HMS Gotland (cruiser)
Encyclopedia
HMS Gotland was a seaplane cruiser of the Swedish Navy
Swedish Navy
The Royal Swedish Navy 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 so-called Amphibious Corps .In Swedish, vessels of the Swedish Navy are given the prefix "HMS," short for Hans/Hennes...

 built by Götaverken
Götaverken
Götaverken was a shipbuilding company that was located on Hisingen, Gothenburg. It was founded in 1841, and went bankrupt in 1989.The company was founded in 1841 by a Scottish businessman called Alexander Keiller under the name Keillers Werkstad i Göteborg, and was aimed at industrial production...

.

The design of the ship started out in December 1926 as a seaplane carrier with room for twelve aircraft. When presented with the design Sweden's Naval Construction Board decided that they wanted the ship to have cruiser
Cruiser
A cruiser is a type of warship. The term has been in use for several hundreds of years, and has had different meanings throughout this period...

 and minelaying functions as well as operating as a seaplane carrier. The resulting 5000 ton design presented in January 1927 proved impossible to build within the available budget of Sk
Swedish krona
The krona has been the currency of Sweden since 1873. Both the ISO code "SEK" and currency sign "kr" are in common use; the former precedes or follows the value, the latter usually follows it, but especially in the past, it sometimes preceded the value...

16.5 million. The design was then reduced in size requiring one of the forward turrets be removed. Its guns were then placed in casements either side of the superstructure. The construction contract for the ship was issued on 7 June 1930.

Its aircraft complement consisted of six Hawker Osprey seaplanes. It had capacity for eight and attempts were made to purchase two more, unsuccessfully since they weren't manufactured anymore. The planes were found to suffer from wave damage during rough weather often forcing the ship to return to port.

During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 Gotland sighted the German battleship Bismarck
German battleship Bismarck
Bismarck was the first of two s built for the German Kriegsmarine during World War II. Named after Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, the primary force behind the German unification in 1871, the ship was laid down at the Blohm & Voss shipyard in Hamburg in July 1936 and launched nearly three years later...

 when it broke out of the Baltic Sea
Baltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is a brackish mediterranean sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and...

. That was reported to Swedish Navy
Swedish Navy
The Royal Swedish Navy 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 so-called Amphibious Corps .In Swedish, vessels of the Swedish Navy are given the prefix "HMS," short for Hans/Hennes...

 headquarters but the message was intercepted by the British embassy which triggered the allied chase of the great battleship.

HMS Gotland was converted in 1944 to an anti-aircraft cruiser due to a lack of modern seaplane
Seaplane
A seaplane is a fixed-wing aircraft capable of taking off and landing on water. Seaplanes that can also take off and land on airfields are a subclass called amphibian aircraft...

s. This involved the removal of the seaplanes and the addition of four 40 mm Bofors guns and two 20mm L/70 guns. The Ospreys continued in service at harbour bases with the last being decommissioned on 2 December 1947.

After World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 she served as a training ship. Starting 1953 and finishing in 1954 she was modified to allow her to serve as fighter direction ship in the event of war as well as a trainer in peacetime. She was decommissioned in 1956, stricken in 1960, sold in 1962 and finally scrapped in 1963.

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