Copyright © Hans Högman 2017-06-16
Introduction
The Navy
The birth of the Swedish Navy is considered to
be in 1522 when King Gustav Vasa of Sweden
obtained 10 warships.
The navy ships were built in the same manner from
the 16th century to the beginning of the 19th
century. However, the size of the ships did change
with an increase in size, and heavier armament. A
larger ship could carry more guns. First there were
one gun battery deck ships, then two, and the
largest battle ships even carried three gun battery
decks.
A battle ship with three battery decks could
normally carry 90 guns and the ships with two
battery decks between 50 – 80 guns.
The guns were made of iron, muzzle-loaded and
the barrels smooth bored. The cannon balls were
made of solid iron.
At the end of the 17th century a new battle tactic
was introduced in sea warfare. In battles the ships
were formed up into a single column. The reason
for this was to coordinate the fire power from the
broadsides of all the ships in the formation. This
formation is known as linear tactics. The
classification of the larger ships, ships of the line,
comes from this type of formation in naval battles.
A ship of the line was a ship powerful enough to
take a position in the line of battles.
For more information, see The Navy.
The Galley Fleet / Army Fleet
The Swedish Army Fleet (Galley Fleet) was
organized after The Great Nordic War, which ended
in 1721.
The Galleys was a perfect weapon in coastal waters.
The galleys could use both sails and oars, which
meant that they weren’t dependent on the winds.
They were shallow-draught (US: shallow-draft)
which made them perfect for warfare in shallow
coastal waters.
The Swedish coastline are filled with thousands and
thousands of islands and islets. I most cases these
waters between the islands are narrow and very
shallow. This type of coastline is called archipelago
(Swedish: Skärgård). The large Navy warships were
not suitable for warfare in these narrow and
shallow waters. Therefore Sweden developed a
second fleet, the Galley fleet.
The first type of vessel used by the Swedish Galley
fleet was of course the galley. That’s why the fleet
was called the Galley fleet (Galärflottan), at least in
the beginning.
In the beginning the Galley Fleet was organized
as a unit within the Navy. In 1756 the Galley
Fleet was separated from the Navy and formed a
new defense branch within the Army.
After 1756 the official name of the Galley Fleet
became The Army Fleet ("Arméns flotta").
For more information, see The Army Fleet.
The Navy and the
Army Fleet of Sweden
in former days
Source References
1.
Det gotländska båtsmanshållet 1646 - 1887, Kjell
Olson, 1993
2.
Försvarets civilförvaltning 1634 - 1865, utgiven
1994 av försvarets civilförvaltning
3.
Svensksund, Gustaf III:s krig och
skärgårdsflottan 1788 - 1790 av Stig Jägerskiöld,
1990.
4.
Skärgårdsflottan, redaktör Hans Norman, 2000
