You probably heard about Vasa 1628. I can’t believe that we spent the whole afternoon in The Vasa Museum (Swedish: Vasamuseet) when visiting Stockholm. The museum was devoted to the ill-fated warship Vasa which sank into the sea after less than 1 mile during the maiden sail in 1628. The spectacular failure opened the box of Pandora. There are wonderful conservation efforts. What an irony! If she sailed well, we wouldn’t see her true face today.
The Vasa Museum has tried to use numerous models and different types of data visualization to explain the effort behind the recovery of the ship. However, I thought that the illustrations for the German children book (Das Wasa-Märchen) published in 1965 provide the most vivid and straightforward expression of the mutual attachment between the human and things.
這是誰的錯?
這次在斯德哥爾摩為了一艘啟航才1公里就沉了的戰艦Vasa,我們裡裡外外來來回回走了10公里的路去看她!這樁發生在十七世紀(1628) 令人瞋目結舌的沈船事件到底是誰的錯?好戰喜功的瑞典國王,奉命行事的丹麥艦長和自認無辜的荷蘭總造船師傅都把過錯推給了老天爺,就因為了「那一小陣風」。這個靠400名工匠用了1000棵橡樹手工打造出來,配備64門大炮,400多名海軍和水手的豪華戰艦就莫名其妙地祭了海神。難道真是「只要不是故意犯的錯,都可以忍受?」 這句聽起來好熟悉的話,不論古今中外,好像政客和管理者的特質就是「能言善辯」,對自己的決策和行為絕對不負責任,都是「大家的錯」和「系統」出了毛病。
在將近400年後的現在,我們到底知不知道當初是誰的錯導致船沉了?也許錯就錯在當時沒有一個完善紀錄造船設計和過程的機制,在商業利益保護下,造船是個父子相傳的私房事業,看似複雜的船堅炮利其實是建立在一連串試錯(trials and errors) 的黑箱實驗裡,代代相傳。不幸的是,Vasa 就是比同時代的戰船風帆大了些,噸位重了點,多了十幾門大炮和幾百尊雕像。想要創新不能只靠土法鍊鋼,而錯誤的政策執行終究釀成大禍。
也許真是老天爺捉弄人,Vasa 當年沒做成打仗的利器,1960年代打撈上岸後,反倒成了發現錯誤的活標本。瓦薩沉船博物館(Vasamuseet) 化身為當今世界上古船保存技術最精良的研究機構和北歐最熱門的觀光景點。人類總是健忘的,不願從歷史學到教訓。可是,我們還有沒有另一個400年來糾正少數在位者正在犯的大錯?
Categories: Spur