Oscar II (ship)
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 The Oscar II. 1939 |
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| Overview | |
| Type | Coastal armored ship |
| Shipyard | |
| Keel laying | March 29, 1903 |
| Launch | June 6, 1905 |
| Namesake | King Oscar II of Sweden |
| Commissioning | April 3, 1907 |
| Decommissioning | February 24, 1950 |
| Technical specifications | |
| displacement |
4273 t, maximum 4495 t |
| length |
95.6 m over everything |
| width |
15.4 m |
| Draft |
5.5 m |
| crew |
335 men |
| drive |
10 Yarrow boilers , |
| speed |
18 kn |
| Range |
2350 nm at 9 kn |
| Armament |
2 × 210 mm Bofors cannon |
| Coal supply |
500 t |
| Armor |
System Krupp |
| Belt armor heavy towers Barbette light towers deck |
100–150 mm |
The coastal armored ship (Swedish: "Pansarskepp") Oscar II , which was put into service by the Swedish fleet in 1907 , differed from its predecessors by three funnels. She remained the only coastal armored ship in the world with three funnels. The Oscar II was a single ship and was built from 1903 to 1907 by the Lindholmens Varv in Gothenburg as a further development of the Äran class .
The main armament of the Oscar II with two 210 mm single turrets did not differ from the five preceding ships since the Dristigheten . However, the new ship had a change in the placement of the middle artillery. The request for their reinforcement was realized by installing four side twin towers for the 152 mm battery, which was reinforced to eight guns.
For ten years the Oscar II was the most powerful ship in the Swedish Navy until the coastal armored ship Sverige was commissioned . The armored cruiser Fylgia, which came into service in 1907, was somewhat larger, however, with a displacement of up to 4980 t and a length of 117 m. In the mid-30s it was shut down and modernized for Oscar II . She returned to service on October 30, 1939 and remained in service in Stockholm and for the Naval War School during World War II .
In 1950 the ship was removed from the fleet list, but from 1952 it was used at the Naval War School in Berga (Berga Örlogsskolor) for training in the event of damage and accidents and was only sold for scrapping in 1974.
Building history
The construction of the Oscar II was approved in principle in 1901. However, different variants of an improved coastal defense ship were examined. In 1902, the responsible committee approved the construction of a fourth ship of the Äran class ( Manligheten ) and in 1903 recommended the construction of another ship, which had hardly changed. However, the government decided differently to build a somewhat larger and faster ship, for which parliament also approved the funds. The Motala group received the order and developed an improved ship at the Lindholm shipyard belonging to the group in Gothenburg, where the Oscar II was built from 1903. The new ironclad was named after the Swedish King Oscar II (1829–1907).
As on the previous five coastal armored ships, two single turrets with 21 cm L / 44 Bofors rapid-fire guns, model 98, were erected as the main armament . The middle artillery was reinforced by two guns compared to these ships. To limit the increase in weight, the armor on the hull was slightly reduced and the eight 152 mm L / 44 Bofors rapid-fire guns were placed on the sides of the superstructure in four model 03 twin turrets. In addition to the lower weight, the twin towers also enabled better fire areas compared to the installation of single towers. These new towers were also used on the armored cruiser Fylgia and in some land fortifications. For light weapons, ten 57 mm L / 55 Finspång rapid-fire guns, model 89B, were installed as on the previous ironclad ships. The same applied to the torpedo armament with two 45 cm wide side tubes model 99. In addition, the Oscar II received three 37 mm automatic cannons from the 98B model, with which the large steam dinghies could be equipped if necessary, as had been introduced with the Dristigheten .
In addition to the armament, the propulsion system had also been changed. The Oscar II received ten instead of the previous eight Yarrow boilers , which were placed in three boiler rooms. The triple expansion machines supplied by Motala had four cylinders each for the first time on a Swedish warship and achieved a design output of 9400 hp and gave the Oscar II a top speed of 17.8 knots (kn) .
In the winter of 1910 to 1911, the Oscar II, like the ships of the previous Äran class and the Dristigheten, received a tripod mast and a modern range finder. During the First World War, she exchanged two of her 57 mm guns for the anti-aircraft version of the 57 mm gun.
During the renovation from 1938 to autumn 1939, the boilers were replaced and two were prepared for oil firing. The bridge structure was modernized and the rear mast removed. The old 57 mm guns were removed, as were the underwater torpedo tubes, the space of which was used for a modern fire control system. The new anti-aircraft armament consisted of two 75 mm L / 60 twin guns of the Model 29, one twin 25 mm gun and two twin machine guns. The displacement increased to a maximum of 4850 t.
Mission history
The Oscar II entered service on April 3, 1907. She became the flagship of the Swedish fleet. In the same year she visited the British Home Fleet in Portsmouth . In July 1909 the Swedish King Gustav V Adolf came on the coastal armored ship to the opening of the ferry connection Sassnitz - Trelleborg , the so-called royal line , in which the German Emperor also took part, who traveled on his yacht Hohenzollern , accompanied by the small cruiser Hamburg .
On November 30, 1909, the Oscar II left for her first winter voyage to the Mediterranean . She visited Le Havre , Malta , Alexandria , Naxos , Syros , again Naxos, Smyrna (today Izmir) , Milos , Venice , Naples , Capri , Toulon and Lisbon , before she returned to Gothenburg on April 21, 1910.
Two years later the Oscar II stayed in service again over the winter and visited Stettin , Leith , Amsterdam , Copenhagen , Gothenburg, Wilhelmshaven , Le Havre , Brest , Portsmouth and Hamburg between December 19, 1911 and April 26, 1912 .
