Psilander affair

The Psilander affair was an incident that occurred in Skálafjørður near Tórshavn in the Faroe Islands on 20 June 1940 in World War II. The British Royal Navy captured the four Swedish destroyers HSwMS Psilander, Puke, Romulus and Remus, together with the Swedish Lloyd passenger ship Patricia and the Trelleborgs Ångfartygs tanker Castor, despite the fact that Sweden was neutral. 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 bought 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. Afterwards, the vessels reached Gothenburg on 10 July 1940. The Swedish Navy had chartered Patricia to take the crews for the destroyers from Sweden to Italy, and accompanied them on their return voyage. 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 as proof that he knew about Hitler's planned attack on France, which began on 10 May. The destroyers did not have fuel bunkers large enough to go from Italy to Sweden. The Swedish Navy had a confirmed order on bunker fuel in Lisbon, but did not get any. A Swedish civilian tanker, Castor, was transporting oil and diesel from Mexico to Sweden. The Swedish Navy chartered her, made her a naval ship and diverted...