The Ormen Friske was a Swedish copy of a Norwegian Viking ship.
It was built in the spring of 1949 at the Frisksportförbundet's ship yard in
Stensund in Södermanland and launched there in June of the same year. The ship
sank in a storm in the German Bay of the North Sea in midsummer 1950. The 15
people on board, all Swedes, perished.
Heligoland had been uninhabited since World War II, when it was used for several years as a training area for British and American strategic bombers. Around the same time that the Ormen Friske sank, American aircraft began bombing Heligoland, but although conceivable, there is no evidence that the Ormen Friske was hit.
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| Sam Svensson at the helm of Ormen Friske |
German authorities seized large parts of the hull and
repeatedly pressed for an expert investigation. However, Sweden's
representative on the scene decided that no investigation should be carried
out. The lack of commitment from the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and
other authorities when it came to investigating the accident has been
interpreted as their unwillingness to help draw attention to the Western
Allies' war preparations and the important role of Heligoland.
The Korean War broke out on the same day that the first fatalities from the Ormen Friske were found. All fifteen people on board died, the bodies of eight were found in total, and they were buried in Sweden.
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| Rune Edberg |
Archaeologist Rune Edberg did a study: In the Wake of aViking Ship Tragedy.
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