HSwMS ''Nordkaparen'' (Nor), was the fifth boat of the ''Draken''-class

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 ...

Construction and career

HSwMS ''Nordkaparen'' was launched on 8 March 1961 by

Saab Kockums Saab Kockums Aktiebolag, AB is a shipyard headquartered in Malmö, Sweden, owned by the Swedish defence company Saab Group. Saab Kockums AB is further operational in Muskö naval base, Muskö, Dockstavarvet, Docksta, and Karlskrona shipyard, Karls ...

Malmö Malmö (, ; da, Malmø ) is the largest city in the Swedish county (län) of Scania (Skåne). It is the third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the sixth-largest city in the Nordic region, with a municipal populat ...

and commissioned on 4 April 1962. On 18 September 1980, ''Nordkaparen'' was extremely close to colliding with a foreign submarine between Utö and

Huvudskär Huvudskär is a Swedish archipelago, consisting of about 200 rocks and islands, and a lighthouse. It is located in the Baltic Sea, in the southern part of the Stockholm archipelago. For many hundred years this area was very important for fishe ...

. During a speed test, ''Nordkaparen'' operated together with one of the navy's helicopters for anti-submarine warfare. This had its hydrophone immersed in the water. Just as the submarine was about to begin testing, ''Nordkaparen'' was called by the helicopter, which wondered if there were two submarines that would perform speed tests. The submarine replied that it was alone and stepped to the surface for safety reasons. Just as ''Nordkaparen'' broke the water surface, a submarine passed under the keel of the Swedish submarine by a margin of a few decimetres. The incident was followed by a two-week submarine hunt. She was decommissioned in 1988 and became a museum ship in

Maritiman Maritiman is a floating maritime museum on the Göta Älv, in Gothenburg Gothenburg (; abbreviated Gbg; sv, Göteborg ) is the second-largest city in Sweden, fifth-largest in the Nordic countries, and capital of the Västra Götaland Co ...

Gothenburg Gothenburg (; abbreviated Gbg; sv, Göteborg ) is the second-largest city in Sweden, fifth-largest in the Nordic countries, and capital of the Västra Götaland County. It is situated by the Kattegat, on the west coast of Sweden, and has ...

Gallery

File:HMS Nordkaparen.JPG, HSwMS ''Nordkaparen'' in

File:HMS Nordkaparen (Nor) (1).JPG File:Nordkaparen01.jpg File:SubmarineBatteries01.jpg

References

Draken-class submarines Ships built in Malmö 1961 ships Museum ships in Sweden {{Sweden-stub