The ''Ehrensköld'' class was the first "modern" class of
destroyer
In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, manoeuvrable, long-endurance warship intended to escort
larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against powerful short range attackers. They were originally developed in ...
built by the
Swedish Navy
The Swedish Navy ( sv, Svenska marinen) is the naval branch of the Swedish Armed Forces. It is composed of surface and submarine naval units – the Fleet () – as well as marine units, the Amphibious Corps ().
In Swedish, vessels o ...
after the
First World War. It introduced several new features, mainly heavy armament in three 12 cm guns and the new 53 cm
torpedo. The class included two vessels, and , which were both
launched in 1926 and entered service in 1927. They patrolled the
Baltic Sea until 1963, after which they became target vessels. ''Nordenskjöld'' was
scrapped in 1964 and ''Ehrensköld'' in 1974.
Construction and design
In the early 1920s, the
Royal Swedish Navy operated 10 destroyers and 29 first-class torpedo boats. The destroyers, which dated between 1902 and 1917, were of similar design, displacing and armed with guns and
torpedo tubes.
[Westerlund 1980, pp. 369–370][Westerlund 1985, pp. 360–361][Whitley 2000, p. 247]
In 1924, two destroyers of more modern design were
laid down, and . The main gun armament was three guns built by
Bofors in single mounts on the ships' centreline, with one gun forward, one aft and one between the ships' two funnels, from which it had a restricted arc of fire. Anti-aircraft armament consisted of two
Vickers 40 mm automatic anti-aircraft guns. Torpedo armament consisted of two triple mounts for torpedoes, while the ships were also fitted for
minelaying, being able to carry 20
mines. Three Penhoët boilers fed two de Laval geared
steam turbine
A steam turbine is a machine that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam and uses it to do mechanical work on a rotating output shaft. Its modern manifestation was invented by Charles Parsons in 1884. Fabrication of a modern steam turbin ...
s, generating which drove the ships to a speed of .
[Westerlund 1980 p. 371]
The two ships were
launched in 1926 and
commissioned in 1927.
Operational history
The two destroyers patrolled in the
Baltic Sea to defend Sweden's neutrality during the
Second World War, when the ships' 40 mm Vickers anti-aircraft guns were replaced by four Bofors 25 mm cannons in two twin mountings.
In 1950–51, the two destroyers were repurposed as
anti-submarine
An anti-submarine weapon (ASW) is any one of a number of devices that are intended to act against a submarine and its crew, to destroy (sink) the vessel or reduce its capability as a weapon of war. In its simplest sense, an anti-submarine weapo ...
frigate
A frigate () is a type of warship. In different eras, the roles and capabilities of ships classified as frigates have varied somewhat.
The name frigate in the 17th to early 18th centuries was given to any full-rigged ship built for speed and ...
s. The aft two guns and the torpedo tubes were removed to allow the fitting of an improved anti-aircraft and anti-submarine armament and sensors. As rebuilt, armament was one 120 mm gun, four 40 mm Bofors guns and a single 20 mm cannon. Displacement rose to standard and full load, and speed fell to .
[Blackman 1960, p. 273]
They remained in use until 1963, after which they were used as target vessels. ''Nordenskjöld'' was scrapped in 1964 and ''Ehrensköld'' in 1974.
Ships in the class
Notes and references
Notes
Citations
References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Ehrenskold-class destroyer
Swedish destroyer classes