HSwMS Sölve

HSwMS Sölve is one of seven Hildur-class monitors 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 m long overall and had a beam of 8.72 m. They had a draft of 2.7 m and displaced 460 t. Her crew numbered 48 officers and men. The ship had rudders at bow and stern.

The Hildurs 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 155 ihp which gave the monitors a maximum speed of 8 kn. The ships carried 23 - 25 t of coal.

The monitors were equipped with one 240 mm M/69 rifled breech loader, mounted in a long, fixed, oval-shaped gun turret. The gun weighed 14670 kg and fired projectiles at a muzzle velocity of 397 m/s. At its maximum elevation of 7.5° it had a range of 3500 m. The Hildurs also mounted two 75 mm guns. They were rearmed with a 120 mm quick-firing gun as well as three 57 mm quick-firing guns sometime in the 1890s or the early 1900s.

The Hildur class had a complete waterline armor belt of wrought iron that was 76 mm thick with a 19 mm deck. The face of the gun turret was protected by 418 mm of armor, while its sides were 356 mm thick. The conning tower protruded from the top of the turret and was protected by 254 mm of armor.

Construction and service
Sölve, named after Sölve, a semi-legendary King of Sweden, was launched in 1875 by Motala Verkstad at Norrköping. She was decommissioned in 1919 and was converted into an oil barge after she was sold. The ship was acquired by the Gothenburg Maritima Centrum from Mobiloil in 1992. It has been partially restored and is currently moored at the Maritiman marine museum in Gothenburg.