed in a fire, but two years later a copy of the original barge was built. Among other kings and queens who have been given ‘an outing’ in Vasaorden were Elizabeth II and Prince Philip in 1956.

The oak built Vasaorden is 18,6 metres long, 3,2 metres wide, and powered by nine pair of oars.

Something Big And Useless

In the current issue of British Rowing’s Rowing & Regatta, No. 40, rowing historian and writer Chris Dodd has an article with a photograph showing members of Stavanger Roklub getting ready to participate in the town’s parade on Norway’s National Day on 17 of May.

This made me think of a funny story about Norway, from a Swedish point of view; and it has a very loose tie to rowing.

At the Peace Conference in 1814, Denmark, being an ally to France, lost the territory of Norway to Sweden. The Norwegians protested and nominated Kristian Fredrik to be King of Norway on 17 of May the same year. This led to a war declaration from the Swedish King and the Swedish army immediately attacked Norway. After a couple of weeks fighting, Norway surrendered, and was from thereon in a political union with its eastern neighbour, and technically run by the Swedish king.

Then in 1897, King Chulalongkorn of Siam visited King Oscar II of Sweden. The King of Siam was rowed up on the Royal Barge to meet King Oscar. Among the many gifts that King Chulalongkorn brought to the Swedish king was a big, white elephant.

To get some advice how to reciprocate this gift, King Oscar called in his friend Count Sven Lagerberg, who was a general and the supreme commander of the Swedish Army. Count Lagerberg, who was a witty man, was commonly known as “Sven - Hell, No”. He got the nick-name after his younger brother, also an army officer, happened to call him by his first name, not by his military rank, in front of the troops. General Lagerberg then barked at his brother, “Sven – Hell, No!” [“Sven – i helvete!”]

When King Oscar asked Lagerberg what he would suggest that the king could give to the King of Siam, adding, “What do I have that is big, and totally useless?” General Lagerberg replied, “Your Majesty, how about giving him Norway?”

Poor Norway! The country peacefully separated from Sweden in June 1905.