HMS Härnösand revealed to the public

The Visby Class vessel looks stunning. It’s great to see a country really pushing the boundry of naval technology.

Whiskey on the Rocks, sounds like a good movie don’t you think?

I saw an article a few years ago on how many tons of depth charges that had been dropped off the Swedish coast during the Cold War, it was a very high number but I cannot recall it.

Yes, I remember reading it was something around around 100 depth charges/ASW-mortars, a dozens mines and at least one torpedo launched in the 80´s/90´s. And at least one russian sub was damaged (swedish a/c photographed it surfaced east of Gotland as it was trying to get home with a long trail of oil after it)

I saw an article a few years ago on how many tons of depth charges that had been dropped off the Swedish coast during the Cold War, it was a very high number but I cannot recall it.

Going off on a tangent here – Swedish sub-hunters in the 80’s/90’s:

Hkp 4 (Boeing-Vertol KV-107, later upgraded with RR Gnome H.1400 engines).
You can see the drop sonar that was lowered from the chopper by wire into the water. Magnetic search doesn’t work too well in the Baltic, as I understood it there is too much iron ore in the relatively shallow sea floor.

Attachments:
Hkp 4 with an Ericsson PS-8081 radar and empty rails for Sjb 51 depth charges.

Hkp 6 (Agusta-Bell 206A) with three DCs.

Wire-guided Tp 42, could also be carried and launched internally.

Whiskey on the rocks. Captain Juczin on the U-137.

Thanks once again Papa and also to you Mas. I have been a guest of many nations myself on behalf of Her Majesty’s Australian Government via my time in the navy, I have been to Israel, China, Russia, Kenya, Sri Lank and many more of the more normal operating places that we travel to.

I hope your divorce lawers are soon paid off, I too am divorced, happily for 14 years now sadly though this has always caused problems with my two daughters. I have a son also to another woman but that is another story entirely.

Yes the idea of these mortars was to cause the offending subs to surface and thus capture the crew alive and put them on trial (since Sweden is a neutral country it would be wrong of them to kill anyone even in self defence).

Japan’s order was of similar concern with both Chinese and North Koreans as well as Russians snooping around their shores.

Greetings again Ja!
Here she is just after firing a bunch of mortars (or dummies perhaps), they made some satisfying cracks, anyway. I just don’t understand why they use such little “bombs”, surely they can’t harm a submarine. Perhaps they are for scaring away Russian submarines, like the one that was stranded outside Stockholm some years ago!
Yes, I have been “around the block” a few times, among other things been resident in Bahrain (courtesy of Her Majesty, in the RAF), France, Italy and now Sweden (twice, totalling 30+ years). My work as a technical author and translator keeps me up to date with technology, but not much of a military nature these days.

Those antisubmarine mortars (made by Bofors and called ELMA or EMMA) with a shaped charge were designed to only injure the submarine thus forcing it to surface. A result of the intense subwar against the russian intruders in the swedish archipelagos during the 1980´s/90´s, a total destruction of the sub with 70 dead russian sailors would perhaps put some strains on the relations between Sweden and USSR. I know Japan ordered ELMA/EMMA ASW-mortar aswell, maybe it´s the same concerns against north korean or chinese subs.

BTW: That “Whiskey-on the rocks” incident were outside the city and navalbase Karlskrona in 1981.

Just remembered that I chatted to an officer on HMS Munter who told me there were 8 crew on board. It reminded me of the 27XX series Air Sea Rescue boats I once worked on, doing radar repairs and maintenance, they were about the same size – but a lot faster, we could make 33 knots, but at that speed you had to hold on with both hands!

HMS (Swedish) Munter

Greetings again Ja!
Here she is just after firing a bunch of mortars (or dummies perhaps), they made some satisfying cracks, anyway. I just don’t understand why they use such little “bombs”, surely they can’t harm a submarine. Perhaps they are for scaring away Russian submarines, like the one that was stranded outside Stockholm some years ago!
Yes, I have been “around the block” a few times, among other things been resident in Bahrain (courtesy of Her Majesty, in the RAF), France, Italy and now Sweden (twice, totalling 30+ years). My work as a technical author and translator keeps me up to date with technology, but not much of a military nature these days.

