In the early 1800s, the navy used wooden sailing ships, but iron steamships soon became an alternative. Steam power was experimented with early on, but initially it was considered unreliable and energy-consuming. Its range was limited by the amount of coal that could be carried on board. Therefore, for a time, ships were equipped with both sails and steam engines.
In the 1870s, the Swedish Navy built its last warships with both sail rigs and steam engines. The first steamships were driven by paddle wheels, but later these were replaced by propellers, which were more efficient and also safer for warships. Paddle wheels could easily be destroyed by enemy fire, rendering the ship immobile.
Technological advances made steamships more reliable, and they eventually replaced almost all sailing ships in the navy. Steamships were less dependent on weather and wind. They were easier to steer, maintained a consistently higher speed, and required fewer crew members.
Propeller Steam Engines and Gun Turrets
In the exhibition, you can try a real propeller steam engine that was once installed in the gunboat Skuld. The engine weighs 17 tons and has an output of 390 horsepower. You can also see a propeller steam engine from 1894, manufactured at the Karlskrona naval shipyard for the steam launch af Chapman. A steam launch was a small steam-powered ship or a larger ship’s boat—a passenger vessel that could also be used to tow sailing ships and barges.
There is also a model of the gun turret from the armored ship Sverige, which you can look inside. The model shows how a gun turret on Sverige functioned. Ammunition was brought up from the powder and projectile storage compartments, located deep in the ship, by an elevator to the rotating part of the turret. For safety reasons, it was then transferred to another elevator up to the cannon itself. The crew was protected inside the turret, as the ships no longer had gundecks with open gunports.