HSwMS ''Sölve'' is one of seven s built for the

Swedish Navy The Swedish Navy () is the maritime service branch of the Swedish Armed Forces. It is composed of surface and submarine naval units – the Fleet (), formally sometimes referred to as the Royal Navy () – as well as marine units, the Amph ...

in the mid-1870s. The ship had an uneventful career and was sold in 1919 for conversion into a

barge A barge is typically a flat-bottomed boat, flat-bottomed vessel which does not have its own means of mechanical propulsion. Original use was on inland waterways, while modern use is on both inland and ocean, marine water environments. The firs ...

. She became a

museum ship A museum ship, also called a memorial ship, is a ship that has been preserved and converted into a museum open to the public for educational or memorial purposes. Some are also used for training and recruitment purposes, mostly for the small numb ...

Gothenburg Gothenburg ( ; ) is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, second-largest city in Sweden, after the capital Stockholm, and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated by the Kattegat on the west coast of Sweden, it is the gub ...

, Sweden, in 1992.

Design and description

The ''Hildur''-class monitors were designed by Lieutenant John Christian d'Ailly, from a proposal by

John Ericsson John Ericsson (born Johan Ericsson; July 31, 1803 – March 8, 1889) was a Swedish-American engineer and inventor. He was active in England and the United States. Ericsson collaborated on the design of the railroad steam locomotive Novelty (lo ...

, for the defense of Lake

Mälaren Mälaren ( , , or ), historically referred to as Lake Malar in English, is the third-largest freshwater lake in Sweden (after Vänern and Vättern). Its area is and its greatest depth is 64 m (210 ft). Mälaren spans from east to west. The l ...

and the

Stockholm archipelago The Stockholm Archipelago () is the largest archipelago in Sweden, and the second-largest archipelago in the Baltic Sea (the largest being the Archipelago Sea across the Baltic in Finland). Part of the archipelago has been designated as a Rams ...

. The ships were long overall and had a

beam Beam may refer to: Streams of particles or energy *Light beam, or beam of light, a directional projection of light energy **Laser beam *Radio beam *Particle beam, a stream of charged or neutral particles **Charged particle beam, a spatially lo ...

of . They had a

draft Draft, the draft, or draught may refer to: Watercraft dimensions * Draft (hull), the distance from waterline to keel of a vessel * Draft (sail), degree of curvature in a sail * Air draft, distance from waterline to the highest point on a v ...

of and displaced . Her crew numbered 48 officers and men. The ship had

rudder A rudder is a primary control surface used to steer a ship, boat, submarine, hovercraft, airship, or other vehicle that moves through a fluid medium (usually air or water). On an airplane, the rudder is used primarily to counter adverse yaw ...

s at bow and stern.Harris, pp. 30–32 The ''Hildur''s had a pair of two-cylinder horizontal-return connecting-rod steam engines, each driving a single propeller using steam from two cylindrical boilers. The engines produced a total of which gave the monitors a maximum speed of .Harris, pp. 30–31 The ships carried of coal.Campbell, p. 362 The monitors were equipped with one M/69

rifled breech loader A rifled breech loader (RBL) is an artillery piece which, unlike the smoothbore cannon and rifled muzzle loader which preceded it, has rifling in the barrel and is loaded from the breech-loading weapon, breech at the rear of the gun. The spin im ...

, mounted in a long, fixed, oval-shaped

gun turret A gun turret (or simply turret) is a mounting platform from which weapons can be fired that affords protection, visibility and ability to turn and aim. A modern gun turret is generally a rotatable weapon mount that houses the crew or mechanis ...

. The gun weighed and fired projectiles at a

muzzle velocity Muzzle velocity is the speed of a projectile (bullet, pellet, slug, ball/ shots or shell) with respect to the muzzle at the moment it leaves the end of a gun's barrel (i.e. the muzzle). Firearm muzzle velocities range from approximately t ...

of . At its maximum elevation of 7.5° it had a range of .Bojerud, p. 177 The ''Hildur''s also mounted two guns. They were rearmed with a

quick-firing gun A quick-firing or rapid-firing gun is an artillery piece, typically a gun or howitzer, that has several characteristics which taken together mean the weapon can fire at a fast rate. Quick-firing was introduced worldwide in the 1880s and 1890s and ...

as well as three quick-firing guns sometime in the 1890s or the early 1900s. The ''Hildur'' class had a complete

waterline The waterline is the line where the hull of a ship meets the surface of the water. A waterline can also refer to any line on a ship's hull that is parallel to the water's surface when the ship is afloat in a level trimmed position. Hence, wate ...

armor belt Belt armor is a layer of heavy metal armor plated onto or within the outer hulls of warships, typically on battleships, battlecruisers and cruisers, and aircraft carriers. The belt armor is designed to prevent projectiles from penetrating to ...

wrought iron Wrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon content (less than 0.05%) in contrast to that of cast iron (2.1% to 4.5%), or 0.25 for low carbon "mild" steel. Wrought iron is manufactured by heating and melting high carbon cast iron in an ...

that was thick with a deck. The face of the

was protected by of armor, while its sides were thick. The

conning tower A conning tower is a raised platform on a ship or submarine, often armoured, from which an officer in charge can conn (nautical), conn (conduct or control) the vessel, controlling movements of the ship by giving orders to those responsible for t ...

protruded from the top of the turret and was protected by of armor.Harris, pp. 31–32

Construction and service

''Sölve'', named after

Sölve Sölve () was a sea-king who conquered Vendel-period Sweden by burning the Swedish king Eysteinn to death inside his hall. The ''Heimskringla'' relates that he was the son of Högne of Njardö, and that he had his home in Jutland, although a ...

, a

semi-legendary King of Sweden The legendary kings of Sweden (, ) according to legends were rulers of Sweden and the Swedes who preceded Eric the Victorious and Olof Skötkonung, the earliest reliably attested Swedish kings. The stories of some of these kings may be embellish ...

, was launched in 1875 by

Motala Verkstad AB Motala Verkstad is one of the oldest engineering companies in Sweden. The company was founded in 1822 during the construction of Göta Canal. Motala Verkstad has also built about 400 ships, 800 bridges (e.g. Västerbron, Skeppsholmsbron, ...

Norrköping Norrköping ( , ) is a city in the province of Östergötland in eastern Sweden and the seat of Norrköping Municipality, Östergötland County, about 160 km southwest of the national capital Stockholm, 40 km east of county seat Lin ...

. She was decommissioned in 1919 and was converted into an

oil An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) and lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturate ...

after she was sold. The ship was acquired by the

Maritima Centrum from

Mobil Mobil Oil Corporation, now known as just Mobil, is a petroleum brand owned and operated by American oil and gas corporation ExxonMobil, formerly known as Exxon, which took its current name after history of ExxonMobil#merger, it and Mobil merge ...

oil in 1992. It has been partially restored and is currently moored at the

Maritiman Maritiman is a floating maritime museum on the Göta Älv, in Gothenburg, Sweden. The museum's collection comprises 19 vessels, the oldest being HSwMS Sölve, HSwMS ''Sölve'' from 1875. The collection All of the vessels are afloat on the river. ...

marine museum in Gothenburg.

Notes

References

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Solve Hildur-class monitors Ships built in Norrköping 1875 ships Ships preserved in museums Museum ships in Sweden Museums in Gothenburg 1875 in Sweden Nordstaden 1992 establishments in Sweden Museums established in 1992