Swedish Navy

“ The problem of obtaining properly qualified personnel for the corps of naval officers was not less difficult to solve than that of building efficient warships. England would have been the natural source on which to draw for instructors, but for political reasons it was decided not to seek assistance from that most competent of all quarters, and the services of three officers of the Swedish Navy were secured. ”

“ He led the attack and persuaded the Swedes, by word and action, not to give it up. At last the walls were taken, the town being pillaged and burned. All men who could carry arms were killed, except a force of one hundred and fifty men of hired troops who entered Swedish service. A young French captain, Pontus de la Gardie, of a noble family of Languedoc, was among the latter. This man and his descendants were destined to play an important part in Swedish history.
Clas Kristersson Horn was made commander of the Swedish navy after Jacob Bagge, in which position he covered his name with glory. ”

“ He was encouraged to do this by finding allies in those countries which had formed the anti-British Armed Neutrality of the North twenty years before. Russia, Sweden, Denmark and Norway, Prussia, and the Hansa Towns of Germany, were all glad to hit British sea-power in the hope of getting its trade for themselves. So the new Alliance arranged that, as soon as the Baltic ports were clear of ice, the Russian, Swedish, Danish and Norwegian fleets would join the French and Spanish. ”

“ The quaint Russian barques, too, that were familiar in almost every British port of any size, were no longer to be seen. A few Swedish merchantmen, timorously hugging the Norwegian coast, might have been discerned had the weather been clear. Otherwise, save for the spectacular "dashes" of a few German warships—short cruises to cheer up the Huns in the belief that their navy did plough the high-seas—the Skager Rack presented almost as desolate an aspect as the Dead Sea. ”

“ The British minister having to leave, Saumarez succeeded to a diplomatic situation, in which the problem was to support the interests and dignity of his own nation, without transforming the formal war into actual hostilities, and substituting imbitterment for the secret good will of the Swedish government and people, who, in common with the Russian nobles and subjects, were alienated by the imperious and merciless exactions of the French demands. ”

“ During the first half of the nineteenth century, it is true, the advisability of building a navy had more than once been exhaustively discussed by the Prussian Government. In the general resettlement of 1815, the island of Rügen and the strip of Pomeranian coast opposite to it had passed from Sweden to Prussia, and included in the transfer were six gun-sloops and [Pg 59] a Swedish officer, Captain Christian Lange, who was summoned to Berlin to report to the War Ministry on the utility of the little flotilla. ”

“ A number of Norwegian forts along the S. Swedish frontier were dismantled under the convention with Sweden of 1905, when a neutral zone was established on either side of the frontier southward from 61° N. The navy consists of about 1200 officers and men on permanent service; but all seafaring men between twenty-two and thirty-eight are liable for maritime conscription, and are put through some preliminary training. The war vessels include four battleships of 3500 to 4000 tons each, and about 16 other vessels, besides a torpedo flotilla—intended for coast defence only. ”

“ The Swedish army was considered the finest in the world, and troops better trained or more victorious did not exist. At the end of the Thirty Years’ War about 100,000 men were under Swedish command. The majority of these were foreigners, who afterward were enlisted for continual service. Their officers were raised in great numbers to the rank of nobles and endowed with dignities and estates. The army was divided into twenty regiments, seven of which were Finnish. The town and coast population regularly furnished able men for the navy. ”

“ It's a cinch. A schoolgirl could take the boat down.”
“Then let's start,” said Mrs. Ord. “You're in command.”
John Paul saluted with a flourish.
“Like most captains in the army, I always wanted to be one in the navy. It's so much cleaner. All hands, get the ship under way!”
He stepped outside and beckoned to the Swedish quartermaster.
“Larsen,” said he, “we've got to get out right off. They've cooked up a job ashore to raid us to-night when the party's in full swing.”
Larsen raised his white, bushy eyebrows. He was the usual type of Swede yacht sailor and looked honest and capable. ”

