HSwMS Folke was the last of the seven s built for the Swedish Navy in the mid-1870s. Unlike her sisters, her gun turret was fixed to the rear. The ship was placed in reserve in 1919 and ultimately sold in 1942. Design and description The Hildur-class monitors were designed by Lieutenant John Christian d'Ailly, from a proposal by John Ericsson, for the defense of Lake Mälaren and the Stockholm archipelago. They had fixed turrets mounting guns and someone on the defense staff realized that they could be destroyed while retreating because none of the ships could fire to their rear. Folke was designed to protect her sisters in that situation as her turret was fixed to the rear. Folke was long overall and had a beam of . She had a draft of and displaced . Her crew numbered 48 officers and men. The ship had a rudder at bow and stern. The Hildur-class ships had two horizontal twin-cylinder steam engines, each driving a single propeller. Their engines were powered by two cylindrical boilers. The engines produced a total of which gave the monitors a maximum speed of . The ships carried of coal. Armament Folke was equipped with one M/69 rifled breech loader, mounted in a long, fixed, oval-shaped turret that faced to the rear. The gun weighed and fired projectiles at a muzzle velocity of . At its maximum elevation of 7.5° it had a range of . The ship also mounted two guns. Folke was rearmed with a quick-firing gun as well as three quick-firing guns sometime in the 1890s or the early 1900s. Armor Folke had a complete waterline armor belt of wrought iron that ranged thick from front to rear. The deck was thick. The face of the gun turret was protected by of armor, while its sides were thick. The conning tower protruded from the top of the turret and was protected by of armor. Construction and service Folke was launched in 1875 by Motala Verkstad at Norrköping. She was decommissioned in 1919 and was eventually converted into a heating plant for mothballed submarines. The ship was sold in 1942 for conversion to a barge. Footnotes References 1875 ships Ships built in Norrköping Hildur-class monitors