Gun-boats and sloops

Originally Chapman designed two types of gun sloops in 1775-76 designated type A and B. Type A was armed with one 18 pound gun mounted on a sliding carriage which could be moved from one end to the other of the gun vessel. The other type was designed to carry a 12 pound gun which might be used either in the gun sloop in a sliding carriage or on land mounted on a wheeled field carriage. The two types differed slightly in size, the larger type A was 63'6×13'6"×2'6, while type B was 60'×12'×2'6".

The first gun yawl was designed in 1778 and came to be built in great numbers during the subsequent wars. They were equipped with either an 18 or a 24 pound gun firing over the stern. In difference to the gun sloop the gun in the gun yawl was non-recoiling, i.e. it was mounted in a bed integrated into the vessel which was recoiling when the gun was fired. It was not possible to accommodate the heavy gun at the very stern but it was mounted some 10 feet inboards and the rest of the stern cut down almost to the waterlevel.

Rig

The gun sloops (kanonslup) for the Swedish navy were mainly built in 1789-90 and 1808-09 and the gun yawls (kanonjolle) in 1808-1809 and 1828-36. The gun sloops were rigged with two dipping lug sails and the gun yawls with standing lugs. The contemporary Danish gun boats were rigged with a jib, two standing lugs and sprit mizzen. The oared naval vessels were not removed from the active fleet until 1871. As late as 1882 there were still 31 guns yawls at the Stockholm naval base although not in active service.

Kanonslupar och kanonjollar i den svenska flottan.

Genom en kunglig order av den 6 oktober 1826 utgick nickhakarna ur de däckade kanonsluparnas bestyckning. [Jägerskiöld]

The all blue flag with three tails was introduced as the flag for the Navy of the Swedish Army in August 18, 1761 after the division of the Royal Swedish Navy in a high seas navy and a coastal or inshore navy in 1756. The latter was called the Navy of the Swedish Army and its fleet was composed of traditional galleys from earlier times and the new types of light frigates and other vessels designed by Chapman. Its most prominent types were the oared "skerry" frigate types named after Finnish counties, the Turuma, Pojama, Udema, Hemmema and perhaps the most famous of his designs, the gun sloops and the gun yawls. The Navy of the Swedish Army lasted until 1823 when it was once more combined with the high seas fleet under one organisation.

In addition to his Chapman biography Daniel G. Harris also has treated the small craft designed by Chapman in Admiral Frederic af Chapman's Auxiliary Vessels for the Swedish Inshore Fleet published in The Mariner's Mirror Vol. 75 (1989), pp 211-230. Commander Harris is not always to be trusted and this article should be used with great care but it includes a number of interesting illustrations.

Gunboats were built in many countries at that time, and quite a few of them were directly related to Chapman's designs. The Russians copied the Swedish designs from captured boats. Surprisingly, a few gunboats were built even in England and the United States at that time.

Similar boats were also built by the Danes after the capture and destruction of the Danish navy by the British after the fall of Copenhagen in 1807. The Danes used these small vessels with great success in the narrow and shallow waters of the Danish straits to attack wind bound English men-of-wars.

The man introducing the gunboat of Swedish design in France was Muskein, a Belgian naval officer who had been serving in the Swedish Royal Navy during the Swedish-Russian war of 1788-1790. When he returned to France in 1796 he brought with him draughts of several types of gunboats of Chapman's design. These he brought to the attention of the French ministry of the navy, Admiral Truguet. A great number of vessels of this design were built along the Channel-coast in 1796-1805 as preparations for the invasion of England. These boats were generally referred to as bateaux à. la Muskein; bateaux cannoniers à. la suédoise; bateaux plats à. la Muskein, or similar.

See: Victoires, Conquê.tes, Désartes, Revers et Guerres Civiles des Franç.ais de 1792 à 1815, par une Société de Militaires et de Gens de Lettres, 1817-1822 and E. Desbriè.re: Projets et Tenatives de Débarquement aux Iles Brittaniques, 1793-1805, Paris, 1900.

The Swedish gunboat at the Rijksmuseum

It is quite possible that the two gunboat models in the Rijksmuseum are related to the introduction of the gunboat in France. A puzzeling fact is that at least one of the models sports an ordinary Swedish naval flag (yellow cross on blue with three tails). The gunboats belonged to the army's navy which flag was all blue and with three tails. However the all blue flag was not compulsory and most galleys flew the ordinary Swedish naval flag.