Ohhhhh Papa, you make me blush and give me far too much credit, I only know what I know and nothing more, I treat my mind like a sponge, it soaks up everything. Having served in the navy did help my knowledge on ships a lot.

Thank you for the info and pics of Viking, very interesting.

I didn’t know that there were any Hkp-4’s still flying in Sweden, I suppose these will be replaced by the Hkp-14’s when they come on line.

Facinating pic of HMS Munter there mate, I can see the fordeck loaded with ASW mortars there are a heap of them aren’t there and both of these vessels seem to have guns of only 7.62mm size, I’d say the crew wouldn’t be more than a dozen, right?

As for you my friend, you present the air of a man well traveled and experienced in many things. Again I thank you for your input to both this forum and my own knowledge.

Wow, looks like they coated the whole ship in RAM!

Thanks, Anna, it was a big show (6 hours) with a bit of everything. When I get time (perhaps a week from now!) I will put up the aviation pix (Team 60 and some helicopters). The Army motorcycle team also did some stuff, but I don’t know where to put those pix! Perhaps another General Discussion day out mini-article is called for!

Look forward to seeing them Peter. 😉

Varsagod! (or whatever you say way up there in the frozen North!)
Det var mitt nöje!

Very nice, I’m gonna parrot the others and say tusen tack for sharing!

The Barque Viking

Here we are, all about the Viking, from this web site:
http://www.liseberg.se/Liseberg/Engelska/Liseberg+Island/Accomodation/Hotel+Barken+Viking/HISTORIA/HISTORIA.htm

The Barken Viking was built in 1907 by Burmeister & Wain in Copenhagen, Denmark. She is a four-masted barque, in other words, all the masts have yard arms except the after-sail. Today there are only ten four-masted barques in existence and only five of these still sail.

The Barken Viking was originally built to be used as a training ship for sailors for the rapidly growing Danish merchant fleet. At that time, seaworthiness and cargo capacity were given top priority. One day in July of 1909 the captain recorded in the ship’s log a speed record, 15.5 knots while carrying a full cargo of wheat from Australia.

Building a sailing ship in 1906 when more and more of the world’s shipping was by motor vessel may have appeared strange. By 1930 sailing ships had only 2% of the world’s tonnage to compete for. However, the Viking was not the last sailing ship to be built. As late as 1921, for instance, a gigantic sailing ship, the five-masted Köpenhavn was launched. That ship was ill-fated and sank seven years later and the entire country of Denmark mourned its loss.

The Viking launched

Crown Princess Alexandrine christened the Viking before thousands of onlookers on the 1st of December, 1906 and by the beginning of 1907 she stood ready to leave the Burmeister & Wain shipyard in Copenhagen. On the 19th of July she began her maiden voyage when a tugboat towed her to Hamburg where she took 2,530 tonnes of coke on board. The crew spent 203 days at sea and rounded Cape Horn twice before docking in Hamburg again.

During the following years the Viking was commissioned many times until, towards the end of World War I, the world’s shipping lanes began to change. At that time, the Viking sailed between North and South Africa.

In September, 1921, the shipping market was so poor that the owners. DFDS, decided to put the ship in mothballs while waiting for better times. Three years later the Viking was once again plying the high seas, transporting timber from Sundsvall to Melbourne. In 1927 she was once more put in mothballs in Copenhagen and then, two years later, put up for sale.

The Viking under the Finnish flag

In the summer of 1929 Gustaf Eriksson acquired the Viking and added her to his already impressive fleet of windjammers. Her port of call now became Mariehamn on the island of Åland. Even if many young sailors still received their first experience aboard the Viking, no formal schooling in seamanship was given.

