Fylgia (ship)
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 The armored cruiser Fylgia |
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| Overview | |
| Type | Armored cruiser |
| Shipyard | |
| Keel laying | October 1903 |
| Launch | December 20, 1905 |
| Commissioning | June 21, 1907 |
| Decommissioning | January 30, 1952 |
| Technical specifications | |
| displacement |
4310 t, maximum 4980 t |
| length |
117 m over everything |
| width |
14.8 m |
| Draft |
6.3 m |
| crew |
322 men (50 cadets) |
| drive |
12 Yarrow boilers , |
| speed |
22.77 kn |
| Range |
8000 nm at 10 kn |
| Armament |
4 × 2 152 mm Bofors rapid fire guns in twin turrets, |
| Coal supply |
850 t |
| Armor |
System Krupp |
| Belt armor towers deck |
50–100 mm |
The Fylgia put into service in 1907 was the first and only armored cruiser (Swedish. "Pansarkryssare") of the Swedish fleet . Like the coastal armored ship Oscar II , which was built at the same time , the Fylgia had three chimneys. She remained a single ship and was built by Bergsunds on Finnboda Varv in Stockholm from 1903 to 1907 . The main armament of the Fylgia consisted of four twin turrets with 152 mm rapid-fire guns. For ten years the Fylgia was the largest ship in the Swedish Navy until the coastal armored ship Sverige was commissioned . At the same time, she was considered the smallest armored cruiser in the world.
The main task of the ship was the training of midshipmen, with whom she also made several longer trips. From 1939 to 1941 the Fylgia was completely renovated , which significantly changed its appearance with a new forecastle, the high bridge superstructures and now two new chimneys. It came back into service in 1941 for the Gothenburg squadron, but was soon mainly used again for the training of future naval officers. When she was segregated, she was disarmed to be sunk as a target ship. In 1957 it was sold for demolition and scrapped.
The ship was named after the term Fylgja in Norse mythology , a female guardian spirit who accompanies people.
Building history
As early as 1892 a parliamentary committee had proposed the construction of two types of cruiser for the Swedish Navy. Only the smaller variant was approved and the five boats of the Örnen class that did not meet the requirements were built. In 1901, a new committee found the procurement of a larger type of cruiser necessary to carry out reconnaissance for the fleet and to fight with cruisers and destroyers. In addition, the cruiser should also take on training tasks. The committee responsible approved the construction of a cruiser in 1902, which was ordered from Bergsunds in October and was to be built by the Finnboda shipyard. The attempt in 1903 to get funds for a sister ship, however, failed. The shipyard developed a small armored cruiser that had no role model in other navies and that took over components from previous armored shipbuilding. The new ship was over 20 m longer than the armored ships and received twelve boilers in three rooms and two more powerful four-cylinder triple expansion engines .
The main armament were the twin turrets with the 152 mm L / 44 Bofors rapid fire guns, which were also to be installed on the new ironclad Oscar II . Four such towers of the model 03 were installed amidships on the fore and aft deck and at the same height sideways between the aft chimneys. For light weapons, fourteen of the 57 mm L / 55 Finspång rapid-fire guns, model 89B, also installed on the ironclad ships, were installed. Some of them were built into casemates, which soon turned out to be a nuisance. The casemates in the foredeck area were removed as early as 1913 and the rear ones were no longer used as such, at least in times of peace. The torpedo armament with two 45 cm wide side tubes model 99 corresponded to that of the ironclad ships. In addition, the Fylgia received two 37 mm automatic cannons of the 98B model, with which the large steam dinghies could be equipped if necessary, as had been introduced on the ironclad Dristigheten .
The Fylgia exceeded expectations in the test drives. She achieved the design performance of 12,000 hp and exceeded the expected top speed of 21.5 knots (kn) with 22.77 kn.
In 1913 the Fylgia was completely overhauled for the first time and corrections were made to the casemate guns in order to create more space in the hull. During the First World War, she exchanged two of her 57 mm guns for the anti-aircraft version of the 57 mm gun.
At the shipyard in Oskarshamn from 1939 , the boilers were exchanged for four Penhoët oil boilers, which only required the two rear boiler rooms. Training rooms could be built into the front boiler room and the front chimney could be omitted. The two remaining chimneys were shorter. The bridge structure was modernized and enlarged and the rear mast removed. The forecastle was renewed and received a cruiser bow. The old 57 mm guns were removed, as were the underwater torpedo tubes. The new anti-aircraft armament consisted of four 57 mm anti-aircraft guns, Model 98B-38B, two twin 40 mm automatic cannons, Model 36, and one twin 25 mm automatic cannon, Model 32, and one 20 mm automatic cannon. The 152 mm cannons were replaced by modernized guns with improved ammunition, as on the modernized ironclad ships, which, with a firing range of 16,000 m, achieved almost twice the range of the original guns. Especially for training purposes which received Fylgia two 53-cm-deck torpedo tubes and two depth charge launchers . The displacement increased to a maximum of 4980 t.
