Danish Braves
As a follow-up to our Warship Wednesday this week (“A Tough Little Wolf”) which focused on the three Danish torpedo boats between 1881 and 1990 that carried the name Søulven (Sea Wolf), a little more in-depth on the last of that trio’s class.
The Danish Søløven (Sea Lion) class, was a Vosper design based on the company’s late 1950s Brave class– HMS Brave Borderer (P1011) and HMS Brave Swordsman (P1012)— fast patrol boat’s hull form blended with its Ferocity style construction, which was a bit cheaper than going all-metal.
HMS Brave Borderer (P1011) a fast patrol boat, during trials in the Solent, January 1960. IWM (A 34261)
HMS Ferocity, budget version of the fast Brave Class gas turbine MTB
Ranger magazine page Ferocity, a cheaper version of the Brave-class MTBs
While the steel-hulled 98-foot/114-ton Braves could make a blistering 52 knots on a suite of three Bristol Proteus gas turbines and were armed with a 40mm Bofors, four 21-inch tubes, and two depth charges, the Danish variants used a wooden hull with an aluminum superstructure and a CODOG suite of 3 Proteus gas turbines on three shafts and 2 General Motors 6V71 diesels on outer shafts.
Running 99 feet oal and with a displacement of 120 tons, the Danish boats could “only” make 50 knots and, besides their suite of twin Bofors and four torpedo tubes, were rigged to drop mines.
Manned by 27 men: 5 officers/petty officers and 22 sailors, the six boats of the class all repeated previous Danish Navy names with an S (Søløven, Søridderen, Søbjørnen, Søhesten, Søhunden, and Søulven) hull numbers P510-P515. The design and first hull were paid for by the U.S. under FMS funds under NATO aid, with the first two hulls built at Vosper’s yard in Portchester while the last four were constructed under license by the Royal Danish SY (Orlogsværftets) at Copenhagen.
Søridderen P5111 on right Gribben P508 left
Søridderen P5111 on left Gribben P508 right
Søhesten Orlogsværftets 31. marts 1963. KD Ebbe Wolfhagen i samtale med underdirektor Carl Sorensen, SMI UPI og uident KD. Bag de tre ses direktor Schou-Pedersen, Orlogsværftets Til hojre genkendes i midten (bagerst) viceadmiral Svend Pontoppidan, chef for Sovornet og til hojre med solbriller kommandor Henning Prause, chef for Televosenet. Til venstre i samme gruppe underdirektor Stundsig Larsen, Orlogsværftets Til venstre for Søløven ses motortorpedobat
Interiørfoto fra en gasturbinebåd af SØLØVEN-klassen. Her motiv fra åben bro.
Interiørfoto fra en gasturbinebåd af SØLØVEN-klassen. Her motiv fra maskinkontrolpositionen i O-rummet.
Interiørfoto fra en gasturbinebåd af SØLØVEN-klassen. Her motiv fra mandskabsbanjen i forskibet.
Interiørfoto fra en gasturbinebåd af SØLØVEN-klassen. Her kabyssen.
The Søløvens were so well-liked that Vosper continued marketing the variant and contracts were secured by the King of Libya for three boats (dubbed the Susa class) and Malaysia (four Perkasa-class) which substituted eight SS-12 missiles for torpedoes.
Soulven dropping mines
Motortorpedobåden P511 SØRIDDEREN af SØLØVEN-klassen. Sort / hvidt fotografi. Uden tid eller sted.
P515 SØULVEN og P510 SØLØVEN af SØLØVEN-klassen
Uidentificerbar enhed af SØLØVEN-klassen.
SØLØVEN-klassen. Opvarmning af gasturbiner. Flådestation Frederikshavn, 1976. I baggrunden den udfasede korvet F345 DIANA af TRITON-klassen.
Danish tactics for these PT/MTBs were simple, lay up camouflaged during the day in any number of off-the-beaten-path Scandinavian inlets (they often went to Norway for exercises) then attack targets at night. They were originally tended by the mothership Hjaelperen, later replaced by Moba.
En enhed af SØLØVEN-klassen kamoufleret i Norge.
The Søløven-class was placed into reserve in 1988 and disposed of when the Flyvefisken-class Stanflex 300 patrol vessels entered service, with disposal complete by 1992.
One (Søbjørnen, P512) is on display as a museum ship at the Aalborg Maritime and Marine Museum (Springeren – Maritimt Oplevelsescenter) while at least two others are still in Western Europe as private yachts, running on diesels only.
The museum also markets a beer under the vessel’s name, with proceeds to help preserve historic Danish naval vessels.
