HSwMS ''Hvalen'' was a
submarine
A submarine (or sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability. The term is also sometimes used historically or colloquially to refer to remotely op ...
of 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 ...
. Constructed in Italy, the submarine sailed the entire way to Sweden for her commissioning unaccompanied.
In October 1915 she became involved in a diplomatic incident between neutral Sweden, and Germany, which was then engaged in fighting Britain in the
First World War. Following a series of sinkings of German cargo ships and naval vessels in the
Baltic Sea by British submarines entering the Baltic through the (Swedish-controlled)
Öresund straits, a German warship opened fire on ''Hvalen'' killing a crew-member.
[https://flottansman.se/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/FM-nr-1-2022-14-febr-klar-LAG.pdf ] According to the captain of the ''Hvalen'', she was flying the Swedish naval flag and in Swedish home waters at the time she was fired on.
Compensation was later paid to the widow of the crew-member and an apology was issued.
See also
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Hvalen incident
The ''Hvalen'' incident was a short and small-scale confrontation between the navies of Sweden and Germany as a consequence of the First World War. The Swedish submarine Hvalen would be misstook for an enemy vessel and fired upon while out on p ...
Citations
References
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Submarines of the Swedish Navy
1909 ships
Ships built in Italy
Maritime incidents in 1915
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