HSwMS ''Springaren'' (Sp), was the sixth 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 ''Springaren'' was launched on 31 August 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 7 November 1962. On September 24, 1980, ''Springaren'' was extremely close to colliding with an unknown submarine east of

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 an exercise, she operated together with one of the Navy's anti-submarine helicopters. The

hydrophone A hydrophone ( grc, ὕδωρ + φωνή, , water + sound) is a microphone designed to be used underwater for recording or listening to underwater sound. Most hydrophones are based on a piezoelectric transducer that generates an electric potenti ...

operator on ''Springaren'' reads a hydrophone effect. It sounds like a rattling moped at high speed. The connecting helicopters also detect the visitor, and immediately classify it as a submarine. The incident was followed by a two-week submarine hunt. She was decommissioned on 1 October 1987 and later scrapped in

Muskö Muskö is an island in the southern part of Stockholm archipelago, which forms part of Haninge Municipality, Stockholm County, Sweden. It is best known for the Muskö naval base. There are also two urban areas (''tätort'') on the island: Musk� ...

in 1999.

Gallery

File:HMS Springaren.jpg, HSwMS ''Springaren'' in 1962 File:HMS Springaren D 14969-51.jpg File:HMS Springaren D 14969-52.jpg File:HMS Springaren D 14969-58.jpg, HSwMS ''Springaren'' in 1963

References

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