Mission history
The Fylgia came into service on June 21, 1907. Its completion was delayed by a strike during the expansion. She began her first training trip to the West Indies and the United States in July to take part in the 300th anniversary of the settlement of the United States. She ran with Prince Wilhelm on board via Plymouth , Bordeaux , Falmouth , Bermuda to the exhibition in Jamestown , where she arrived in August with the Norwegian coastal armored ship Harald Haarfagre . The Fylgia also visited New York and Boston and ran back to Karlskrona via Plymouth until September.
In November 1907 the Fylgia started a journey into the Indian Ocean via Plymouth, Funchal on Madeira , Gibraltar , Malta , Alexandria , Port Said , Aden and Bombay to Colombo and back again via Aden, Port Said, then Corfu , Naples and Tunis , Lisbon and Dartmouth in the home waters. She visited Reval before the trip ended in Karlskrona in April 1908. The following November began the next five-month journey, this time to South America. Buenos Aires was called first via Plymouth, Funchal and São Vicente (Cape Verde) . Then Rosario , again Buenos Aires, Montevideo and Rio de Janeiro were visited. The return journey first went to the Caribbean via Saint Thomas , San Juan (Puerto Rico) , Saint Thomas, San Juan, San Miguel / Dominican Republic and then via Le Havre to Karlskrona, where the cruiser arrived in April 1909. In 1909 another Mediterranean voyage followed from June 8th to August 4th via Portsmouth and Gibraltar to Genoa and Algiers together with the ironclad Dristigheten . Cherbourg was called on the way back .
From May 12 to July 5, 1910, the Dristigheten again made a trip to Rotterdam , Guernsey , Santander , St. Nazaire , Brodick Bay on the Scottish island of Arran , to Greenock , Copenhagen and Strömstad . From April 26 to May 14, 1911, the Fylgia Vigo , Le Havre and Jersey visited before taking part in Portsmouth in the fleet revue on the occasion of the coronation of the British King. From May to August 1912 the armored cruiser ran to Antwerp , Bordeaux, Ferrol , Dartmouth and back to Karlskrona and stayed in Stockholm during the Olympic Games from June 19 to July 22. In the autumn of 1912, King Gustav V and his wife Viktoria traveled on the Oscar II from Stockholm to meet the Tsar and his family on the island of Pitkäpaasi off Vyborg . In addition to the Fylgia , the armored ship Dristigheten and the destroyer Sigurd also took part in the voyage as escort ships . The armored cruiser visited Sheerness until the spring of 1913, and later Funchal and Rotterdam. From November there was another trip across the Atlantic and into the Mediterranean on the Plymouth, Funchal, Port of Spain and Colon , then Havana , Saint Thomas, Santa Cruz de Tenerife , Algiers, Alexandria, after meeting the British armored cruiser on March 15 Duke of Edinburgh near Ischia Naples , Cádiz , and most recently Sheerness were visited again before returning to Karlskrona in May 1914.
Use during the First World War
A planned Mediterranean voyage of the Fylgia was canceled because of the outbreak of war in Europe.
The Fylgia was used to monitor Swedish territorial waters and should prevent foreign warships from disregarding the neutrality of Sweden and its waters. Like the cruiser Clas Fleming , it was partly far offshore in order to detect any threats early on. In the autumn of 1915, the Fylgia led the only Swedish convoy that took place during the war. In 1916, two 57 mm guns on the cruiser were replaced by anti-aircraft guns of the same caliber.
Training trips from 1919 to 1933
On November 3, 1919, the Fylgia began her first long training voyage to the USA and the Caribbean after the First World War . Via Kiel , Plymouth, Ponta Delgada , Bermuda - where she met the British sloop Mutine on December 21 in Grassy Bay - she ran to New York City, then via Savannah , Port au Prince , Kingston (Jamaica) to Colon and back via Havana, Newport News , Fayal , Falmouth, Le Havre, Antwerp to Karlskrona, where she arrived on April 8, 1920.
The following winter voyage in 1920/1921 went to the Mediterranean via Kiel, Portsmouth, Funchal, Algiers, Tunis , Alexandria, Jaffa to Beirut and back Milos , Piraeus, Malta, Naples, Livorno , Marseille , Barcelona, Gibraltar, Boulogne to Karlskrona.
