Introduction

The Navy

The birth of the Swedish Navy is considered to be in 1522 when King Gustav Vasa of Sweden obtained 10 warships. The navy consisted in 1552 of 15 warships and 20 galleys. At this time Stockholm was the major naval base. When the Late Allotment System was introduced in 1682 it also involved the navy. Thereby the navy received a permanent standing crew of seamen (båtsmän). In 1780 the navy seamen numbered 11.228 men. The Swedish naval flag is a three-tailed Swedish flag. The first regulation regarding the naval flag was issued in 1663. It ruled that the three-tailed naval flag was to be carried by naval ships and fortresses and by the Crown. The image to the right shows the Swedish three- tailed naval flag. Wikipedia.

The Army Fleet of 1756

The Swedish Galley Fleet was organized after The Great Nordic War, which ended in 1721. Galleys turned out to be a perfect weapon in coastal waters. The galleys could use both sails and oars, which meant that they weren’t dependent on the winds and they were shallow-drought. The first type of vessel used by the Swedish Galley fleet was of course the galley. That’s why the fleet was called the Galley fleet (Galärflottan), at least in the beginning. Later, other more specialized ships were built for the fleet. Galleys were just one type of ship used by the Galley Fleet and later the galleys themselves became out of date. So, the fleet therefore became known as the Archipelago Fleet (Skärgårdsflottan) later on. The word “Skärgårdsflottan” means Archipelago Fleet or the Coastal Fleet (Skärgård = archipelago). In the beginning the Galley Fleet was organized as a unit within the Navy. In 1756 the Galley Fleet was separated from the Navy and formed a new defense branch within the Army. The officers in the Galley Fleet thus carried the same type of ranks as in the Army. After 1756 the official name of the Galley Fleet became The Army Fleet. The Army fleet was organized into two squadrons, The Stockholm squadron (Stockholmseskadern) and The Finish squadron (Finska eskadern). Each squadron was under command of a General. The home base for the Stockholm squadron was Skeppsholmen in Stockholm and for the Finish squadron, the Sveaborg fortress outside Helsinki. [Finland was a part of Sweden until 1809). In 1786, just before the outbreak of the Swedish- Russian war (1788-1790), the Stockholm squadron numbered 31 larger vessels and the Finish squadron 16 larger and 65 smaller vessels. The Army Fleet received their own naval flag in 1760, a blue three-tailed flag. The image to the right shows the Army Fleet’s blue three- tailed naval flag. Wikipedia. The crew on the ships of the Army Fleet included both sailors and soldiers. The sailors were under command of naval officers and the soldiers under command of infantry officer. A joint fleet in 1823 In 1823 the Galley Fleet once again became a part of the Navy. Uniforms of the Swedish Navy

Marinen (The Marine)

The Navy has since it was established in 1522 been an independent armed service. In 1902, a new branch of the services was added to the Navy, the then newly established Coast Artillery. The Marine (Marinen) was then established as a new armed service consisting of two branches of the services: • The Navy • The Coast Artillery The first established coast artillery regiment was the Vaxholm Coast Artillery Regiment, KA1. It was raised from the fortress artillery at Vaxholm fortress north of Stockholm. In 2000 the coast artillery was disestablished and transformed into the Amphibious Corps. Uniforms of the Coast Artillery / Amphibious Corps

Terminology - Designation of

Uniform Models

The Swedish Army and Navy uniforms has a designation system for introduced uniforms consisting a a prefix, the lower-case letter “m” followed by a slash “/” and the year of issue. This year is refereed to as the year of model or model year. The designation code for the uniforms is written as m/YYYY. For example, if we take infantry uniform m/1878 it tells us that this uniform was first issued in 1878. See also "Nomenclature".

Uniforms

• Navy uniforms • Uniforms of the Coast Artillery / Amphibious Corps • Uniform Nomenclature, Navy • The Swedish Navy • The Army Fleet (Galley Fleet) • The Navy Allotment System • Cabin Boys (Skeppsgossekåren) • The History of the Swedish Coast Artillery • Army Uniforms • Aircraft Warning Service - Female Aircraft Observers, Sweden • Military Uniforms of the Swedish Women’s Voluntary Defense Service

Related links

• Military headgear, images of military headgear. Marcus Holst

Source References

1. Dräkt och uniform av Erik Bellander, 1973 2. Örlogsflottans personal och beklädnad 1778 - 1801. Sixten Svensson 1997. Skrifter från Marinmuseum nr 2. 3. Örlogsflottans manskap och dess beklädnad de första 250 åren. Sixten Svensson 1998. Skrifter från Marinmuseum nr 3. 4. Flottans sjöofficersuniformer i Sjöhistoriska museets samlingar. Nils-Erik Melinder 2003. Maritima skrifter nr 4. 5. Svenska försvarets hemsida 6. Kronans kläder, Årsbok 2010, Armémuseum 7. Svenska Arméns och Flottans officers uniformer jemte gradbeteckningar, Gustaf Engelhart, 1888. 8. Wikipedia 9. Digitalmuseum Is it OK to copy material (text or images) from this page or from any other page on this website and publish it on your own homepage? The answer is NO! However, it is OK to have a link to my pages. Top of page