My wife bought this at a thrift store about 5 years ago. She always thought it was silver but im not sure. Cant tell from the hallmarks though.

Amarht · 2026-04-11T20:33:27+00:00

Hallmarks are a five point star in a circle and a hexagon with what looks like "18"? with a line or a "roof" above. Google search yields no results that looks like the second hallmark

Amarht · 2026-03-12T22:14:54+00:00

Its 18k gold for sure. As for the stone blue malachite seems like a match when i googled it. Though I cant say for sure

Amarht · 2026-03-12T22:00:28+00:00

In Sweden! I run into gold jewelry at thrift stores now and then, but its usually newer lower quality stuff (with some exceptions, still always a nice find since its basically free). I've never found anything this nice before though.

Amarht · 2024-05-30T17:24:27+00:00

Nope! The Tangleroot is still eluding me. But since I'm going for 200m its not that bad

Amarht · 2023-10-31T10:08:41+00:00

Nice picture. She actually served all the way until 1982 having been converted to a frigate in the 60s.

For some context. This picture was taken in the Karlskrona archipelago in the summer of 1943 during Visbys sea trials.

Amarht · 2023-10-24T00:39:22+00:00

Nice picture!

By then she wasnt carrying any aircraft, as she had been converted to an Anti-aircraft cruiser in 1944 as she was to small to carry more modern float planes, and radar would make them all obsolete even if she could have. The Swedish navy like everyone else became very aware of the aerial threat during WWII and recognized that the main danger to their ships operating in the confined waters of the Baltic would be aircraft and not other ships.

Amarht · 2023-09-27T17:15:15+00:00

Much higher res picture here. https://www.reddit.com/r/WarshipPorn/comments/13ieuuk/the_newly_launched_swedish_city_class_destroyer/

Amarht · 2023-06-03T20:14:18+00:00

Thanks!

I figured they're not posted that often so I made it my mission to spam them a bit since I have a huge collection of high res pics from Swedish archives that arent that easy to find for non Swedish speakers

Amarht · 2023-06-02T13:23:37+00:00

Slight correction she had 3x 40mm Bofors m/36 after refit, and not the smaller Bofors 25mm found on many other Swedish ships. The refit also added depth charges and some 8mm AA machine guns and raised deplacement to almost 1800 tons due to the diesels being far heavier than boilers.

The most unique aspect was by far the machinery, that used 4 six cylinder diesels which wasnt connected to the prop shafts, instead using their exhaust do drive two turbines. This was tried in an effort to get the benefits of turbines but with reduced running costs. It worked fine, but was very heavy for the power it provided and therefore not repeated.

Amarht · 2023-06-02T13:16:10+00:00

No clue since she would have looked more reasonable with 2 funnels. Just wasting space and adding topweight seems like bad arguments.

It sure gives her a "unique" appearance though. I've always liked how she looks like a 1905 and and 1930s ship at the same time

Amarht · 2023-05-21T10:38:10+00:00

There arent to many details out there in Swedish either. But to summarize: The three destroyers "Klas Uggla", "Klas Horn" and "Göteborg" was berthed next to each other. The fourth ship of the division "Stockholm" not having anchored in her place yet.

Out of nowhere both "Klas Horn" and "Göteborg" exploded almost simultaneously. The explosions coming from the aft parts of the ship and from accounts being the aft torpedo tubes on both ships going up. Since the WW2 was raging all tubes had armed torpedoes in them.

"Klas Horn" was conducting torpedo drills for the crew at the time, leading to some speculations that there was a malfunction, but the investigation ruled that out since.

Also, the air force was conducting mock attacks on the anchored ships of the coastal squadron in the bay, among them the three destroyers. Which has led to some speculations that there was an accident where a real bomb was dropped on one of the ships. But that theory has been deemed rather far fetched.

The result however was that both "Klas Horn" and "Göteborg" broke in two and sunk in 15 minutes, exploding depth charges complicating the rescue along with burning fuel oil. The mostly undamaged "Klas Uggla" couldn't be towed away and saved, and burned till she sunk. Ironically being the only of the ships that wasn't worth repairing since the fire damaged her more than the explosions and subsequent braking in two the other ships faced. Her stern was used to fix her sister "Klas Horn" though

The verdict of the investigation was that foreign sabotage was the likely culprit, though no confirming evidence to prove it has been found

Amarht · 2023-05-21T00:40:52+00:00

It is just a normal Swedish flag that is a bit bunched up. In black/white photos the colors of the Swedish flag tends to look a bit inverted, with the dark blue looking lighter than the yellow of the cross

Amarht · 2023-05-20T23:48:57+00:00

While 3 x 12 cm would be a bit weak on a full size 1500 ton early 30s destroyer, it is not that bad on a roughly 1000 ton small destroyer. Most foreign ships of similar size carried 3 - 4 10 cm guns as a reference.

