Swedish shipyards in the early 1920s

Slipway at Bergsunds mek. verkstad in Stockholm.

Sweden was until the the 1960s one of the world's leading shipbuilding nations. Shipbuilding was considered to be on of  the nation's basic industries. However, following an extensive crisis in the 1970s, an entire industry was more or less wiped out. Today no merchant vessels are being built in Sweden. The few existing shipyards are mainly dealing with repair and maintenance.

Map of Swedish shipyards in 1921.  (Symbols indicate  number of  workers).

In the beginning of the 1920s, there were about 100 shipyards in Sweden employing close to 16000 workers (without counting the two naval yards). In the preceding year these shipyards had built a record number of ships; 32 steamships, 35 motor ships and 11 sailing ships. 

The pictures on this page are from this early heyday of the Swedish shipbuilding industry.

Öresundsvarvet in Landskrona.

Dry dock at Öresundsvarvet.

Finnboda shipyard in Stockholm.

The Helsingborg shipyard.

Interior from the Götaverken shipyard in Gothenburg.

Another interior from Götaverken. 

A large wooden ship being built at the Västervik new shipyard.

A floating dry dock at Finnboda varv in Stockholm.

The icebreaker Thor II launched at Bergsunds mek. verkstad. 

A floating dock at Götaverken in Gothenburg. The ship is the Swedish America  Line's S/S Drottningholm.

A concrete barge built at the Marinbetong shipyard in Nyköping. 

A general view of the Götaverken shipyard in Gothenburg.

(Source: Sveriges Sjöfart, Hasse W. Tullbergs Förlag, 1921.)