Finnish gunboat Matti Kurki

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Career

Type:	Gunboat
Ordered:
Laid down:
Launched:
Commissioned:	1892 1918 (Finnish Navy)
Fate:	Sank as a gunnery target in 1937 Lifted and scrapped 1940
General Characteristics
Displacement:	420 tons
Length:	57.2 m
Beam:	7.0 m
Draught:	3.1 m
Propulsion:	Steam boilers 3,600 hp
Speed:	19 knots
Range:
Complement:	5 + 52
Armament:	2× 102 mm Canet Machine guns 50x mines later 2× 75 mm

Matti Kurki (ex-Voivoda), was an escort ship for the Russian Czar's yacht. Voivoda was built in Prussia in 1892 for the Montenegrin king Nicholas I. The ship was purchased by the Russian Czar after Nicholas' money ran out. After the Russian revolution, the ship was taken over by the Finnish Navy and renamed Matti Kurki, after a 13th century legendary commander. She initially served as a minelayer, but was rebuilt into a gunboat in the 1920s. Matti Kurki was sunk as a gunnery practice target in the 1930s. She seems to have been lifted as some information claim that she served as a floating AA-battery at Katajanokka, Helsinki, during the Winter War, armed with a 76 mm AA-gun.