Join Leif Rosqvist on a short walkabout in the wonderful area of the island of Djurgården where he shares some Swedish naval history as part of his own Swedish roots. (Leif's earlier Walkabouts can be found here: Walkabout Tour of Stockholm I
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I start the walkabout at Slussen (The Locks) and slowly walk in the sunshine toward the ferry dock at Skeppsbron to take ferry number 7 to the island of Djurgåden. To the east of me I see the shimmering water in the Stockholm archipelago. No one could better describe this scenery than the Swedish troubadour Evert Taube in the lyrics of “Så skimmrande var aldrig havet” which is steering up very strong emotions and memories from my boyhood.

“Så skimrande var aldrig havet
och stranden aldrig så befriande,
fälten, ängarna och träden, aldrig så vackra
och blommorna aldrig så ljuvligt doftande
som när du gick vid min sida
mot solnedgången, aftonen den underbara,
då dina lockar dolde mig för världen,
medan du dränkte alla mina sorger,
älskling, i din första kyss.”

“So shimmering was never the sea
and the beach never so liberating,
fields, meadows and trees, never so beautiful
and the flowers never as sweet-smelling
than when you walked by my side
into the sunset, the evening so enchanting,
when your curls hid me from the world,
while you drowned all my sorrows,
darling, in your first kiss.”

A dawning day and the perfume of newly mowed grass from an island in the archipelago touch my face as I slowly walk toward the ferry station. We take the ferry to Djurgården from Slussen, which arrives to the west of the shipyard at the amusement park Gröna Lund and east of the Vasa Ship Museum at Galärvarvet.

The shipyard area is called “Stockholms Sjögård” and covers the islands of Blasieholmen, Skeppsholmen, Kastellholmen, Beckholmen, Nya Djurgårdsvarvet, Galävarvet and Strandvägen.
Looking west from the landing, I see Blasieholmen and Skeppsholmen. Blasieholmen is today a peninsula, but in the past it was an island parted from Norrmalm via a small area of water called Nöckström; later it was filled in. The old navy shipyard, then located at the castle “Tre Kronor” across the bay to the south, was moved in the 1550s by King Gustav Vasa to this small island, which then got the name “Skeppsholmen” in 1565.

In the early 1600s, the naval shipyard at Blasieholmen/Skeppsholmen was Sweden’s largest workplace. On this island from 1626 to 1628 the navy built the Swedish warship Vasa, with the help of Swedish and Dutch carpenters, and with the intent to build the great Swedish naval power on the European scene.
This great naval history was pitifully short. On August 10, 1628, the top-heavy ship—at 165 feet long, with a stern 50 feet high, a sail area of 12,375 feet and a displacement of 1,400 tons—keeled over after sailing only a few hundred yards on her maiden voyage from Skeppsgården shipyard.
From there, Vasa went down with sails up and flags flying. The ship wasn't salvaged until 1961, when the navy’s heavy divers under the lead of Per Edvin Fälting presented it to the public in the Vasa Museum at Galärvarvet in Djurgården.
Blasieholmen is today dominated by banks, the National Art Museum, the Grand Hotel, and traditional charters such as Sällskapet, Frimurarordern and others. Only a couple hundred people live there permanently.
To the north of the ferry landing are some very nice areas with benches at the dock for small boats. I sit here in the sun eating a sandwich, and I see Kastellholmen, across Ladugårdsviken. Kastellholmen is a small island in the center of Stockholm, connected via Kastellbron to the adjacent Skeppsholmen. Kastellholmen has previously been known as Notholmen, Lilla Beckholmen and Skansholmen and is part of the national park system. On the island there is a small castle, Kastellet. The first fortification was built in 1667. It exploded in June 1845 and was subsequently rebuilt in 1846-1848 after the design of architect Fredrik Blom. Kastellet consists of a round tower with red brick walls and a 20-meter-tall stair tower. On the top the military ensign of Sweden is hoisted and lowered every day, indicating a nation in peace.
After digesting these breathtaking views, we continue our walk north along Almänna Gränd (Common Alley) adjacent to the Gröna Lund amusement park, and there is a very impressive building in front of us, the famous restaurant Hasselbacken, the center of Swedish culinary traditions, where you are able to eat the best “Biff Special” in Stockholm. We are, however, not going that far. We are turning toward Djurgårdsvarvet.

Along Lilla Allmänna Gränd we are able to see some of the last of the original small, red (Falu Rödfärg) wooden houses in Djurgårds Staden. Lilla Allmänna Gränd is the extension of Falkenbergsgatan through Gröna Lund amusement park toward Djurgårds staden. The name Allmäna Gränd goes back to the early 1800s (Common Street 1806) and indicates that the street was open to the public.
Here I’m able to choose between the two main streets Långa Gatan (Långa Street) and Breda Gatan (Broad Street), with small, red painted houses surrounding the small and hilly streets of Östra Varvsgatan (East Shipyard Street) and Sjömansgränd (Sailor’s Alley). About 200 people live in this area today.
In 1712, Johan Lampa of the building guild, created a shipyard business (early Djurgådsvarvet) in the area where Gröna Lund is today. Over the next decades there were several owners, the most well-known was shipbuilder Fredrick af Chapman. In this shipyard several warships were built: the schooner Amphion, kungaslupen Vasaordern and others. In 1862 the shipyard was closed and the land was sold to Stockholm Stad, which used it as storage for a variety of goods, especially sill (herring), which gave the area its nickname “Sillhovet” (Herring Court).

