Psilander affair

The Psilander affair was an incident that occurred in Skálafjørður near Tórshavn in the Faroe Islands on 20 June 1940 during World War II when the four Swedish destroyers "Psilander", "Puke", "Romulus" and "Remus", together with the passenger ship "Patricia" and the tanker "Castor" were captured by the British fleet, in spite of the fact that Sweden was neutral.[1][2] The incident is said to have been triggered by the British concern that the German navy would otherwise capture the ships and take them into German service when they left the North Sea, citing "right of angary. The four destroyers were recently purchased in Italy and were on their way from La Spezia to Gothenburg when they were captured.

On 2 July 1940, after diplomatic negotiations, the vessels were returned to the Swedish crews, and the vessels arrived in Gothenburg on 10 July 1940.

The destroyers were accompanied by the passenger ship "Patricia" which was acquired by the Swedish Navy and had went from Sweden to Italy to transport the crew needed for the destroyers. The destroyers did not have fuel tanks enough to go from Italy to Sweden. After the crew did work to adopt them, they left La Spezia on 14 April. Due to a collision caused by a machine breakdown they needed repair in Cartagena, Spain. The Italian Chief of Navy called the Swedish attaché at the Swedish embassy and advised the ships to go home as soon as possible, which later has been interpreted that he knew about Hitler's planned attack on France, which started 10 May. The Swedish Navy had a confirmed order on fuel in Lisbon, but did not get any. A Swedish civilian tanker, Castor, transported at this time oil and diesel from Mexico to Sweden. The Swedish Navy acquired and made it a navy ship. It went to Lisbon and refuelled the ships. All ships headed for Cobh, Ireland, where Swedish passengers who had been resident in UK and Ireland boarded "Patricia". They continued to the Faroe Islands, since the English channel was a war zone. Castor had fairly low speed which would make the destroyers consume more fuel, so a decision was made to let Castor go alone.

At the Faroe Islands, which was controlled by the UK, the British Navy on order from its government required to seize the destroyers. The commander of the Swedish ships decided to give up, since they did not have fuel to go to Sweden, Castor was already seized, and the British Navy was superior in number of ships. The commander Hagman could not contact the Swedish Navy for advice, so he decided to hope for negotiations, considering Sweden was not in war with the UK. He was heavily criticised in the Swedish Navy for giving up without firing a shot, but all ships were released to Sweden on 2 July. Germany guaranteed Swedish neutrality and allowed the ships to go to Sweden. On 5 July they left heading for Sweden and arrived on 10 July. The commander was tried in court-martial, but was not found guilty nor innocent. Media and politicians including Prime Minister Hansson supported him, but the officers of the armed forces saw him as a coward in battle. A secret order was made to never give up a ship to another country for any reason unless ordered.

See also

References
  1. The Psilander affair
  2. Background Events - June 1940 (naval-history.net)
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