Hemmema

Contemporary model of the hemmema Styrbjrn from the col-lections of the Maritime Museum in Stockholm

A hemmema (from Finnish Hmeenmaa,[1] Tavastia)was a type of warship built for the Swedish archipelagoeet and the Russian Baltic navy in the late 18th and early19th centuries. The hemmema was initially developed foruse against the Russian Navy in the Archipelago Sea andalong the coasts of Svealand and Finland. It was designedby the prolic and innovative Swedish naval architectFredrik Henrik af Chapman (17211808) in collabora-tion with Augustin Ehrensvrd (17101772), an artilleryocer and later commander of the Swedish archipelagoeet. The hemmema was a specialized vessel for usein the shallow waters and narrow passages that surroundthe thousands of islands and islets extending from theSwedish capital of Stockholm into the Gulf of Finland.The hemmema replaced the galleys that had made upthe core of the Swedish archipelago eets until the mid-18th century. Compared to galleys, the hemmema had adeeper draft and was slower under oars, but oered su-perior accommodation for the crew, carried more stores,was more seaworthy and had roughly ten times as manyheavy guns. It could be propelled by either sails or oarsbut was still smaller and more maneuverable than mostsailing warships, which made it suitable for operations inconned waters.Between 1764 and 1809, Sweden built six hemmemas.The hemmema became the largest and most heavilyarmed vessel in the archipelago eet and served in theRusso-Swedish War of 178890. Oden, the rst hem-mema, was relatively small and very similar to a turuma,a dierent type of archipelago frigate. Russia built sixhemmemas based on the Swedish design between 1808

and 1823 after capturing three of the Swedish vessels atthe surrender of Sveaborg in 1808. The later versions,both Swedish and Russian, were much larger and muchmore heavily armed than Oden.

1 Background

Contemporary model of an early 18th-century Swedish galleyfrom the collections of theMaritimeMuseum in Stockholm. Smallgalleys like this one were a mainstay of the rst Swedish coastaleets.

Russian Tsar Peter the Great had established a new cap-ital and powerful naval base in Saint Petersburg in 1703.Russian naval power in the Baltic grew to challenge the in-terests of Sweden, the other leading power in the Baltic.Swedish holdings at that time included territory in North-ern Germany, all of modern Finland and most of theBaltic states, a dominion depending on, and connectedby, the Baltic Sea trade routes. During the Great North-ern War (17001721), Sweden lost all its territories inthe Baltic states and suered Russian raids in Finlandand along the chain of islands and archipelagos stretchingfrom the Gulf of Finland to Stockholm. The Swedes be-gan to deploy inshore otillas of shallow-draft vessels, be-ginning with smaller versions of the traditional Mediter-ranean galleys. Most of these new vessels were moreakin to galiots and were complemented with gun prams.The disastrous war with Russia (174143) and the mi-nor involvement against Prussia in the Seven Years War

1

2 1 BACKGROUND

(175762) showed the need for further expansion and de-velopment of the inshore otillas with more specializedvessels.[2]

Galleys were eective as troop transports for amphibiousoperations, but were severely under-gunned, especiallyin relation to their large crews; a galley with a 250-mancrew, most of whom were rowers, would typically carryonly one 24-pounder cannon and two 6-pounders, all inthe bow. The galleys also lacked decks and adequate shel-ter for the rower-soldiers, many of whom succumbed toillness as a result of exposure during the war of 174143.[3]