The third post-war winter voyage led to the Indian Ocean . It began on October 27th in Karlskrona and led via Kiel, Rotterdam, Gibraltar, Málaga, Suda Bay / Crete , Port Said, Aden and Colombo to Calcutta . On the way back, Bombay, Karatschi , Aden, Massaua , Port Said, Palermo , Palma , Gibraltar, Cadiz, Cherbourg, Holtenau and Karlshamn were called before the Fylgia entered Karlskrona on April 20, 1922.
The following trip led around South America for the first time. Begun on November 6, 1922, this journey led via Kiel, Vigo, São Vicente (Cape Verde), Bahia , Rio de Janeiro, Montevideo, Buenos Aires and Mar del Plata to Punta Arenas and then the Pacific coast north via Valparaíso and Callao to Balboa (Panama) and through the Panama Canal via Colon, Santiago de Cuba , Saint Thomas, Horta on Faial, Vigo, Plymouth and Holtenau to Malmö, before reaching Karlskrona on April 23, 1923.
In the summer of 1923, because of the engagement of the widowed Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf to Princess Louise von Battenberg, the ironclad Sverige with the destroyers Wrangel and Wachtmeister and the Fylgia gathered in Sheerness. The ironclad, on which the Swedish royal couple Gustav V and Victoria had traveled, ran back to Karlskrona via Rosyth after the festivities , while the armored cruiser ran to Funchal / Madeira and then returned to Karlskrona via Gibraltar.
The winter voyage of 1923/24 the Fylgia then led via Kiel, Portsmouth, São Vicente (Cape Verde), Port of Spain, La Guaira , Willemstad to Puerto Colombia and via Kingston (Jamaica), New Orleans , Havana, Saint George's (Bermuda) , Ponta Delgada and Rotterdam back to Karlskrona. The next training trip to Casablanca , Málaga , Gibraltar and Dover followed in April 1924 . The following winter voyage began on November 11, 1924 and led for the first time to South Africa via Kiel, Portsmouth, Madeira, Freetown and Walfish Bay to Cape Town . On the way back, the Fylgia visited São Paolo de Loanda , Dakar , Cadiz and Le Havre and returned to Karlskrona on April 25, 1925.
The summer voyage in 1925 went via Falmouth to Algiers and back via Boulogne. The following winter voyage began in October 1925 and led via Falmouth and Malta to Odessa in the Black Sea . After visiting Constanța and Varna , the Fylgia ran back into the Mediterranean and also visited Constantinople , Salonica , Piraeus, Suda Bay, Alexandria, Tunis, and Genoa Barcelona and then returned to the home port via Madeira and Gibraltar until March 31, 1926. Without a summer trip, a winter trip to the Caribbean began on November 3, 1926, on which until April 1927 Antwerp, Falmouth, Cadiz, São Vicente (Cape Verde), Port of Spain, San Juan, Santo Domingo , Port au Prince, Santiago de Cuba , Puerto Barrios , Vera Cruz , Savannah, Bermuda, Funchal, Bordeaux and Malmö were called. Until Antwerp, Princess Astrid of Sweden , the wife of the Belgian Crown Prince, was on board as a passenger.
The next winter trip, which started on November 3, 1927, led to South America. Up to March 18, 1928, Lisbon, São Vicente (Cape Verde), Bahia, Santos , Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Rio de Janeiro, Pernambuco , Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria , Boulogne and Malmö were visited. A Mediterranean trip followed from May to July with visits to Vlaardingen , Gibraltar, Livorno, Oran and Hamburg . From November 1928 to March 12, 1929, the Fylgia made another trip to the West Indies and the USA. Portsmouth, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Porto Grande, Bridgetown , Colon, Mobile , Philadelphia , Hamilton (Bermuda) , Ponta Delgada and Gothenburg were called.
After an overhaul, the next training trip of the Fylgia did not take place until November 6, 1930 through the Mediterranean Sea and around Africa. The cruiser ran via Falmouth, Gibraltar, Málaga to Port Said and then through the Suez Canal on to Aden, Mombasa , Zanzibar , Durban and Cape Town and then marched via Lobito , Freetown, Funchal, Saint-Nazaire and finally Malmö until March 24, 1931 back to Karlskrona. The next voyage took place from May to July 1931, on which Amsterdam and the French naval port Brest as well as Cadiz and Portsmouth were called for the first time . The following winter trip went to India for the third time . Vigo, Malta, Port Said, Aden, Colombo, Bombay, Alexandria, Gibraltar, Falmouth and Malmö were visited before the cruiser returned to Karlskrona on March 30, 1932. From May to July 1932 a shorter trip was made with visits to Schiedam , Falmouth, Funchal, Liverpool , Port Erin ( Isle of Man ) and Oslo . The following winter journey from November 22, 1932 led via Portsmouth, Gibraltar, Tunis, Suda Bay and Beirut to Istanbul. Then Cattaro , Tripoli , Naples, Antibes , Gibraltar and Le Havre were visited before the cruiser returned home on March 29, 1933. The following trip from May 13, 1933 with visits to Antwerp, Saint Peter Port on Guernsey, Bordeaux, Dover, Vlaardingen and, for the first time, Wilhelmshaven in July 1933 was to be the Fylgia's last training trip for a long time .
