In the castle Whitelocke was carried up to a room, a magazine, where were a very great number of muskets, pikes, swords, and other foot arms, excellent good, made in this country, of their own iron and steel, and kept exceeding clean, bright, and well fixed, and were said to be sufficient to arm ten thousand men completely.  On the other side of the court they brought him to another room, where was a magazine of horse-arms, cuirassiers, with pistols, bright, well kept, and of an excellent make; there were also more foot-arms:  in all, in this magazine, two thousand horse-arms, and five thousand foot-arms; and in the other magazine, ten thousand foot-arms.  There were likewise colours, ensigns, and standards, taken from their enemies, to the number of about eight hundred; among them one taken by King Gustavus in person, and another, which Wrangel showed, that he had taken from the Duke of Saxony.

This city is doubtless as well provided of arms and all sorts of ammunition for war as any place in these parts of Europe, here being, besides the Queen’s stores in the public Arsenal, arms sufficient for fifty thousand men.

Here also they showed to Whitelocke the lance of the quintain, and, according to their description of it and its use, it seems to be the same with the exercise and recreation used anciently in England, and yet retained in some counties at their marriages, which they likewise call the running at the quintain.  In a great hall they showed to Whitelocke the skin, stuffed out and standing in the full proportion, of the horse which the late King Gustavus rode when he was slain; also his bloody shirt which he then wore, which is carefully preserved in a chest; where they also keep the jewel which King Gustavus wore at his coronation, and many rich swords, battle-axes, and other spoils taken from their enemies.

May 25, 1654.

[SN:  The launch of the ‘Falcon.’]

Wrangel came to Whitelocke, and invited him to see the launching of one of their ships newly built for a man-of-war; and Whitelocke was the more curious to see the manner of it, and how they could do it, in regard they have no docks, nor ebbing and flowing of the water, which here is constantly even, and affords no advantage by flowing tides for the launching of their ships.

When Whitelocke came to the holm where the ship was to be launched, he found her with the keel set upon great planks of timber, the ship tied upright with cables, as if she were swimming; the planks upon which she stood lay shelving towards the water, and were all thick daubed with grease all along from the poop of the ship, and under her keel, to the water’s side, which was within the ship’s length of her head, and there the water was very deep.  One strong cable held the ship from moving; and she lying thus shelving upon the planks, the cable which held her from sliding down was cut, and then the weight of the ship upon the sloping greased planks carried her with great violence down upon the planks into the sea, near a slight shoot, by force of the weight and swing wherewith she fell down.  In the sea were boats ready, which came to her, and put men aboard her; and as she went off, a great shout of a multitude of people, standing by as spectators, was sent after her.