1.1 Archipelago eet

Main article: Archipelago eet

After the Russian victory against Sweden in 1743, theSwedes established a commission to identify weaknessesin the eastern defenses. In 1747, the commission con-cluded that the fortications in southeastern Finlandneeded to be improved and expanded, and that Swe-den needed to build a strong coastal navy. AugustinEhrensvrd (171072), an artillery ocer, was the driv-ing force behind these changes. The committee basedmany of its conclusions and decisions on his ideas. In1756, Sweden established the archipelago eet with theocial name armns otta (eet of the army) under thecommand of the army department, Krigskollegium, withEhrensvrd as supreme commander. For two decades,the struggle for power between the Hats and the Caps,the dominant political factions at the time, and rivalriesbetween army and navy brought about changes to thearchipelago eet. The parliamentary victory of the Hatsin the Riksdag in 176970 and the coup d'tat by KingGustav III in 1772 secured the archipelago eets statusas an independent branch of the army. Starting in 1770,the archipelago eet merged with the Finnish Squadron(Finska eskadern) based at Sveaborg. In 1777, it incor-porated the Swedish Squadron (Svenska eskadern), thegalley eet based at Stockholm. The Swedish armedforces invested considerable resources in the new armybranch and made it a professional, independent organi-zation. The archipelago eet attracted members of thesocial and cultural elite who enjoyed the protection andpatronage of King Gustav III, who had established him-self as an absolute monarch in the 1772 coup.[4]

The artillery ocer Augustin Ehrensvrd (171072,left) and the innovative shipbuilder Fredrik Henrik afChapman (17211808, right) collaborated to developthe hemmema and several other new types of vessels forthe Swedish archipelago eet.

After the poor performance of galleys in RussoSwedishwar of 174143 and the PomeranianWar (175762), de-velopment of replacements became prioritized. Duringthe Pomeranian War, trials had been made with gunprams (skottprmar), heavily armed, oar-driven, at-bottomed barges with a shallow draft that carried guns inbroadside arrangements. The prams carried more gunsthan the galleys, but proved far too slow to be eective.[5]Augustin Ehrensvrd argued for new archipelago ves-sels that combined repower, maneuverability, seawor-thiness, and decent crew accommodations. He begana successful collaboration with shipwright Fredrik Hen-rik Chapman (ennobled af Chapman in 1772), and to-gether they developed ve new vessels: a gunboat with a12-pounder gun and a schooner rigging, as well as fourtypes of archipelago frigates (skrgrdsfregatter): thesmaller udema and pojama, and the larger turuma andhemmema. All four types have been called skrgrds-fregatter (archipelago frigates) in Swedish and Englishhistorical literature, though some authors have called theudema and pojama archipelago corvettes.[6] Chapmanspecically designed the archipelago frigates for serviceo the south coast of Finland and named them after theFinnish provinces of Uusimaa, Pohjanmaa (sterbotten),Turunmaa (boland), and Hmeenmaa (Tavastia).[7]

32 Development

A Spanish xebec from the 1810s; the xebecs design inspired thedesign of the archipelago frigates

The concept of small sailing frigates with a complemen-tary set of oars (or sweeps) was not new. The EnglishTudor navy had used small "galleasses"[8] in the mid-16th century. In the 1660s its successor, the Royal Navy,equipped the equivalent of sixth-rates with oar ports onor below the gundeck.[9] During the 18th century theRussian Navy introduced shebecks, Baltic variants onthe Mediterranean xebecs, for inshore duties. The xe-becs were good sailers, could be rowed if necessary andhad more guns and greater stores than galleys; they werealso less expensive to maintain. The Russian designs in-uenced Chapman and the Swedish naval commanders.Consequently, Chapmans designs for new ships wereelaborations on those principles, but with adaptations toarchipelago warfare.[10]

Chapmans archipelago frigates provided better protec-tion for their crew than the galleys they replaced, andup to three times the capacity for stores and provisions.They could operate in the narrow, shallow waters aroundskerries in all weathers and in open water in all but theworst storms. They had a deeper draft than galleys, butconsiderably shallower draft than traditional sailing war-ships. The new ship types also increased the archipelagoeets repower, provided it with better defensive capa-bilities, and made possible more ecient re support inamphibious operations.[11]

3 Design and constructionOf the new designs, turumas and hemmemas best t thedescription of archipelago frigate because of their simi-larities to small ocean-going frigates. The rst hemmema,the Oden, was completed in 1764. It was c. 33 m (108.2ft) long and 8.2 m (26.8 ft) wide with a draft of 2.8 m(9.25 ft).[12] It had a low hull with no forecastle, only alow quarterdeck, and no poop deck. It had three maststhat were initially rigged with lateen sails, like a galley.

