Finnish gunboat Klas Horn

History
Name	Klas Horn
Commissioned	1892; 1918 (Finnish Navy);
Decommissioned	1937
Commissioned	1941
Decommissioned	1957
Fate	Burned and scrapped in 1962
General characteristics
Displacement	420 tons
Length	57.2 m (188 ft)
Beam	7 m (23 ft)
Draft	3.1 m (10 ft)
Propulsion	steam boilers
Speed	19 knots (35 km/h)
Complement	57
Armament	two 102 mm Canet naval guns; 50 mines; later two 75 mm;

Klas Horn (ex-Posadnik) was the flagship and an escort ship for the Russian Czar's yacht. Posadnik was built in Prussia in 1892 for the Montenegrin king Nicholas I. The ship was purchased by the Russian Czar after Nicholas' money ran out. After the Russian revolution, the ship was taken over by the Finnish Navy and renamed Klas Horn, after a 16th-century admiral. She initially served as a minelayer, but was rebuilt into a gunboat in the 1920s. Klas Horn ended her Finnish navy service in the 1930s and served as a mothership for sea surveying.

The Klas Horn was a strange mix of a civilian and warship. The front end looked like a warship, but since she also had been the escort ship for the czar, her superstructures were low and gracious.

The Finns mounted a large 102 mm gun on her, but it proved too big for the ship. During sea travel, the gun had to be tied so it would not make the ship unstable. The old ship's seagoing qualities were also bad.

Klas Horn returned to the Finnish Navy in 1941 and served until 1957. Thereafter she was rebuilt into a floating hotel and restaurant. She suffered a fire in 1963 and was scrapped the following year.

See also