HSwMS Dygden

Contemporary construction model of a ship in the Kronprins Gustaf Adolf class, on display at the Swedish National Maritime Museum in Stockholm.
History
Sweden
Name	Dygden
Builder	Karlskrona Naval Shipyard
Launched	6 July 1784
Fate	Destroyed by explosion and fire on 29 June 1793
Notes	Designed under the supervision of Fredrik Henrik af Chapman
General characteristics
Type	Ship of the line
Length	49.5 m (162 ft 5 in)
Beam	13.59 m (44 ft 7 in)
Draft	5.79 m (19 ft 0 in)
Complement	567
Armament	64 guns

HSwMS Dygden was a Swedish ship of the line, launched on 6 July 1784 at the Karlskrona Naval Shipyard under the direction of Fredrik Henrik af Chapman. She took part in the naval campaigns of 1788–1790 during the war against Russia and was lost in an explosion and fire near the Kurrholmens kastell off Karlskrona on 29 June 1793.

Sinking

The disaster occurred due to an explosion in the gunpowder magazine, which set the ship ablaze. The crew consisted of 567 men. After the sinking, the ship’s figurehead—a curly-haired, lightly dressed divine figure carved by the sculptor Johan Törnström—was salvaged and later placed on the captured Russian ship Vladislaff. The figurehead is currently preserved at the Swedish National Maritime Museum in Stockholm.

Wreck

The shipwreck of Dygden was located in 2010 by Hans Lineskär, curator at the Marinmuseum in Karlskrona. Divers and marine archaeologists from the Swedish National Maritime Museums, along with Marinmuseum’s then-director Richard Bauer, carried out further investigations.

According to Gunnar Unger’s 1923 publication, the ship was armed with 62 guns, while the 2010 Marinmuseum press release states the armament was 64 guns.