Contemporary color drawing of Oden, the rst hemmema

The navy later replaced the lateen rigs with a more con-ventional square-sail frigate rig.[13] The early design pro-vided for 14 pairs of oars with four men per oar. Therowers plied their oars from the gun deck through oarports positioned between the gunports, close to the wa-terline, which gave the rowers better leverage. The oarswere also placed on a rectangular outrigger, designed tofurther improve the leverage. Even so, hemmemas per-formed poorly when rowed and were dicult in contrarywinds. They were slower than ordinary sailing ships, butsailed better than galleys.[14]

During the Russian war of 17881790, Sweden builtthree hemmemas of a new design. They were consider-ably larger, 44.5 by 11 m (146 by 36 ft), and the numberof oars were increased to 20 pairs. They also had someof the heaviest broadsides, even when compared with themuch larger frigates of the high seas navy. The artilleryocer Carl Fredrik Aschling had cooperated with Chap-man to increase the main armament to twenty-two 36-pounders and two 12-pounders, which increased the draftby about 30 cm (1 ft).[15] The addition of diagonal bracersto reinforce the hull allowed the later hemmemas to carryguns more powerful even than those on the largest sail-ing frigates of the high seas navy.[16] Due to their con-siderable repower and relative size, naval historian JanGlete has described the hemmemas as super archipelagofrigates.[17]

The hemmemas design was very similar to that of the tu-ruma. The primary dierence was that the turumas oars-men sat on the weather deck above the guns, whereas the

4 7 CITATIONS

hemmemas oarsmen sat on the gundeck. The later hem-memas were considerably larger, more heavily armed,and of a more robust construction.[16] Glete has describedthem as variations on the same type, especially when con-sidering the pre-war designs.[18]

4 Service

Contemporary Swedish painting of the Battle of Svensksundwhere two of the larger hemmemas participated

Hemmemas served in the Finnish squadrons during thewar of 17881790. They supported amphibious oper-ations and conducted raids on the Russian archipelagoeet, while at the same time acting as sea-borne anksupport for the Swedish army on the Finnish mainland.Hemmemas fought in the rst and second battles of Sven-sksund. During the rst battle in 1789, one hemmemacomplemented the similar turumas, and in the secondbattle in July 1790, two hemmemas made up the defen-sive center and provided a considerable percentage of therepower.[19]

The Swedes were building three additional hemmemas atthe shipyards within the fortress of Sveaborg when it wassurrendered to the Russians in 1808, and all three wereincorporated in the Russian Navy. Shortly afterward, theRussian Navy built its own 32-gun versions, with the nalvessel launched as late as 1823.[20] Twomorewere built inSweden in 1809, Birger Jarl and Erik Segersll.[21] BirgerJarl sank in an accident in 1813[22] and Erik Segersll wasplanned for conversion as a paddlewheel steam batteryfor coastal defense, though the idea was eventually aban-doned and the ship scrapped in 1826.[15]

Like the other specialized archipelago vessels, the hem-mema had specic strengths and weaknesses. Although ithad superior repower relative to galleys, its sailing qual-ities were somewhat mediocre and while highly manoeu-vrable under oars, it was still dicult to propel whilerowed.[23] A hemmema had the potential to be an ef-fective weapon against galleys, matching their forwardrepower and severely outgunning them with its broad-side armament. Inside an enemy galley formation, itcould wreak considerable havoc, but such amaneuver was

never achieved in an actual battle, leaving that tactical roleuntested.[18]