“ The signal was made and the fleet moved on in order of battle; Nelson's division in the van, Sir Hyde's in the centre, and Admiral Graves' in the rear.
The whole force consisted of fifty-one sail of various descriptions, of which sixteen were of the line. The greater part of the bomb and gun vessels took their stations off Cronenburg Castle, to cover the fleet; while others on the larboard were ready to engage the Swedish shore. The Danes, having improved every moment which ill-timed negotiation and [426] baffling weather gave them, had lined their shore with batteries ”

“ The navy of Sweden has been very much increased during the last fifteen years, and now possesses many effective coast-defense ships. The navy is presided over by a Minister of Marine with headquarters at Stockholm ”

“ A. Defense Establishment Untested in combat since the Napoleonic Wars, Sweden has long followed a policy of non alliance with major powers in time of peace and of neutrality during war. To support this policy, the Swedes have maintained a relatively large military establishment consisting of a regular army of about 11,000 officers and noncommissioned officers plus an annual conscript input of 39,000 men; a 9,800-man navy (including the coast artillery and the naval helicopter service) with 35 principal combatant ships, 33 patrol ships, 37 mine warfare ships, and 83 other vessels ”

“ It is my intention to leave Sweden in the beginning of July, 1878, in a steamer, specially built for navigation among ice, which will be provisioned for two years at most, and which, besides a scientific staff of four or five persons, will have on board a naval officer, a physician, and at most eighteen men—petty officers and crew, preferably volunteers, from your Royal Majesty's navy. Four walrus-hunters will also be hired in Norway. The course will be shaped at first to Matotschkin Sound, in Novaya Zemlya, where a favourable opportunity will be awaited for the passage of the Kara Sea. ”

“ In 1808, in consequence of the agreements of Tilsit between the Czar and Napoleon, affairs in the Baltic became such as to de [Pg 422] mand the presence of a large British fleet,—first to support Sweden, then at war with Russia, and later to protect the immense British trade, which, under neutral flags and by contraband methods, maintained by way of the northern sea the intercourse of Great Britain with the Continent. Of this trade Sweden was an important intermediary, and her practical neutrality was essential to its continuance. ”

“ As the attention of the Swedish marine will be principally confined to the defence of Stockholm, and the coast within the Gulf of Bothnia, it is to be presumed that, with proper exertion, they will be perfectly adequate to that service; and as three Swedish frigates have been ordered to cruise on that station, with other armed vessels, and one hundred and six gun-boats, no doubt can be entertained of their being for the present sufficient to repel the enemy ”

“ His Majesty having found it necessary to equip a certain number of vessels of war and frigates, during this year, to the end to protect the navigation of Swedish merchants, the College of the Admiralty, in consequence, makes known, that besides the vessels of war, which are to protect the vessels of other nations destined for the ports of this kingdom, to the end, that no hostilities may be committed upon the coasts of Sweden, the said College has further judged it necessary, that some frigates ought to serve as convoys to the Swedish ships, which go to navigate without the Baltic sea. ”

“ A reply to this is that a large proportion of this navy consists of old wooden sailing-boats, unfit for any purpose but that of carrying timber, that Norway has increased her mercantile navy at the expense of her warships, and that in time of war she would have to depend exclusively on the splendid modern battleships of Sweden for the defence both of her harbours and her shipping, since she is not now herself the owner of one single modern ironclad. ”

“ Where are the navies of Sweden and Denmark? The latter, it is well known, were swept away and destroyed by the British fleet; and the fleet of Sweden serves only to keep the country in poverty to maintain it. A navy looks pretty well in theory; but look into the experience of nations, and it will be found to have been the bane of every country which has had any thing to do with it. We should want wisdom, therefore, to pursue a system which has proved so ruinous to others.
With respect to Great Britain herself, it had been said that her navy had been the basis of her wealth and prosperity. ”

