HSwMS Svea
1885 Svea-class coastal defence ship
HSwMS Svea was the lead ship of the Svea class of first-class coastal defence ships (Pansarskeppen) constructed for the Swedish Navy. The ship was armed with two 254 mm (10 in) guns provided by the British manufacturer Armstrong. The vessel was launched in 1884 and was subject to a number of armament changes over a service lifespan that lasted until 1915, including, in 1903, replacing the main armament with a single Bofors 210 mm (8.3 in) gun. During the upgrades, the redundant guns often found a role in Swedish coastal defence batteries. Although available during the First World War, the warship saw no action. In 1918, the ship was recommissioned as a submarine tender, serving in this capacity until 1941, after which Svea was decommissioned and broken up.
Design and development
Svea was the lead of the Svea class first-class coastal defence ships, the first vessels of the type to serve in the Swedish Navy. Designed in response to a proposal presented to the Riksdag on 26 June 1880, the new design was approved by the King of Sweden, Oscar II, on 7 December 1883 and a contract for the construction of the new ship signed with Motala Verkstad on 14 January 1884. The design followed the pattern of the Royal Navy ironclad battleship Inflexible. The boilers, engines, steering gear and torpedo room were all placed under the armoured deck and protected by coal bunkers.
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This entry incorporates text from “HSwMS Svea” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.