The ''Wrangel'' class was a class of four

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 ...

s built for the Royal Swedish Navy during World War I of which two were cancelled before they were laid down. Completed in 1918, they were in service until shortly after the end of World War II in 1945. ''Wrangel'' served as a target ship before she was sunk in 1960 and ''Wachtmeister'' was broken up for scrap in 1951.

Background and description

The ''Wrangel'' class completed a line of Swedish

s, originating from . Compared to contemporary destroyers in other navies, the ships were significantly smaller and more lightly armed, but they were improved versions of the preceding and were the first Swedish destroyers to use single-reduction geared turbines. The ''Wrangel'' class had a standard displacement of and at full load. The destroyers measured

long at the waterline A vessel's length at the waterline (abbreviated to L.W.L)Note: originally Load Waterline Length is the length of a ship or boat at the level where it sits in the water (the ''waterline''). The LWL will be shorter than the length of the boat over ...

and overall with a

beam Beam may refer to: Streams of particles or energy *Light beam, or beam of light, a directional projection of light energy **Laser beam *Particle beam, a stream of charged or neutral particles **Charged particle beam, a spatially localized grou ...

of and a mean draught of . The ''Wrangel''s were powered by a pair of 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, each driving one propeller shaft, using steam provided by four coal-fired Yarrow boilers. The turbines were designed to produce a total of , but actually produced that gave them a maximum speed of . The ships carried of coal. The destroyers had a complement of 81 officers and ratings. The destroyers were armed with four 50- calibre m/12 guns in single mounts. One gun was situated fore and aft of the

superstructure A superstructure is an upward extension of an existing structure above a baseline. This term is applied to various kinds of physical structures such as buildings, bridges, or ships. Aboard ships and large boats On water craft, the superstruct ...

and the other two were on the

broadside Broadside or broadsides may refer to: Naval * Broadside (naval), terminology for the side of a ship, the battery of cannon on one side of a warship, or their near simultaneous fire on naval warfare Printing and literature * Broadside (comic ...

amidships. The guns fired shells at a muzzle velocity of . They also mounted two M1914 machine guns. The torpedo armament of the ''Wrangel''-class destroyers consisted of 457 mm (18 in) torpedoes fired from two twin-tube mounts located on the centreline aft of the funnels and one single tube on each broadside between the second and third funnels.

Modifications

The boilers of the ''Wrangel''s were converted to use

fuel oil Fuel oil is any of various fractions obtained from the distillation of petroleum (crude oil). Such oils include distillates (the lighter fractions) and residues (the heavier fractions). Fuel oils include heavy fuel oil, marine fuel oil (MFO), bun ...

in 1927. They were rearmed in 1940, adding one Bofors M32

anti-aircraft gun Anti-aircraft warfare, counter-air or air defence forces is the battlespace response to aerial warfare, defined by NATO as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It includes surface based, ...

and two M36 anti-aircraft guns while having their two single torpedo tube mounts removed. This increased their standard displacement to .

Ships in class

Construction and careers

Four ships were authorised in 1914 at the beginning of World War I. However, the final two ships of the class were cancelled due to economic reasons. Constructed in Sweden, HSwMS ''Wrangel'' and HSwMS ''Wachtmeister'' were both laid down in 1916 and completed in 1918. They were initially given the

pennant number In the Royal Navy and other navies of Europe and the Commonwealth of Nations, ships are identified by pennant number (an internationalisation of ''pendant number'', which it was called before 1948). Historically, naval ships flew a flag that iden ...

s 9 and 10 respectively, but in 1940, these were changed to 25 and 26 respectively. Both destroyers saw little action during their service due to Sweden's

neutrality Neutral or neutrality may refer to: Mathematics and natural science Biology * Neutral organisms, in ecology, those that obey the unified neutral theory of biodiversity Chemistry and physics * Neutralization (chemistry), a chemical reaction ...

during both world wars beyond sailing on neutrality patrols. ''Wrangel'' was stricken from the Navy Directory on 13 May 1947. The vessel was used as a target ship for tests and was sunk in 1960. ''Wachtmeister'' was stricken on 13 June 1947 and sold for

scrap Scrap consists of Recycling, recyclable materials, usually metals, left over from product manufacturing and consumption, such as parts of vehicles, building supplies, and surplus materials. Unlike waste, scrap Waste valorization, has monetary ...

in 1951.

Notes

Citations

References

* * * {{Authority control Destroyers of the Swedish Navy Swedish destroyer classes