Karlskrona - 4 to 6 July 2017

Karlskrona is the the main navy Swedish base in southern Baltic. The whole city feels like military, reminding me of Toulon in France. We are welcomed by HMS Falken, the 1947 training ship for the cadets of the Swedish navy, followed by three small luggers much faster that used to be the one collecting intelligence on the enemy ships in preparation of naval battles.

Karlskrona has the most beautiful marine museum that we have seen in Sweden...
Of particular interest, the exhibition devoted to submarines, the cold war years, and the hunt for soviet submarines in Swedish waters. Most interesting.

A submarine from 1906 and a recent one...

In October 1981, a Whiskey class Russian submarine, called U137 by te Swedes, got aground in Gåsefjärden, probably because the crew was drunk after successful intrusion in a Swedish torpedo exercise. Upon returning to Russia, the crew celebrated the success so much that they got out of control of the U-boat... Click here for an interesting paper about submarine intrusions into Swedish waters in the 1980s', including the full report on the "Whiskey on the rocks" incident of 1981, which resulted in a very tense confrontation, in particular since the U-boat was armed with nuclear warheads.

The votive ship below, in the admiralty church, is a model of the corvette Carlskrona built in 1841. The ship was wrecked between Florida and Cuba on Walpurgis night in 1846, resulting in 146 sailor  deaths and only 17 rescued.

On the walls of the church are hung the coats of arms of some nobility buried in the church. A detailed look at them tell stories of lives at sea, for the worst or the best. Note that the centre bottom one seems to incorporate an eagle claw and a cormorant claw.

Of interest, the church is filled with pet rats all around, which I took as votive attentions regarding the plagues of the middle-ages before realising that it is an animation for the kids, who are encouraged to put rats all around in the church.

A bit further, on the "grande place", there is a statue devoted to women and men of Sweden. Nice eighteenth century looking character, appreciated by seagulls for his large hat.

There would be too much to say to the rest of the maritime museum. One of the best I ever saw.  I took the picture below with a thought to the surgeons operating on board ships, thinking of François...

Finally, there is a collection of prow figures that attracted me...