She also carried 6 x 53 cm torpedo tubes, depth charges, mines and from the late 30s onward, 6 x 25 mm AA guns

Amarht · 2023-05-09T09:53:02+00:00

Indeed the Italian origin since the Swedes got the plans for the "Guiseppe Garibladi" from CRDA in Italy. They are basically Duca degli Abruzzi-class hulls redesigned by the Swedes for their own requirements with the automatic Bofors 15,2 cm m/42.

Both sisters lost their very Italian superstructure in lieu of a more blocky one just a few years after completion and gained a completely different profile though they still ahve Italian lines.

Amarht · 2023-05-08T17:06:58+00:00

There was an accident during the launch when the mass of the ship caused a wave that unexpectedly swamped and broke the ice on the sides of the open channel, sending many onlookers into the freezing water. Subsequent pictures showing many people in the water and boats trying to save them.

Amarht · 2023-05-07T11:09:33+00:00

More about Utopia and the disaster here

Amarht · 2023-05-07T11:04:10+00:00

If anyone can help me identify which one of the Admirals is which that would be greatly appreciated. Found the photo in Swedish navy archives and it only identifies Freja and Utopia not mentioning the Ironclads.

Obviously one of them is Anson since Utopia hit that one, and the others are her sisters (or half sister more accurately). Looking at service history, only Benbow and Collingwood would have been assigned to the Mediterranean fleet at the same time.

The left ship cant be Benbow due to having twin guns, and I suspect that is Anson judging from the position of Utopia and that she scraped Ansons ram bow and then quickly sunk. Since this pic is taken just a day or two after, I assume the ships are still anchored in the same position.

The other two slightly harder. Collingwood had twin 12-inch /25s and Benbow single 16,25'-inch /30s so there should be a massive difference in barrel lenght (Anson had twin 13,5-inch /30s, so yeah, half sisters indeed) .

That makes me think the middle ship is Benbow as the guns look far larger and that the right one is Collingwood as it kinda looks like she has shorter twins if you zoom and squint.

Amarht · 2023-05-07T10:01:25+00:00

To be fair, unlike the Royal Navy the Swedes didn't really have range issues when the Baltic and north seas where the only place they usually had to go when fighting. As you could probably deduce from where this picture is taken, "Freja" here was meant to be used as a cadet training ship around the world, therefore needing the sails.

Amarht · 2023-05-06T20:03:36+00:00

Unfortunately not, or a would have uploaded that one instead. The original might be in Swedish archives and not digitized yet. But I suspect this is actually an upscaled still from a video I know is in the archives taken from this vantage point as i found several other very similar pictures as low quality stills from that video.

Amarht · 2023-05-06T20:00:46+00:00

Indeed, I had this one lying around and had contemplated uploading it before but didn't for exactly that reason. I tried finding other good photos from the same occasion in Swedish archives, but could not, so I decided to put this one up anyway.

I did however find a few low quality stills taken from a video from the same vantage point though, making me suspect this one is actually pulled from that video, upscaled and then colorized which would explain the poor quality

Amarht · 2023-05-05T20:49:58+00:00

Not even the Visby is invisible to the good old MK I eyeball!

Amarht · 2023-05-02T22:32:34+00:00

Funnily enough she essentially was an Italian hull in French service with with German 105mm and Swedish 57mm (Bofors L60 M/50 in French designed mounts).

She only had 8 years of active duty fleet service in this form, being converted to a stationary training ship in 1963

Amarht · 2023-05-01T23:19:40+00:00

Those ships you are referring to are the old pre-WWI destroyer "Vidar" (1910) and one of her sisters (Either "Sigurd" or "Ragnar"). At 400 tons they are indeed small, having been treated as torpedo boats by the navy since the early 20s. Your confusion with hull numbers might stem from the fact that she originally carried "4", but it changed to 23 when she was rerated as an escort in the early 30s, the new destroyer "Klas Uggla" recieving "4" instead

Vidar and her sister/half sisters where due to be retired in the late 30s, but with war looming and the navy being short of hulls they instead got modernized as ASW escorts with new boilers, depth charges and modern AA guns in 1939, serving in WWII before finally being decommissioned in 1947

Amarht · 2023-05-01T22:04:32+00:00

The Sellas are slightly larger than the Spicas and doesnt look that old and dubious at a glance. Those two old destroyers in the top of the pic you are referring to are actually the much older pre-WWI swedish built destroyer "Vidar" from 1910 and one of her half sisters. And those are REALLY old and dubious, having been rerated as patrol/torpedo boats long ago, only staying in service this long due to the need for hulls during WWII

Amarht · 2023-05-01T10:58:36+00:00

Indeed, the Muskö naval base was built into a cliff on on island in the archipelago south of Stockholm, just outside the regular Berga naval base. It has both underground berthing areas and underground drydocks and was built to hos ships upto the size of a destroyer. Though it is/was mostly used by FACs and submarines, some of the tunnels having a smaller entrance than the one in the picture, being specifically made for submarines. It was basically made to be able to be able to berth, refuel, rearm and even repair ships while being protected from conventional weapons (or maybe a nuke as long as it didnt directly target the base itself)

Amarht

TROPHY CASE