Over the years when larger and larger ships requested more repair and maintenance shops for the navy, the Örlogsvarvet was established. Stockholms Örlogsvarv was the navy’s shipyard. The shipyard had activities on Galärvarvet on Djurgården, and Skeppsholmen’s east side on Beckholmen. The shipyard was a very large workplace with with over 1,200 workers employed, but it was closed 1969.

Several interesting ships were built at Örlogsvarvet in Stockholm with the intent to serve the naval cadet training program (Skeppsgossekåren), and thus provide the navy with skilled seamen. They were the Schooner HMS Gladan (SO1), 1946 and the Schooner HMS Falken (SO2), 1947.
The Schooner Division is an education and recruitment unit comprised of the HMS Gladan and HMS Falken, where the education is focused on seamanship and navigation.
Here is the connection to the “pully-block” maker Gustav Andersson that lived in the south hills in Stockholm making pully blocks to the navy’s sailing ships. (see Walkabout "Back to my roots")
To have a functional navy you need more than shipyards to produce and maintain navy vessels—you must develop competent naval officers and seamen. Navy cadet schools located on special training ships have been present in the Swedish navy since 1796, with the HMS Diana.
When a “skeppsgosse” (deck hand) graduated, he was classified as a “matros i örlogsflottan” seaman of the merchant marine. The education was concentrated to Stockholm and Karlskrona.

The following story has its beginning in the early 1900s. Two people of interest to me figured into the Skeppsgosse Corps: Harry Martinsson—Swedish sailor, author and poet, and my father, Lennart. Martinsson was recruited into the Skeppsgosse Corps after the disintegration of his family. His mother immigrated to the USA in 1911, and ended up in Portland, Oregon, where she had a small restaurant. In 1949 Martinsson was elected into the Swedish Academy and was awarded the joint Nobel Prize in Literature in 1974 with fellow Swede, Eyvind Johnson. My father Lennart was recruited into the Skeppsgosse Corps when he was 16 and graduated at 18. He became a professional typographer and industrial photographer. His son—yours truly—also immigrated to the USA and ended up in Portland, Oregon.
This is an almost improbable coincidence that one skeppsgosse’s mother and another’s son ended up in Portland, Oregon.
After digesting everything I see, we slowly walk east in the sunlight in the direction of Waldemars Udde, the previous home of Prince Eugene. One day a few years ago you could have seen the famous chef Tina Nordström cooking here for her television program “New Scandinavian Cooking” (www.newscandinaviancooking.com) together with Public Broadcast Services (PBS). And most certainly it must have been Swedish meatballs with potatoes, brown sauce and lingonberry jam. I can’t find anything more Swedish than that!
Or perhaps more Swedish than that would be fishing for your own dinner. About 800,000 Salmo trutta trutta (havsöring) and Baltic Salmon (lax) have been added in the waters around Stockholm since 1973. It is very clean water even today after many years of effort to clean and control its quality. An excellent fishing environment! It's also great for swimming, and there are several dedicated swimming areas around town.
Time is passing fast and now it’s time to return to my mother’s place on Kungsholmen for dinner. I board the A25 veteran tram “Mustang” toward Norrmalms Torg and transfer to a bus to my final destination.

Written by Leif Rosqvist, editor for New Sweden Cultural Heritage society and Swedish Roots In Oregon newsletters. (www.newsweden.org, swedishrootsinoregon.org)
More information for the interested reader could be found at:
Stockholms Stads Museum, Stockholmskällan Wikipedia
The best source about anything Stockholm
Stockholms Sjöstad Wikipedia
Djurgårdsstaden Wikipedia
Vasa Museum Wikipedia
Stockholms Spårvägsmuseum Wikipedia

Ferry 7 to Djurgården Photo: Stockholmskällan
Stockholm Sjögård; Photo: Maritime kultur
Regalskeppet Vasa, 1628. Photo: Filmtecknarna
Vasa is going down under, 1628. Photo: titanicnorden.org
Vasavarvet receiving the salvaged ship
Kastellet
Small Common Alley. Photo: Holger Ellgaard
Järnvägs Huset (Railroad House), 1909
The Gravedigger’s house. Photo: Holger Ellgaard
Skampålens torg (The pillory square) Photo: Holger Ellgaard
Djurgårdsvarvet, 1928. Photo: Stockholmskällan
HMS Gladan
HMS Falken
Skeppsgosse (naval cadet)
Harry Martinsson
My father, 1935
TV Chef Tina Nordström
Köttbullar, potatoes, brown sauce and lingonberry jam
Happy fishermen
A25 “Mustang” tram