Making money was the most important thing in Gustaf Eriksson’s world. So he had a number of passenger cabins built and sold births. At most the Viking could take 32 passengers and the cost was 25 Finnish shillings a night.

By 1948 the owner felt that it was no longer possible to continue and began looking for a suitable buyer. This proved difficult and scrapping the Viking appeared to be the only alternative. She was towed to Holland and became a part of the Rotterdam Shipping Exposition in 1950. No fewer than 518,000 people visited the Viking during two and a half months.
The Viking moves to Göteborg

In 1944 an association, The House of Shipping” was formed. Its purpose was to provide a home for different shipping institutions. After four years of having various building proposals turned down the idea was born of housing these institutions on board a large sailing ship. All eyes were turned towards the Viking and a large collection began in order to acquire the necessary funds. During the autumn of 1950, the ship was purchased for the sum of 261,000 Swedish Crowns. The following year the ship was sold by the association to the City of Göteborg.

On the 17th of September of that year, Prince Bertil of Sweden opened the school of seamanship on board the Viking. In the beginning there were two classes; seamanship and ship’s cook training. During the 1960s another course was added, that of catering management. In 1979 the school was enlarged to house 300 students. As of the 1st of May, 1998 the Barken Viking is operated by Lisebergs Restaurant AB.

Hello, Ja!
Here is the missing photo (HMS Munter) – I am so busy translating (it’s past midnight here and I’ve just stopped for the night) so I threw those Harnösand pix in quickly and didn’t notice one was oversize. As compensation, here are also a couple of the Viking – a steel clipper built I believe in Scotland and now full of concrete. She is a hotel and restaurant, and I doubt that she will ever move again! One of the two sail training ships was there, they are much, much smaller than the Viking, but I have forgotten their names (I think “Gladan” was the one there on Saturday).
HMS Härnösand is still fitting out, so perhaps there is much more machinery to go in. As I said, the public were not allowed aboard, and I am no ship expert, so I can’t answer those door questions! In fact you seem to know far more about this ship than I do – enjoy the photos, though, I specially took those few close-ups for you and the other “modern” enthusiasts!
Yes, that’s a picture of me, taken just after I removed the beard that was my trade mark for 30 years. I hope I now look about 40 instead of my real age (62)!
If I ever get the time, I’ll try to catch up on such details as you asked about, but I expect the Swedish Defence organisation could give you at least some of the answers on their web site. I still have divorce lawyers to pay, and so have to work all the hours God sends!
As you mentioned helicopters, here are three more pix for your delectation!

Facinating pics there my friend, thank you for sharing.

Firstly, you only have 9 pics there one is missing any chance of seeing the tenth?

Secondly, HMS Härnösand isn’t very heavy is she?, Apart from riding so high out of the water in these pics, I’d say she is rather hollow inside.

What are the doors behind the ten in the second and fourth pics? you can clearly see them raised, what do they hide?

What is the current status of the Hkp-9’s? Are they going to be replaced by the Hkp-15’s now that these are starting to be delivered? Are any of the Visby’s currently fitted for the Hkp-15’s as originally planed? Looking at HMS Härnösand I can’t see it being fitted with the flight deck lift yet that is supposed to lower the Helo down into the ship (the other plan was fitting a hanger on the deck just aft of the bridge which will spoil the look IMHO).

Behind the CB-90 Fast Patrol boats is a grand old ship “Viking”, can you provide any details and perhaps a few more pics of her? Is she a sail training ship of the Swedish Navy?

Finally I really must ask this, is that you in the pic under your name?

Thanks, Anna, it was a big show (6 hours) with a bit of everything. When I get time (perhaps a week from now!) I will put up the aviation pix (Team 60 and some helicopters). The Army motorcycle team also did some stuff, but I don’t know where to put those pix! Perhaps another General Discussion day out mini-article is called for!

Thats pretty stunning and futuristic looking Peter 😉

POK
Anna 🙂

Very interesting pics, thanks for sharing 🙂