If the flags on the two Swedish gun sloop models in the collections of the Rijksmuseum are contemporary with the models they should have been of the all blue pattern described above if they were made in Sweden during this period. A guess is that they are either built in a country not aware of the flag of the Swedish Army's navy or that they are built after 1813. The fact that they are decked and other features suggest a later development than the original designs.

Specifications for a Gun Sloop.

Original Ritning till en Canon Slup.
Lång öfver Stäf	64¾ fot.
Bred på ytterkant af Timbren	15 fot 2 tum.
Djupgående med full utrustning	4 fot.
Deplacement … Cubic fot watten.
Bestyckad med en 24 £ Bomb Canon i fören, en 24 £ lång Canon i aktern samt 4^ra. stycken 3 £^iga. Nickor.
af JG von Sydow

Models of Gun-sloops and Gun-yawls

1776 Kanonslup, typ A.

Konstruktör:	F.H. Chapman.
Ritningar:	Krigsarkivet #.
Datum:	1776-01-20
Modell:
Dimensioner:	63'6"x13'6"x2'6"
Beväpning:	2x18 pundiga kanoner; 4x2 pundiga nickor.
Åror:	10 par, 2 man per åra.
Rigg:
Besättning:
Antal byggda:	4 st.
Illustrationer:	Harris (1989), s 222.

1776 Kanonslup, typ B.

Konstruktör:	F.H. Chapman.
Ritningar:	Krigsarkivet #.
Datum:	1776-01-20
Modell:	SSHM Ö 82; Skala 1:16
Dimensioner:	60'x12'x2'6"
Beväpning:	1x12 pundig kanon; 2x2 pundiga nickor.
Åror:	12 par, 1 man per åra.
Rigg:
Besättning:
Antal byggda:	8 st.
Illustrationer:	Harris (1989), s 220.

1776 Kanonslup.

Konstruktör:	F.H. Chapman.
Ritningar:	Krigsarkivet.
Datum:	1776-01-20
Modell:
Dimensioner:	63'6"x12'x2'6" (?)
Beväpning:	2x18 pundiga kanoner; 4x2 pundiga nickor.
Åror:	12 par, 2 man per åra.
Rigg:
Besättning:
Illustrationer:	Svenskt skeppsbyggeri, p 171.

1789 Kanonjolle.

Konstruktör:	F.H. Chapman.
Ritningar:	Krigsarkivet MR 003/441; SSHM ÖR 3 276
Datum:	1789
Modell:	SSHM Ö 55; Skala 1:16
Dimensioner:	60'x10'
Beväpning:	1x24 (?) pundig kanon.
Åror:
Rigg:
Besättning:
Illustrationer:

Ett förslag som troligen aldrig byggd.

1789 Kanonjolle.

Konstruktör:	F.H. Chapman.
Ritningar:	Krigsarkivet.
Datum:	1789
Modell:	SSHM
Dimensioner:	40'x10'x2' (?).
Beväpning:	1x24 (?) pundig kanon.
Åror:	7 par.
Rigg:
Besättning:
Illustrationer:

1791 Däckad kanonslup.

Konstruktör:	F.H. Chapman.
Ritningar:	Krigsarkivet.
Datum:	1791-04-28.
Modell:
Dimensioner:	78'6"x15'8"x4'6".
Beväpning:	2x24 pundiga kanoner; 4x2 pundiga nickor.
Åror:	15 par, 2 man per åra.
Rigg:
Besättning:
Illustrationer:	Harris (1989), s 48.

1802 Däckad kanonslup.

Konstruktör:	F.H. Chapman.
Ritningar:	Krigsarkivet.
Datum:	1802-09-05.
Modell:
Dimensioner:	77'x18'x5'10".
Beväpning:	2x24 pundiga kanoner; 4x6 pundiga skråstycken; 4x2 pundiga nickor.
Åror:	14 par, 2 man per åra.
Rigg:
Besättning:
Illustrationer:	Harris (1989), s 184-185.

1808 Öppen kanonslup.

Konstruktör:	F.H. Chapman/Bogeman
Ritningar:	Krigsarkivet.
Datum:
Modell:	SSHM Ö 51
Dimensioner:	64'62x14'2"
Beväpning:
Åror:
Rigg:
Besättning:
Illustrationer:

1808 Öppen kanonjolle.

