page_title: Archipelago fleet
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Archipelago fleet / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Battle of Ratan, a 19th-century painting. "Last battle of the war at Ratan near Umeå in Swedish Västerbotten"
context_page_description: The archipelago fleet, officially the Fleet of the army, was a branch of the armed forces of Sweden which existed between 1756 and 1823. Its purpose was to protect the coasts of Sweden, which was surrounded by a natural barrier of archipelagoes. Throughout its existence, it was a largely independent arm of the army, separate from the navy, with the exception of a few years in the late 1760s. In a number of respects, it was a precursor of the Swedish Coastal Artillery and its coastal fleet.
  Its vessels consisted of traditional Mediterranean-style galleys, prams, gunboats and specially-designed broadside-armed "archipelago frigates". All types had the ability to operate under oars and a small draft, enabling them to navigate the shallow and often treacherous inshore waters.
  The archipelago fleet was active in several wars from 1757 to 1814: the Swedish involvement in the Seven Years' War, the Russo–Swedish War of 1788–90, the Finnish War of 1808–09 and the brief Swedish–Norwegian War of 1814.
context_section_description: The Russian capture of Nöteborg and Nyen early in the Great Northern War allowed the Russians to access to the Baltic Sea, which had largely been under Swedish control before the war. Since Russian naval units were, at the time, based on coastal squadrons, the Swedes were prompted to start construction of their own small coastal squadrons. However, the small Swedish squadron, which had been hastily created during the war, was overwhelmed by the Russian galley fleet at the battle of Gangut in 1714, as the Russian fleet enjoyed tenfold superiority over the Swedish fleet.
  After the Treaty of Nystad in 1721, the Swedish high command realized the need of a fast and agile marine unit that could maneuver in littoral waters. A squadron based in Stockholm was the first to be created. However, the Russo-Swedish War of 1741–1743 demonstrated that the unit was too small to defeat the Russian forces. An official fleet of the army was planned, and the ships would be modeled after Mediterranean galleys and xebecs (a sailing ship hybrid with oar propulsion). These were fast and dangerous ships that were used by the Barbary pirates off the coast of North Africa. The Swedish galleys were redesigned, and made smaller.
  The archipelago fleet was not under the command of the high seas navy (örlogsflottan) and the admiralty based in Karlskrona; instead, it was placed under the command of the army on October 18, 1756. In 1756, the archipelago fleet consisted of two units: a Stockholm squadron and a Finnish squadron. General Augustin Ehrensvärd was appointed commander of the fleet.
  The fleet had some initial successes. During the Seven Years' War, the new galleys, supported by heavy gun prams, were victorious against Prussia at the battle of Frisches Haff, but the short range of the galleys limited their use. It was only with a deliberate boarding action that the battle was won. The ship designer Fredrik Henrik Chapman had joined the navy in 1757, and was charged with creating new ship types that would better fulfill the needs of the archipelago fleet. In 1760, the archipelago fleet was granted independent status, and renamed the "fleet of the army" or "the united archipelago fleets", by suggestion of Ehrensvärd.
  A Royal warrant in August 1761 stipulated that an all blue triple-tailed flag was to be used by the archipelago fleet. The Commander of the fleet also had the right to order the use of the ordinary war ensign instead of the blue ensign when it was deemed "appropriate". The blue flag was used until 1813.
  In 1766, the ruling Caps faction of the Swedish parliament ordered that the archipelago fleet be merged with the navy. However, the ruling was partially reversed when the rival Hats faction regained control in 1770. The Finnish squadron was returned to the army, while the Stockholm squadron remained under the command of the navy; however, it was renamed the "galley fleet" (galärflottan). On November 14 of the same year, both units were once again merged into one unit, and were renamed the arméns flotta ("the "fleet of the army") in 1777.
  The main headquarters of the archipelago fleet were located at Stockholm and Sveaborg, with smaller stations established in other places over time. The Bohus squadron was formed in Gothenburg in 1789, and an additional Finnish squadron was created in Åbo in 1793. A Pomeranian squadron was created in Stralsund, and was moved to Landskrona in 1807. There were also some smaller units in Malmö, Kristina and Varkaus.
  During the Russo-Swedish War of 1788–90, the Swedish high seas navy was roughly equal in quality and often superior in number and size of ships in comparison to the Russian navy. The Swedish navy struggled throughout the war, failing to achieve the major victory required to leave the Russian capital of Saint Petersburg open to invasion; it also sustained considerable losses. At best, it only achieved tactical draws. On the other hand, the archipelago fleet was far more successful, although it suffered a few initial setbacks, including a tactical defeat against its Russian equivalent at Svensksund
caption: The battle of Ratan near Umeå, the final engagement of the Finnish War, where the archipelago fleet fought to hold off invading Russian land forces.
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