The ship was largely consumed by the twenty long voyages since 1919. The boiler system was out of date and the safety equipment needed to be renewed for further use as a training ship. A modernization was not started, but the ship was decommissioned. The tasks as a cadet training ship took over first the coastal armored ship Gustav V , then the Oscar II and finally from the end of 1935 until the World War II the new cruiser Gotland .
Reconstruction and use during the Second World War
In 1939, funds were available to thoroughly modernize the ship, which had been laid up for years. The conversion was made with the intention of using the ship in the Gothenburg squadron (västkustflottan) as a combat ship in the future. Due to the late start of the renovation, the Fylgia was only ready for use again in late autumn 1941. Although formally part of the Gothenburg Squadron, it became the flagship of the Naval War School in 1942 and also carried out school trips with cadets along the Swedish coast.
Training trips after 1945
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On January 28, 1946, the Fylgia began her first long training trip after the Second World War in Gothenburg, on which she called Lisbon, the island of Porto Santo , Funchal (Madeira), again Lisbon and then Malmö and ended in Karlskrona on March 27, 1946. On April 28, the cruiser left Stockholm together with the destroyers Mjölner and Munin for the next voyage, which led to Gothenburg, Uddevalla , Bergen , Fanafjord, again Bergen, Dublin and Antwerp, before the association reached Swedish waters again and made the journey ended on June 14, 1946 in Gothenburg.
From November 18, 1947, there was a long winter trip to the Mediterranean and West Africa, which led via Falmouth, Oran, Algiers, Toulon, Bandol (December 23 to January 4) and Ajaccio to Valletta . The training trip continued via Gibraltar to Freetown (February 4th - 8th) and Dakar (February 11th - 14th) and then back via Funchal, Casablanca, Cherbourg (March 4th - 8th) to Gothenburg, Malmö and Karlskrona , where the ship arrived again on March 19, 1948.
The Fylgia's last training voyage started on April 28, 1948 together with the destroyers Norrköping and Stockholm in Karlskrona. Malmö, Loch Ewe , Avonmouth , Bristol (May 20-25), Amsterdam and finally Trondheim (June 7-11 ) were called at. Before Lysekil , the Fylgia had taken part in the first Nordic sea cadet meeting. After a short stay in Gothenburg, the Fylgia ended its last training trip in Karlskrona on June 17, 1948.
End of the Fylgia
On January 30, 1953, the Fylgia was decommissioned. Equipment that was still usable was dismantled and the heavy artillery was installed on the Kalix line in northern Sweden (as were the 152 mm cannons on other ships). The hull was used as a target for various weapons and the traditional ship was to be sunk in the process. Finally, in 1957, the decision was made to sell the torso for demolition. The Gothenburg buyer finally had the remains of the Fylgia scrapped in Copenhagen.
literature
- B. Weyer: Taschenbuch der Kriegsflotten , JF Lehmanns Verlag, Munich, 1905
- Alexander Bredt (Ed.): Weyers Taschenbuch der Kriegsflotten , JF Lehmanns Verlag, Munich, 35th year 1941
- Curt Borgenstam: Kryssare. Med svenska flottans kryssare under 75 år , CB Marinlitteratur, Värnamo (1993), ISBN 91-970700-68 (Swedish).
Web links
- The Fylgia
- Side view of the Fylgia
- colored drawing of the Fylgia
- The Fylgia
- The Fylgia in the Kiel Canal
- The Fylgia 1930
- Image of the modernized Fylgia
- Picture of the Fylgia after 1948
- Långresor och utlandsbesök med svenska örlogsfartyg mellan 1837 - 2005 (Swedish)
Footnotes
- ↑ a b c d Borgenstam, p. 32.
- ↑ a b Borgenstam, p. 34
- ↑ Borgenstam, p. 52
- ↑ NEWPORT IN A WAR OVER PRINCE'S VISIT NY Times August 6, 1907
- ^ [1] Log of the Duke of Edinburgh
- ↑ Borgenstam, p. 39
- ↑ [2] Log of the Mutins
- ↑ Entertain Fylgia's crew NY Times, December 30, 1919
- ↑ NYTimes, November 6, 1926
- ↑ Borgenstam, p. 53
- ↑ Museum Kalix-Linie ( Memento of the original from January 6, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Borgenstam, p. 59
