In 1927, soon after the creation of an independed Swedish air force in 1926, a decision was taken to order an aircraft carrying cruiser, and a contract was signed with Götaverken in 1930. The ship, named after the island which is sometimes referred to as "Sweden's unsinkable aircraft carrier", was launched in 1933 and entered service with aircraft in 1934.
The catapult, which was installed in 1934, was built by Heinkel where the first pilot also got his training in catapult launches.
![[General arrangement sketch]](gotland.gif)
It was early decided to not equip the ship with a flight deck, but instead fit it with a catapult both in order to give it better seakeeping properties but mainly in order to fit more and bigger guns.
Initially, plans were for fitting it with two catapults and give it a complement of up to twelve aircraft. On cost grounds, this was reduced to a single catapult and space only for up to eight aircraft.
The aircraft on trolleys running on three tracks to the rear of the catapult. Under the tracks was situated the workshop. Transfer to the catapult was via three small turntables which also enabled aircraft to be moved from one track to another.
They were launched from the trolley, which stayed on the catapult. The single, compressed air operated, catapult had an extended length of 20 m and gave the aircraft a speed of 120 km/h.
In November 1934 four float equipped Hawker Ospreys were delivered, in 1936 two more were purchased. Two years later tries were made to get further Ospreys, but they were no longer made, so Gotland never operated with a larger complement than six aircraft although since they had folding wings two more could have been aboard.
The Ospreys, which were designated S 9, belonged to the 3:rd squadron of the F 2 wing, homebased at Hägernäs, just outside Stockholm. They were frequently detached to and operated from GOTLAND.
In July 1942 the Ospreys were superceded by float equiped Saab S 17BS and in 1943 they were taken out of operational service, the last was retired in 1945.
GOTLAND was intended to fight alongside the other ships in the navy, the aircraft were only intended for reconnaissance, artillery spotting and the laying of smoke screens.
During exercises the float planes were landed alongside the stopped ship and lifted aboard by the crane at the stern. A solution for rough sea recovery consisting of a mat trailing the ship was trialled, but never used.
Due to the submarine hazard the Ospreys were not intended to be recovered aboard the ship during combat, but instead fly to some coastal seaplane base and land. To further reduce the ship's vulnerability, the tanks of aviation fuel were to be emptied after the last aircraft was launched.
The 4750 ton GOTLAND was 135 m long.
Armament in addition to the six S 9 Ospreys was:
Maximum speed was 27.5 knot, 5 knot faster than the armoured ships it accompanied.
After the Ospreys had become obsolete, GOTLAND was converted into an anti aircraft artillery cruiser in 1943.
Content last updated 1997 Oct 12, document last updated 2002 Aug 26 (links) by Urban
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