The Navy of Sweden in Former

Days

The birth of the Swedish Navy is considered to be in 1522 when King Gustav Vasa of Sweden obtained 10 warships.

The Navy Ships

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 British HMS Victory, Admiral Nelsons flagship in the naval Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 was built between 1759 and 1765. She had three battery decks with 104 guns and a displacement of 2,100 tonnes. The crew numbered 850 men. The hull was 230 feet (69 m) long and 53 feet (16 m) wide. In good wind she could do a speed of 10 knots.  The image to the right shows the HMS Victory. Photo Hans Högman. The Swedish warship The Kung Karl (The King Karl) was launched in 1694 and was the Swedish Navy’s largest ship at the time. She had a displacement of 2,700 tonnes. She had three battery decks with a total of 110 guns, ten 36-pound, twenty 24-pound and twenty-eight 18-pound guns per side. The crew numbered 850 men. The image to the left shows the Kung Karl. Photo Hans Högman 2017. Sjöhistoriska Museet (The Maritime Museum), Stockholm. The large war ships, especially the ones with three battery decks, were very difficult to steer. The sailing qualities of the these large ships weren’t very good either. The heavy hull and the small shallow-draught meant they only could carry a limited ballast. This had a negative impact on their sailing qualities. At the end of the 17th century a fast war ship could do a speed of 9 – 10 knots. These ships didn’t sail to windward very well. They needed the wind from behind. The relatively small shallow-draught often resulted in the ships being effected much more by counter productive tides and currents when trying to sail towards the wind. Often, if the wind was unfavorable, the ships simply had to anchor and wait for a “better” winds.

The Ship’s Armament

The guns were made of iron, muzzle-loaded and the barrels smooth bored. The cannon balls were made of solid iron. The guns were measured by the size of the cannon balls. A 24-pound gun was firing cannon balls with a weight of 24 pounds (1 pound = 0.454 kg). The caliber of a 24-pound gun was 5.9 inches (15 cm). Artillery duels between enemies were normally fought at a distance of 170 to 1700 feet (50 to 500 meters). The purpose of the bombardments was to break through the hull of the enemy ship. To do that the ships needed to use the 18 or 24- pound guns. A large ship of the line had a thickness of the hull at the waterline of about 2.7 feet (80 cm), at the gunwale only 1.5 feet (45 cm). The image to the right show the Swedish man-of-war Vasa of 1628. In favorable conditions they could open fire at 2,300 feet (700 m). But to get the guns to be effective the ships needed to fire at a distance of 1700 feet (500 m) or less. The very best result was achieved at a distance of less then 670 feet (200 m). If you fired the cannon ball parallel to the water surface you could make the cannon ball to bounce and thereby achieve a longer shooting range. However, the penetrating power got weaker and weaker with every bounce. A 24-pound gun could shoot a cannon ball about 1.25 mile (2,000 m) with bouncing.  It was impossible to score a hit under the waterline. The cannon ball would bounce as soon it hit the surface. This made it more or less impossible to sink an enemy ship. You could destroy the rigging, the rudder and the upper decks and thereby make the enemy ship inoperative. If you could set fire to an enemy ship it could explode if the fire hit the gunpowder supply. The firepower of a war ship depended on how many gun that could be fired at the same time at a broadside. The larger ships of the line normally carried between 25 and 40 guns per side. Frigates carried about 10 to 20 guns per side. The major naval base for the Swedish Navy was Karlskrona in the province of Blekinge in the southeastern part of Sweden. However there were naval stations in both Stockholm on the east coast and in Gothenburg on the west coast.

The Naval Battle Tactics

At the end of the 17th century a new battle tactic was introduced in sea warfare. In battle 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 a battle. A ship of the line was a ship powerful enough to take a position in the line of battle. The image shows ships in a line of battle. The ships of line were normally war ships with two or three battery decks with 24-pound guns at the lower deck and 18-pound guns at upper battery deck. The enemy ships met each other in a line, normally sailing in opposite direction. See the image to the right. After a first round the ships had to turn and take its position in the line and meet each other again. To turn a ship was a very slow procedure and to line up the ships again took a very long time. It could take hours between each attack. If you were close to shore or an island or if there were shoals in the area and if the wind wasn’t favorable it could happen that ships were lost without even being hit by the enemy fire. The only way you could send messages between the captains of the ships was by sending signals by the use of flags. This could be very difficult with all the smoke of gunpowder surrounding the ships during battle. Normally, a less powerful man of war had to avoid a battle with a more powerful one. A small fleet had to turn away from a larger fleet. A brig had to stay away from a frigate and a frigate from a ship of the line. Ships of the galley fleet normally stayed away from navy ships. If an encounter couldn’t be avoided the less powerful ship would often strike it's flag, that is, surrender. A smaller ship didn’t stand a chance against a more powerful one. An enemy ship was a transferable resource. So instead of destroying an enemy ship the winner would confiscate the losing ship. Even a more powerful force would avoid a battle if they were in a less favorable position compared to the enemy ships. This may be due to wind, high seas,shoals, nearby coastline etc. If a ship became damaged in a way that the crew had to abandon the ship they would normally blow up the ship to avoid it to falling into enemy hands. Before the linear tactics the sea battles were more of a close combat between the ships in a less formal order. The combat often ended with a boarding of one of the ships and hand to hand combat.

Images - Navy

Related Links

• Swedish Wars • The Swedish - Russian war of 1788 - 1790 • The naval battle of Vyborg Bay 1790 • The naval battle of Svensksund 1790 • The Allotment System • Swedish Regiments • Uniforms of the Swedish Army • The Swedish Navy  • The Swedish Army Fleet (Galley Fleet) Top of page

Source References

• Svenska knektar, indelta soldater, ryttare och båtsmän i krig och fred av Lars Ericsson, 1997 • Det gotländska båtsmanshållet 1646 - 1887, Kjell Olson, 1993 • Försvarets civilförvaltning 1634 - 1865, utgiven 1994 av försvarets civilförvaltning • Från regalskepp till sjörobot av Bengt Ohrelius, 1984. • Om sjökriget, från Svensksund till smygteknik av Marco Smedberg • Skärgårdsflottan, redaktör Hans Norman, 2000