HSwMS Sölve is one of seven Hildur-classmonitors built for the Swedish Navy in the mid-1870s. The ship had an uneventful career and was sold in 1919 for conversion into a barge. She became a museum ship in Gothenburg, Sweden, in 1992.
Design and description
The Hildur-class monitors were designed by Lieutenant John Christian d'Ailly, from a proposal by John Ericsson, for the defense of Lake Mälaren and the Stockholm archipelago. The ships were 39.78 meters (130 ft 6 in) long overall and had a beam of 8.72 meters (28 ft 7 in). They had a draft of 2.7 meters (8 ft 10 in) and displaced 460 metric tons (450 long tons). Her crew numbered 48 officers and men. The ship had rudders at bow and stern.[1]
The monitors were equipped with one 240-millimeter (9.4 in) M/69 rifled breech loader, mounted in a long, fixed, oval-shaped gun turret. The gun weighed 14,670 kilograms (32,340 lb) and fired projectiles at a muzzle velocity of 397 m/s (1,300 ft/s). At its maximum elevation of 7.5° it had a range of 3,500 meters (3,800 yd).[4] The Hildurs also mounted two 75-millimeter (3 in) guns. They were rearmed with a 120-millimeter (4.7 in) quick-firing gun as well as three 57-millimeter (2.2 in) quick-firing guns sometime in the 1890s or the early 1900s.[1]
The Hildur class had a complete waterlinearmor belt of wrought iron that was 76 millimeters (3.0 in) thick with a 19-millimeter (0.7 in) deck. The face of the gun turret was protected by 418 millimeters (16.5 in) of armor, while its sides were 356 millimeters (14 in) thick. The conning tower protruded from the top of the turret and was protected by 254 millimeters (10 in) of armor.[5]
^"Monitoren Sölve". maritiman.se (in Swedish). Maritiman marine museum. Archived from the original on 2007-07-09. Retrieved 2008-04-08.
References
Bojerud, Stellan (1986). "Monitors and Armored Gunboats of the Royal Swedish Navy, Part 1". Warship International. XXIII (2). International Naval Records Organization: 167–180. ISSN0043-0374.
Harris, Daniel G. (1994). "The Swedish Monitors". In Roberts, John (ed.). Warship 1994. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. pp. 22–34. ISBN1-55750-903-4.