Issue # 68 of The Courier featured an article, from my series on the navies of the Age of Sail, giving particulars on various Swedish warships. I always intended to write another as more material presented itself. Using some new and old sources I have come up with a better representation of the Swedish blue water navy than I presented in # 68. The main source came from a now defunct Internet site in which Mats Forman listed the ships, armament, year built, and place of launching. He did a great job, but listed some vessels carrying 32# guns when the Swedes used 36# guns. A Swedish 36# ball weighed 33.72 English pounds, but the diameter of the ball would have been the same as 36# balls from other navies, thus explaining why it was called a 36# ball. He also listed all vessels with 8# auxiliary guns, when other sources give them 6# guns. In some cases I had to use my best judgment in changing 8# to 6# guns, since I did not have sources backing up the use of 6# guns on all ships. From other sources I have included the tonnage, when known, as well as the average complement. I also did not make the same mistake I made in issue #68. I found out the hard way that The Courier’s software would not support foreign accent marks. Whole letters were dropped off of various ships’ names. This time I left off all accent marks, with apologies to readers of Swedish. B<>Availability of 1/1200 Ship Models Navwar carries three 1/1200 ships suitable for this period. From these three classes, plus one model from Skytrex miniatures, most of the fleet can be represented. Regal Miniatures now lists the Navwar ships it carries on its web site (www.lastsquare.com) Each model goes for $7.50. As I stated in issue # 85, Navwar ships don’t have the detail of other 1/1200 models, but if you replace their masts with masts from other companies, they look fine. NSW-2 is the Konung Adolf Fredrik (70.) NSW-3 is the Wasa (60.) And NSW-4 is the Kronprins Gustav Adolf (62.) The frigate Bellona (40) is also offered, but a much better model of the same ship can be obtained from Skytrex, Ltd. (www. Skytrex.com) There were ten frigates built in this class, so they are quite important to any recreation of the Swedish Fleet. The Skytrex order number is NS-121 Bellona (40) and sells for three pounds and twenty-five pence. Skytrex takes Visa and Mastercard, so will convert dollars into pounds sterling and send the order by UPS. My order took two weeks, which, from England to California, is not bad. Bibliography Chernashev, A.A. The Russian Sailing Fleet. Moscow, 1997. Forman, Mats. History of the Royal Swedish Navy in the Age of Sail. www. Sea lords, 2001. Harris, Daniel G. F.H. Chapman: The First Naval Architect and his Work. Annapolis, 1989. James, William. Naval History of Great Britain. 6 Volumes. London, 1859. Von Pivka, Otto. Navies of the Napoleonic Era. London, 1980. Back to Table of Contents -- Courier # 90 To Courier List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2004 by The Courier Publishing Company. This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com