Finnish gunboat Klas Horn

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article does not cite any references or sources. (September 2007)
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

Career

Name:	Klas Horn
Commissioned:	1892 1918 (Finnish Navy)
Decommissioned:	1937
Commissioned:	1941
Decommissioned:	1957
Fate:	Burned and scrapped in 1962
General characteristics
Displacement:	420 tons
Length:	57.2 metres (188 ft)
Beam:	7 metres (23 ft)
Draft:	3.1 metres (10 ft)
Propulsion:	steam boilers
Speed:	19 knots (35 km/h)
Complement:	57
Armament:	two 102 mm Canet machine guns 50 mines later two 75 mm

Klas Horn (ex-Posadnik) was the flagship and an escort ship for the Russian Czar's yacht. Posadnik 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 Klas Horn, after a 16th century admiral. She initially served as a minelayer, but was rebuilt into a gunboat in the 1920s. Klas Horn ended her Finnish navy service in the 1930s and served as a mothership for sea surveying.

The Klas Horn was a strange mix of a civilian and warship. The front end looked like a warship, but since she also had been the escort ship for the czar, her superstructures were low and gracious.

The Finns mounted a large 102 mm gun on her, but it proved too big for the ship. During sea travel, the gun had to be tied so it would not make the ship unstable. The old ship's sea going qualities were also bad.

Klas Horn returned to the Finnish Navy in 1941 and served until 1957. Thereafter she was rebuilt into a floating hotel and restaurant. She suffered a fire in 1963 and was scrapped the following year.