HSwMS Tre Kronor

HSwMS Tre Kronor was a cruiser built for the Royal Swedish Navy during the Second World War.

Description
The Tre Kronor-class ships had an overall length of 181.96 m, a beam of 16.45 m and a draft of 5.94 m at deep load. They displaced was 7400 LT at normal load, which increased to 9200 LT at deep load. Four steam boilers fed steam to two geared steam turbines that each drove a single propeller shaft. The engines were rated at 100000 shp which gave the ships a speed of 33 kn. They had a complement of 618 officers and men.

History
At the start of the war most of the ships of the Royal Swedish Navy were quite old and the navy was in need of new ships. In 1940 the government decided that three cruisers were to be built. A political debate broke out about the cruisers and works did not start until 1943. The ship was to be built in Götaverken in Gothenburg. Eventually only two of the cruisers were built, and the third cruiser-squadron of the Coastal Fleet would be led by the modernised AA-cruiser HSWMS Gotland (1933).

The turrets used on HSwMS Tre Kronor were built by Bofors and were originally ordered by the Dutch Navy to be fitted on the two De Zeven Provinciën-class cruisers, but after the German occupation of the Netherlands the Swedish government was afraid they would be claimed by the Germans so they were confiscated.

Tre Kronor was launched 16 December 1944, commissioned on 25 October 1947, and served until 1 January 1964.

Captains

 * 1947–1948: Erik af Klint
 * 1949–1951: Erik Friberg
 * 1954–1954: Harry Bong
 * 1954–1955: Magnus Starck
 * 1955–1956: Åke Lindemalm
 * 1956–1957: Magnus Hammar
 * 1957–1958: Anders Nilson