5 Ships

The Styrbjrn depicted on a Finnish postage stamp from 1937

A total of twelve hemmemas were built, six of themfor the Swedish archipelago eet and six for the RussianNavy.[24] Details of individual vessels are listed below.The Swedish hemmemas were all built to the same speci-cations, except for the early design Oden, and Birger Jarland Erik Segersll carried heavier armament than the oth-ers. Tredrea and Sozaev list Oden as a turuma rebuilt asa hemmema in 1784,[25] though Oscar Nikula and Lars-Otto Berg do not. The Russian vessels were built between1808 and 1823 and have been described by Tredea andSozaev as Bodryi-class rowing frigates.Under the Finnish form Hmeenmaa, the name of theship type was later carried on to several vessels of the 20thcentury Finnish Navy.[26]

6 See also Galley Gunboat Rowing

7 Citations[1] Today an obsolete term that has been replaced by Hme

in modern Finnish.

[2] Berg (2000), pp. 5059.

[3] Glete (1992), pp. 115116, 118.

[4] Norman (2012), s. 1215

[5] Berg, Skrgrdsottans fartyg: Typer och utveckling un-der 1700- och 1800-talet in Norman (2012) pp. 5259

5[6] Berg (1993), p. 35, and (2000) refer to skrgrdsfregatteronly for the larger turumas and hemmemas, while Glete(1992) and Anderson (1962) do not.

[7] Berg, Skrgrdsottans fartyg: Typer och utveckling un-der 1700- och 1800-talet in Norman (2012), p. 59.

[8] The 16th English galleasses had only the oars in com-mon with the Mediterranean ship type and were closer tocarracks and similar to the later galleons; Childs (2009),pp. 2224.

[9] Anderson (1962), pp. 8489.

[10] Nikula (1933), pp. 118122, 132.

[11] Harris (1998), p. 27.

[12] Nikula (1933), pp. 366367

[13] See contemporary illustration in Glete (1992; p. 118).

[14] Berg (1993), p. 35; Glete (1992), p. 119

[15] Berg (1993), p. 35.

[16] Berg (2000), p. 61.

[17] Original term superskrgrdsfregatter; Glete (1992, p.156).

[18] Glete (1992), pp. 11920.

[19] Glete (1992), pp. 15253, 16364

[20] Anderson (1962), pp. 9697

[21] Norman (2012) p. 397

[22] Ahlstrm (1997)

[23] Berg (1993), pp. 3536.

[24] According to naval historian Roger Charles Andersonthree were built for the Russian eet, two in 1809 and oneas late as 1823; Anderson (1962) p. 97. Jan Glete putthe number of Russian-built hemmemas at ve, all con-structed during the war of 180809. The most recentlypublished study by Tredrea and Sozaev puts the total atsix gemams, the Russian rendering of hemmema.

[25] Tredrea & Sozaev (2010), pp. 325326.

[26] Gardiner (1995), p. 92; Kijanen (1968), p. 111; Saunders(2009)

[27] Based on lists and tables in Berg, Appendix: Skrgrds-ottans fartyg in Norman (2012) p. 397 and Nikula(1933), pp. 366367

[28] Russian career details from Tredrea & Sozaev (2010), p.253.

[29] Based on Tredrea & Sozaev (2010), pp. 204205.

8 References Ahlstrm, Christian, Looking for Leads: Shipwrecks

of the Past Revealed By Contemporary Documentsand the Archaeological Record. Online extractat Nordic Underwater Archaeology Suomalainentiedeakatemia, Helsinki. 1997. ISBN 951-41-0805-1.

Anderson, Roger Charles, Oared Fighting Ships:From Classical Times to the Coming of Steam. P.Marshall, London. 1962. OCLC 5964992.

