A voyage from sails to carbon fibres

The Stockholm, with a displacement of 2850 tonnes and armament of 70 cannons, was the biggest and last ship of the line to be built in Sweden. The ship was so big that it exceeded the capacity of the Karlskrona Shipyard. The beam had to be reduced by 8 inches to ensure that she could be launched from the dry dock. Work on the ship began in 1832, but it took 24 years, up to 1856, before she was launched. The Stockholm was taken out of service as a warship in 1876, and was subsequently used as a training and accommodation vessel up to 1921. She was finally broken up in 1923.

The last full-rigged ship built at the Karlskrona Shipyard. The Jarramas full-rigger was launched in 1899 and served as a training ship for naval ratings (Skeppsgossekåren) between 1900 and 1950. Today, the Jarramas is a museum ship, moored by the naval museum in Karlskrona.

Tumlaren and Svärdfisken, which were launched in 1914, were the first submarines to be built by Kockums in Malmö. They should actually be regarded as submersibles with limited underwater capability. The design was based largely on the Hvalen submarine purchased from Italy in 1909

Launching of the destroyer Klas Horn at Kockums in 1931. In the same year the sister ship Klas Uggla was launched at the Karlskrona Shipyard.Klas Uggla was scrapped following the Hårsfjärd accident on 17 September 1941, when she was ravaged by fire together with Klas Horn and the destroyer Göteborg. Sabotage is suspected of being the cause of the mishap, although the sequence of events has never been fully clarified.

The U2 was one of a series of nine submarines built by Kockum in Malmö and by Karlskrona Shipyard during the Second World War. The submarines are known as the "number submarines", since they were never named in the traditional way. The U3 is now on show at the Maritime Museum in Malmö.Six of the submarines - the U4, U5, U6, U7, U8 and U9 - were modified in 1963-64 for submarine hunting, and last in the series was finally taken out of service in 1976.

The submarine Hajen, launched at Kockums in Malmö in 1954. The Hajen Class was the first post-war line of submarines and differed substantially from the previous series. The design was based largely on German type XXI submarines, of which the U 3503 was scuttled by the crew outside Gothenburg and was salvaged by the Swedish navy.

The submarines in the Sjöormen class, launched in 1967-68, had teardrop-shaped hulls and were the forerunners of today's submarines. The unique hull shape, which gave fast and quiet underwater performance, originated from the American Albacore submarine. The Sjöormen is also equipped with the revolutionary X-shaped rudder which gives exceptional submerged manoeuvrability. Four of the Sjöormen submarines were modified to modern standards, and sold to the Singapore navy.

HMS Umeå is one of the Spica II series (Norrköping Class) launched in the 1973-76 period. The vessels had a displacement of 230 tonnes and their gas turbine propulsion machinery gave them a speed of more than 40 knots. The Spica II were originally torpedo boats, but were modified in 1983 - 85 to missile boats and, in relation to their size, they were then probably the most well-armed ships with the highest fire power.

 

Page updated Thursday, November 12, 2009.