The 1, 000-faot-long ropewalk.
structure of stone pillars and wood, it was erected in 1763 over a building berth dating to 1756. N ear it stand many of the woodsheds, with wood still in them, and the 1,000-foot-long rope walk. The steaming shed, where wood was steam ed and shaped, is part of the same complex. Across the water lies the vast Inventory Ch amber I, another Chapman construction, where ships' fittings were kept, each ship being allotted one vertical "slice" of the structure. At the end of the peninsula is the so-called "Finnish Church," which it supposedl y resembles, a building used in the 18th century for tarring rope. South of the main dockyard lies a slightly newer area that includes five drydocks arranged in a "five fingers" formation; today, they are used by Swedish submarines. N ear them stands the immense mas t crane, nine stories tall, built between 1803 and 1806 to lower masts into ships of the lin e and frigates. The author could not get a photograph of it because the Swedish N avy's new "stealth" corvette was tied up nearby! Karlskrona' s mixture of 18th-centu ry facilities, modern facilities and 18 th-century structures used for modern purposes is at times as tounding; the shipyard guide noted that "it is really amazing how those 18 th-century Swedes knew just what size to build a drydock for a modern submarine!" T he fact that Sweden has not been at war since 1814 has obviously helped in preservation, but innate Swedish conservatism and conservation are also at work. Swedes just plain don' t like to was te things.
Skarva and Stumholmen In the mid- l 780s C hapman received the king's permission to build a small summer
SEA HISTORY 97, SUMMER 2001
cottage across the water from Ka rlskrona. What emerged (m uch to the king'sdispleasure) was a 24-room summer palace, Skarva. A unique combination of neoclassical and traditional Swedish archi tecture, Skarva, now owned by the Wach tmeister family (a source of Swedish admirals fo r many generations), is largely original inside and out. T he original furni shings include C hapman 's work table, to the right side of which a small window with a telescope allowed him to oversee the dockyard, and a rare collection of about 200 C hinese prints of diffe rent types of river vessels, sent to Chapman by his bro ther, wh o captained a Swedish Eas t Indiaman. Connected to Karlskrona p roper by a short bridge, the island of Stumholmen is home to Karlskrona's superb National Naval Museum . H ere visitors can see both models and plans of Chapman 's ships and gain an in-depth sense of Sweden's naval history. It also holds a number of facilities built to support the Swedish navy in the age ofsail. These include an 18th-century guard house, the Barge and Longboat shed completed in 1787, the crown bakery, a threefloor fac to ry built in the 173 0s to bake shi p's bread, the Kunghall Bastion and W arehouse, the latter designed for storing salt meat, and the barrel store, constructed in 171 8 to hold ships' stores in barrels.
Preserved in Amber M ore than perhaps any othe r age-o f-sail navy, Sweden's 18th-century fleet is alive today in the remarkable range of preserved structures at Ka rlskrona. T hey stand as a memorial to the fleet of a major naval power, and also to the man most responsible fo r building that fleet, F redrik H enrik
af Chapman , the world's first scientific naval architect. Should Sweden decide to build a new fri gare or ship of rhe line, perhaps as a naval training ship, the facilities to do so are intact and ready. The visitor to rhe naval dockyard and Skarva is left with no doubt that Chapman 's ghost wo uld be at hand to oversee and direct any such p roject. ,!, William S. Lind is author ofthe M aneuver Warfa re H andbook and many journal articles on military and naval history, tactics and doctrine. H e works at the Free Congress Foundation in Washington D C N OTES
A nore o n sources : Un fo rrunarel y, English-language writings o n C hap man and rh e Swed ish Navy in rh e 18th ce ntury a re few. The best is unqu es tion abl y F H. Chapman: The First Naval A rchitect and H is Work by Da niel G . Ha rri s (Co nway Maritime Press Ltd. , London , 1989) . H arri s is a C anad ian who has devo ted a lifetim e of research ro C hapm an . See also 'The Swedi sh N avy, 1780- 1820 " by Lars O rto Berg in Between the Imperial Eagles: Swedens Armed Forces during the Revolutionary and the Napoleonic Wars, 1780- 1820, edi ted by Fred Sa nd stedt (A brahamso ns Tryckeri AB , Karl skron a, 2000) and Naval Wars in the Baltic in the Sailing Ship Epoch, 1522-1850 by R. C. Anderson (Londo n, 19 10). I. M y pa rric ular rh anks are du e co my esco rr in Kar lskro na, Majo r Nik las Jo hansson of t he Swedi sh Marin e Co rps; my superb gu ide ro rh e nava l shi pyard , C uracor Ivar W enster, H ead of th e C ul ture D eparr men r o f th e Municipali ty of Kar lskrona; and Mr. T homas Skrod er, rh e owne r of Skarva, who very kind ly o pened the house for me in th e "off" seaso n and showed me through. 2. F. H. Chapman: The First N ava/A rchitect and His Work, by D a ni el G. H a rr is (C o nway Ma ritime Press Ltd. , London , UK, 1989), pp38- 9 3. ibid. , p 105- 6 4. ibid., p1 3 1 5. ibid. , ppl 3 1-2 6. ibid., p 136 7 . ibid., p 138 8 "Th e Danish Arm ed Forces 1800- 18 14," by O le L. Fra n rzen, in Between the Imperial Eagles: Sweden's A rmed Forces during the Revolutionary and the Napoleo nic Wars 1780-1820, ed. by Fred Sa ndstedt (A bra hamsons Tryckeri AB, Karl skro na, 2000), p 187 9 H arri s, op. cit., p 135 10 ibid., pp 143-4
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