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 . The armored ship Dristigheten , the armored cruiser Fylgia and the destroyer Sigurd also took part in the trip . Another visit to Stettin followed in autumn 1913 to deliver a gift from the Swedish king to Kaiser Wilhelm II .
After being used in coastal surveillance during the First World War, the Oscar II, now replaced as the flagship, was sent to the Aaland Islands with the new flagship Sverige to support the armored ship Thor , which had already been deployed . On February 20, 1918 they arrived at Eckerö and on February 25 secured the landing of Swedish troops, who arrived on the gunboat Svensksund and chartered ships. As part of the Finland intervention , the German Reich claimed the Aaland Islands from alleged logistical constraints. After the Germans arrived on the morning of March 5th with the liners Westfalen and Rheinland , they demanded control of almost the entire archipelago. Despite protests in Sweden, the Swedish troops were gradually withdrawn from the islands inhabited by Sweden and previously part of Russia by April 25. The Oscar II was withdrawn with the Swedish ground troops.
Training trips
In 1929 Oscar II took over training and made regular trips abroad. Already the first trip from Karlskrona in July 1929 took her to the Mediterranean . We visited Kiel , Vlaardingen , Gibraltar , Barcelona , Porto de Leixoes and Gravesend . The subsequent five-month training trip from November 6, 1929 to March 31, 1930 led to La Coruña , Palermo , Alexandria, Istanbul , Piraeus , Venice, Toulon, Seville and Calais . The 1930 summer trip was carried out in two parts. In June Antwerp and Lisbon were visited and then returned to Gothenburg. From there, a trip to Reykjavík was made in July , where the Icelandic parliament Althing celebrated its 1000th anniversary. The Swedish Crown Prince Gustav Adolf took part in the trip to honor the special relations between the two countries.
It was not until 1934 that the coastal armored ship was used again. On the summer trip Taarbæk near Copenhagen, Vlissingen , Funchal , Cardiff , St. Helier on Jersey and Leith (the port of Edinburgh ) were visited. The winter voyage, which began on November 29, 1934, led to Den Helder and Vlissingen, Gibraltar, Alicante , Bone (today Annaba) and at the turn of the year Tunis , Alexandria, Piraeus, Naples, Palma and Alcudia Bay on Mallorca , Gibraltar and Portsmouth, before the ship on March 21, 1935 returned to Sweden and entered Malmö. This was followed by two more summer trips by Oscar II from May 15 to July 30, 1935 to Schiedam , Lisbon, Swansea , Gravesend and Kiel, and from May 12 to July 29, 1936 to Taarbæk, Vlaardingen, Cádiz , Casablanca , Brest, Cardiff, Belfast and Bremen on July 18th.
After that, the ship was decommissioned and modernization, which continued until late autumn 1939, began. This did not lead to a total renovation as with other ships. Back in service, the Oscar II was mostly used as a station ship in Stockholm during the Second World War and she was involved in training the next generation.
In 1946 and 1947, the old coastal armored ship was supposed to make a complete tour of the Swedish coast from Haparanda in the Gulf of Bothnia on the border with Finland to Strömstad am Skagerrak and the border with Norway. In Gothenburg, however, this was canceled and the Oscar II ran back to Copenhagen via Malmö, where on January 29, 1947, the remains of the fatally injured Prince Gustav Adolf were taken on board and transported to Sweden. The prince was killed on January 26 when a DC-3 of the Dutch airline KLM crashed at Kastrup Airport near Copenhagen.
In the summer of 1947, Oscar II's last trip abroad took him to Larvik , Copenhagen and Aarhus .
End of Oscar II.
On September 25, 1947 the Oscar II returned for the last time with Karlskrona and in mid-October it was decommissioned. On February 24, 1950, she was removed from the fleet list. In 1952 the old ship was handed over to the Naval War School in Berga near Stockholm to practice on accidents and the like. It was only sold in 1974 to Gothenburg for demolition. In fact, the coastal armored ship Oscar II was then scrapped in Copenhagen.
The Swedish coastal armored ships
| Surname | Launch | displacement | length | speed | Main armament |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 Svea class | 1885-1893 | 3100-3300 tons | 77.6-82.0 m | 15-16 kn | 1 × 2 × 254 mm, 4 × 152 mm guns |
| 3 Oden class | 1896-1898 | 3300-3400 tons | 86.3 m | 16.5–17 kn | 2 × 254 mm, 6 × 120 mm guns |
| Dristigheten | 1900 | 3550 t | 89.0 m | 16.5 kn | 2 × 210 mm, 6 × 152 mm guns |
| 4 aran class | 1901-1903 | 3650 t | 89.7 m | 17 kn | 2 × 210 mm, 6 × 152 mm guns |
| Oscar II | 1905 | 4270 t | 95.6 m | 18 kn | 2 × 210 mm, 4 × 2 × 152 mm guns |
| 3 Sverige class | 1915-1918 | 6850-7125 tons | 120.0-121.6 m | 22.5 kn | 2 × 2 × 280 mm, 1 × 2 × + 6 × 152 mm guns |
literature
- B. Weyer: Taschenbuch der Kriegsflotten. JF Lehmanns Verlag, Munich 1905.
- Alexander Bredt (Hrsg.): Weyer's pocket book of the war fleets. JF Lehmanns Verlag, Munich 1941, 35th year.
Web links
- The Oscar II.
- Side view of Oscar II.
- The Oscar II after its completion
- The Oscar II. 1929
- Långresor och utlandsbesök med svenska örlogsfartyg mellan 1837–2005 (Swedish)
Footnotes
- ↑ Video clip of the visit to Portsmouth
- ↑ Entry in the Golden Book of the Hanseatic City ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 538 kB)
- ↑ Video of taking over the coffin
