page_title: Hemmema
section_title: Design and construction
hierarchical_section_title: Hemmema / Design and construction
caption_attribution_description: English: Color drawing of hemmema Oden on paper. Contemporary, but date unknown. Museum ID-number: 1966:37.
context_page_description: A hemmema was a type of warship built for the Swedish archipelago fleet and the Russian Baltic Fleet in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The hemmema was initially developed for use against the Imperial Russian Navy in the Archipelago Sea and along the coasts of Svealand and Finland. It was designed by the prolific and innovative Swedish naval architect Fredrik Henrik af Chapman in collaboration with Augustin Ehrensvärd, an artillery officer and later commander of the Swedish archipelago fleet. The hemmema was a specialized vessel for use in the shallow waters and narrow passages that surround the thousands of islands and islets extending from the Swedish capital of Stockholm into the Gulf of Finland.
  The hemmema replaced the galleys that had made up the core of the Swedish archipelago fleets until the mid-18th century. Compared to galleys, the hemmema had a deeper draft and was slower under oars, but offered superior accommodation for the crew, carried more stores, was more seaworthy and had roughly ten times as many heavy guns.
context_section_description: Of the new designs, turumas and hemmemas best fit the description of "archipelago frigate" because of their similarities to small ocean-going frigates. The first hemmema, the Oden, was completed in 1764. It was c. 33 m (108.2 ft) long and 8.2 m (26.8 ft) wide with a draft of 2.8 m (9.25 ft). It had a low hull with no forecastle, only a low quarterdeck, and no poop deck. It had three masts that were initially rigged with lateen sails, like a galley. The navy later replaced the lateen rigs with a more conventional square-sail frigate rig. The early design provided for 14 pairs of oars with four men per oar. The rowers plied their oars from the gun deck through oar ports positioned between the gunports, close to the waterline, which gave the rowers better leverage. The oars were also placed on a rectangular outrigger, designed to further improve the leverage. Even so, hemmemas performed poorly when rowed and were difficult in contrary winds. They were slower than ordinary sailing ships, but sailed better than galleys.
  During the Russian war of 1788–1790, Sweden built three hemmemas of a new design. They were considerably larger, 44.5  by 11 m (146 by 36 ft), and the number of oars were increased to 20 pairs. They also had some of the heaviest broadsides, even when compared with the much larger frigates of the high seas navy. The artillery officer Carl Fredrik Aschling had cooperated with Chapman to increase the main armament to twenty-two 36-pounders and two 12-pounders, which increased the draft by about 30 cm (1 ft). The addition of diagonal bracers to reinforce the hull allowed the later hemmemas to carry guns more powerful even than those on the largest sailing frigates of the high seas navy. Due to their considerable firepower and relative size, naval historian Jan Glete has described the hemmemas as "super archipelago frigates".
  The hemmema's design was very similar to that of the turuma. The primary difference was that the turuma's oarsmen sat on the weather deck above the guns, whereas the hemmema's oarsmen sat on the gundeck. The later hemmemas were considerably larger, more heavily armed, and of a more robust construction. Glete has described them as variations on the same type, especially when considering the pre-war designs.
caption: Contemporary color drawing of Oden, the first hemmema
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