Berg, Lars-Otto, Development of the SwedishArchipelago Fleet in the 18th Century, Construc-tion[,] Technology and Weaponry in The War ofKing Gustavus III and Naval Battles of Ruotsinsalmi:VIII International Baltic Seminar 57 July 1990.Provincial Museum of Kymenlaakso, Kotka. 1993.ISBN 951-96183-5-X

(Swedish) Berg, Lars Otto, Skrgrdsottans far-tyg: Typer och utveckling under 1700- och 1800-talet in Hans Norman (editor), Skrgrdsottan:Uppbyggnnad, militr anvndning och frankring idet svenska samhllet 17001824. Historiska Me-dia, Lund. 2000. ISBN 91-88930-50-5, pp. 5075

Childs, David, Tudor Sea Power: The Foundationof Greatness. Seaforth Publishing, Barnsley. 2009.ISBN 978-1-84832-031-4

Gardiner, Robert (editor) Conways All the WorldsFighting Ships 19471995. ConwayMaritime Press,London. 1995. ISBN 0-85177-605-1.

(Swedish) Glete, Jan, Kriget till sjss 17881790in Gunnar Artus (editor) Gustav III:s ryska krig.Probus, Stockholm. 1992. ISBN 91-87184-09-5,pp. 110174

Harris, Daniel G, Fredrik Henrik af Chapman: TheFirst Naval Architect and his Work. (revised edition)Literatim, Stockholm. 2001. ISBN 91-973075-2-1.

Kijanen, Kalervo, Suomen Laivasto 19181968, I.Meriupseeriyhdistys/Otavan Kirjapaino, Helsinki.1968. OCLC 832982591

(Swedish) Nikula, Oscar, Svenska skrgrdsottan17561791. [doctoral dissertation] Helsingfors.1933.

Saunders, Stephen (editor), Janes Fighting Ships,20092010. Janes Information Group, Coulsdon,Surrey. 2010. ISBN 978-0-7106-2888-6

Tredrea, John & Sozaev, Eduard, Russian Aarshipsin the Age of Sail, 16961860: Design, Construction,Careers and Fates. Seaforth, Barnsley. 2010. ISBN978-1-84832-058-1

6 9 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

9 Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses9.1 Text

Hemmema Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemmema?oldid=679933589 Contributors: Michael Devore, PFHLai, Acad Ronin,PWilkinson, Woohookitty, Tabletop, RobertG, MoRsE, Bgwhite, Gaius Cornelius, Spike Wilbury, Mais oui!, Peter Isotalo, Chris thespeller, Ohconfucius, John, Mr Stephen, Cydebot, Mike Christie, Optimist on the run, Brad101, Dudley Miles, Mightyhansa, Maralia, P.S. Burton, Piledhigheranddeeper, SchreiberBike, Another Believer, Dank, Editorofthewiki, MystBot, Addbot, Nohomers48, Materialsci-entist, LilHelpa, Melmann, Coltsfan, Anotherclown, John of Reading, Winner 42, Antilope, EWikist, ClueBot NG, Primergrey, BG19bot,23W, HMman, Hamish59, Khazar2, Esszet, Mogism, TFA Protector Bot, SkateTier, Macofe, FACBot, Ojman45, BanEvasion, SpeedyCheetah and Anonymous: 21

9.2 Images File:Baugean-Chebec_espagnol.jpeg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d2/Baugean-Chebec_espagnol.jpeg

License: Public domain Contributors: http://www.rarecharts.com/DisplayByCategory/Category/Prints Original artist: anonymous File:Color_drawing_of_hemmema_Oden.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/99/Color_drawing_of_

hemmema_Oden.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: https://digitaltmuseum.se/011024641581 Original artist: Unknown File:Commons-logo.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg License: ? Contributors: ? Original

artist: ? File:Detail_of_Olof_Arenius-portrait_of_Augustin_Ehrensvrd.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/

commons/f/ff/Detail_of_Olof_Arenius-portrait_of_Augustin_Ehrensv%C3%A4rd.jpg License: Public domain Contributors:http://www.uppslagsverket.fi/bin/view/Uppslagsverket/EhrensvaerdAugustin Original artist: Olof Arenius

File:Fredrik_Henrik_af_Chapman-Pasch_portrait.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/77/Fredrik_Henrik_af_Chapman-Pasch_portrait.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: http://www.sveaborg.fi/linnoitus/historia/henkiloita/frederik_henrik_af_chapman Original artist: Lorens Pasch the Younger

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