“ Part of his fleet was left at Bornholm, to watch the Swedes, from whom he required and obtained an assurance that the British trade in the Cattegat and in the Baltic should not be molested; and saying how unpleasant it would be to him if anything should happen which might for a moment disturb the returning harmony between Sweden and Great Britain, he apprised them that he was not directed to abstain from hostilities should he meet with the Swedish fleet at sea. Meantime he himself; with ten sail of the line, two frigates, a brig, and a schooner, made for the Gulf of Finland. ”

“ Since the arrival of the accounts of the landing the cargoes at Carlshamn, and the accompanying measures, considerable distrust appears to prevail here about alternate views of the Swedish Government. A little more time will develop their plans in all probability; in the mean time it seems very desirable that the bulk of your efficient force should remain where it is (in the Sleeve) to be ready to receive the requisite orders. Admiral [Pg 239] Young has taken his station off West Cassel, and has fifteen sail of the line. Enemy, eleven in the Scheldt, three in Texel, and two at Helvoet. ”

“ Among the rest a M. de Bon, a merchant of my acquaintance, who is shortly to proceed to Germany in order to be married to a young lady, the sister of a friend of mine, has urged me to ask if your excellency means to include the Stralsund packet-boat in your general orders for capture, or if he can safely hire a vessel to take him there. Any information you can give me on the matter will be very agreeable to me. Swedish subjects are of course free from being made prisoners, as we are not declared at war with Sweden ”

“ Sweden had been further weakened, especially as a naval state, by almost incessant wars with Denmark, which prevented all hope of Scandinavian predominance in the Baltic, the control of which sea has in our own days passed into the hands of another state possessing a quickly created navy—the modern German empire. ”

“ The Danish navy, at this time, consisted of twenty-three ships of the line with about thirty-one frigates and smaller vessels, exclusive of guardships. The Swedes had eighteen ships of the line, fourteen frigates and sloops, seventy-four galleys and smaller vessels, besides gun-boats, and this force was in a far better state of equipment than the Danish. The Russians had eighty-two sail of the line and forty frigates. Of these there were forty-seven sail of the line at Cronstadt, Revel, Petersburg, and Archangel; but the Russian fleet was ill-manned, ill-officered, and ill-equipped. ”

“ Spain and Holland united possessed eighty ships fully equipped. Sweden had twenty-eight, Russia thirty-five, Denmark twenty-three, making a total of one hundred and sixty-six ships of the line: a force that would have been infinitely superior to the British navy, but that the efficiency of her vessels and armaments far surpassed those of the Confederacy. Austria alone was then in amity with Great Britain. ”

“ Through the danger zone was a narrow channel, guarded by patrol boats and destroyers. The British Admiralty had obtained information of this opening and had used the knowledge to good advantage, when, early in the war, British submarines had paralysed Germany's trade with Sweden and the harbours of Stralsund, Danzig, and Memel were chock-a-block with merchantmen afraid to venture across the comparatively narrow stretch of water to obtain badly-wanted cargoes of Swedish iron-ore and foodstuffs. ”

“ The whole Norwegian navy consists of one frigate, two corvettes, two brigs, three schooners, and a hundred and forty of these gun-boats. The Swedes, who have upon the whole rather a powerful navy, considering the poverty of their country,—that is to say, thirteen line-of-battle ships, fourteen frigates, some of them very heavy ones, and twenty-two steamers—possess also three hundred of these gun-boats. They carry generally one long tomer forward, and sometimes a carronade, sometimes a smaller gun aft. ”

“ Sweden leads all Europe with 2.5 kilometers to each 1,000 inhabitants, (United States has 4.14 kilometers.) The mercantile marine of Sweden has experienced powerful growth in recent years. In 1912, with a net tonnage of 805,000, it held the sixth place among the merchant fleets of Europe, being ahead of, among other countries, Spain, Russia, and the Netherlands. Especially has the growth in Sweden's merchant marine been pronounced since 1904, when the first regular ocean lines with Swedish vessels were established. ”