Konstruktör:	F.H. Chapman/Bogeman
Ritningar:	Krigsarkivet.
Datum:
Modell:
Dimensioner:
Beväpning:
Åror:
Rigg:
Besättning:
Illustrationer:

1822 Däckad kanonslup.

Konstruktör:	C.C. Louis.
Ritningar:	Krigsarkivet.
Datum:	1822-01-26.
Modell:
Dimensioner:	58'x16'8"x6'9".
Beväpning:	2x24 pundiga kanoner.
Åror:	10 par.
Rigg:	Tvåmastad gaffelrigg.
Besättning:
Illustrationer:	Marquardt (1990), s ???.

1826 Däckad kanonslup.

Konstruktör:	A. Wiggman.
Ritningar:	Krigsarkivet.
Datum:	1826-04-11.
Modell:	SSHM Ö 54; Skala 1:12
Dimensioner:	51'x10'x2.
Beväpning:	1x24 pundig kanon.
Åror:	10 par.
Rigg:
Besättning:
Antal byggda:	90 st. under åren 1827-48.
Illustrationer:	Svenskt skeppsbyggeri, p 171.

Ritningar av danska kanonslupar

1791	Kanonslup, 30 åror, 2x36 pund. I.S Halkier, Stockholm. Rigsarkivet C 204.
1791	Kanonslup, 70'. I.S Halkier, Stockholm. Rigsarkivet C 209.
1791	Kanonslup införd av Constructions Commissionen. Rigsarkivet C 215.
1791	Kanonbåd. Rigsarkivet G 641.
1803	Kanonslup av Chapman, daterad St Petersburg. Tre stycken. Rigsarkivet C 313.
1804	Kanonjolle efter Chapman. Rigsarkivet G 779-785.
1805	Däckad kanonslup av Chapman. Fyra stycken. Rigsarkivet C 331.
1805	Kanonslup. Midskeppsspant. Rigsarkivet G 686.
1805	Kanonslup, 30 åror. Sidoteckning och spantruta. Rigsarkivet G 706-707.
1805	Kanonjolle efter Chapman. Rigsarkivet G 779-785.
1806	Kanonslup. Genomsnitt och plan. Rigsarkivet G 721-722.
1806	Kanonslup. Midskeppspant. Rigsarkivet G 733.
1807	Kanonslup. Rigsarkivet G 735.
1807	Kanonslup, 30 åror. Rigsarkivet G 719. Rigsarkivet C 352.
1807	Kanonslup, 30 åror, 2x24 pund; 4x4 pund houbitzer. Av Nielsen. Rigsarkivet C 359.
1808	Kanonjolle efter svensk faç.on. Rigsarkivet G 786.
1809	Kanonjolle efter Chapman. Rigsarkivet G 779-785.
1810	Kanonjolle efter Chapman. Rigsarkivet G 779-785.
1822	Kanonslup, 30 åror. Rigsarkivet G 709.
1833	Kanonslup. Midskeppspant. Rigsarkivet G 734.
1833	Kanonslup. Rigsarkivet G 710.
1833	Kanonslup efter Chapman. Rigsarkivet G 716.

Bibliography

(Bogeman, Lars): Föreskrift vid nybyggnaden af en öppen canon-slup, byggd af eke på cravell. Peter Sohm, Stockholm, 1808. -8vo, 16 pp, with 2 large plates which might just as well belong to the following work.
Specifications for a carvel built gun-boat of oak.
(Bogeman, Lars): Föreskrift vid nybyggnaden af en öppen canon-slup, byggd af furu på cravell. Peter Sohm, Stockholm, 1808. -8vo, 15.5x9.5 cm, 15 pp. Försvarets reprocentral, Stockholm, 1977 (facs).
Specifications for a carvel built gun-boat of pine wood.
(Bogeman, Lars): Föreskrift vid nybyggnaden af canon-jullar, byggde på cravel af ek eller furu. Carl Fr. Marquard, Stockholm, 1808. -8vo, 15.5x9.5 cm, 15 pp, 2 large plates.
Specifications for a carvel built small gun-boat of oak or pine wood.
Harris, Daniel G.: F.H. Chapman. The First Naval Architect and His Work. Conway Maritime Press, London, 1989. 4to, 255 pp, ill.
Marquardt, Karl Heinz: Schoner in Nord und Süd. Delius Klasing Verlag, Bielefeld, 1990. 8vo, 296 pp, ill., 6 fold. plates.

Updated 1996-06-29 by Lars Bruzelius

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