1. INTRO – Museum Shop

Main exhibition on the ground floor of the museum

Laivasilta – the first harbour of Loviisa

• The town of Degerby, later Loviisa, was founded as a staple port in 1745, when it also received the right to trade with foreign countries.
  • The Swedish Empire needed a new border, fortress and trade town after losing Hamina to Russia in the Treaty of Turku in 1743.
  • At the time of the town foundation, the only staple right towns in Finland were Turku, Vyborg and Helsinki.

• Loviisa served as a center for foreign trade not only for the regions of Eastern Uusimaa, but also for the regions of Savo and Karelia. Its area of influence extended even to the north of Kuopio.

1. • The goods exported via the port of Loviisa were iron, sawn timber and, during good harvest years, grain.
   • Salt was the most significant of the imported goods. It was imported mainly from the Mediterranean countries – but even smaller quantities from Lübeck and Stockholm.

Loviisa Maritime Customs House

• The first customs building was built in 1749 on the southern side of the market square (Suolatori), west of the first harbour of Loviisa (Laivasilta).
  • o In the middle of the market square was a “corps de garde”, a military guardhouse, from which traffic to and from the port and the town could be observed.
  • In 1765, a new customs house was built on Laivasilta.

• A staple town had the right to collect customs duties and taxes. To do that, the town had to build a customs storehouse – a storage room for customs clearance and for storage of imported goods.
  •  The customs warehouses in the area remained only a few, as the nobility and bourgeoisie had their own storage buildings built in the port area, in which they stored the salt they bought from abroad. That is why the current storehouses are still called salt storehouses.
  • Restaurant “Café Saltbodan”, founded in 1986, is the former customs warehouse.

Loviisa Maritime Museum

• In 1993, a group of active Loviisa residents decided to establish a maritime museum in the heart of the old harbor.
• The museum building consists of an old warehouse building, the logs of which were moved to its current location on Laivasilta by volunteers, and a new building completed in 1998.
• The new museum was inaugurated on July 1, 1995.
• The tugboat Onni located in the beach park and the lighthouse standing next to it, are part of the museum’s collections.

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2. THE AGE OF SAIL

1st room downstairs

Sailing Ships

• The sailing ship era in Loviisa reached its peak in the first decade of the 19th century, and later, yet in the 1850s.
• During the Age of Sail, seafaring offered work for many – young boys could start their sailor’s life as ship boys, and progress in their career to able seamen and second mates.
• The largest sailing ships were loaded and unloaded in the Loviisa Bay, as the draught of Tullisilta, let alone Laivasilta, was completely insufficient for them.
• Traffic at the Laivasilta salt warehouses and the market square (Suolatori) was lively for most of the year.
  • The largest ailing ships set off in late summer and returned the following year in May-June. Smaller ships left in spring and returned in autumn.
  • The salt storehouses were therefore filled twice a year: in spring and autumn. In winter, the salt was sold for the need of the inland.

Export goods from the inland

• Peasants from Eastern Uusimaa, Karelia and Savo traveled to Loviisa annually to buy salt and sell their own products.
  • For some peasants, the journey to the town could be as long as 1,000 kilometers. The easiest way to make the journey was by sleigh in winter.
  • A peasant arriving in the town had a regular business partner: he often stayed with a familiar, local merchant, and in return, the merchant traded only with the familiar peasant.

• Timber was also brought by sleigh from the inland sawmills to be shipped from Loviisa abroad.
  • The boards were stored in the board yards on the shores of Dunkahäll Isle and Tamminiemi.
  • For the first 150 years, winter sleigh rides were a familiar and awaited sight in the town.

Shipyards

• The merchant shipping was largely controlled by the town’s own merchants: many of them were also shipowners and owners of the shipyards.
  • The first shipyard, called Vanha Varvi (Old Shipyard), was established in the early years of the town on Köpbacka shore, south of the town.
  • The first ship was built at the so-called Old Shipyard in 1749–1750.
  • A New Shipyard was built in 1780 on Siksala Isle on the other side of the strait.
  • In 1779–1780, a new frigate was built at both shipyards, which was completed in the summer of 1780 and named Constantia. One of the majority owners of this ship was the merchant and ship-owner Elias Unonius.

• The ship usually had several co-owners, who were responsible for the management of the ship. The largest investor was the main owner of this ship.

View of Loviisa Bay

• Looking out to sea from Laivasilta, you can see the Tullisilta Bridge – the second harbour of the town.
• The board yards were located further south, in the area of the current Tamminiemi camping area and Sahaniemi.
• In the Loviisa Bay, east of Sahaniemi, is Dunkahäll Isle, behind which larger sailing ships waited to be loaded and unloaded.
• South of Sahaniemi is Siksala Isle, where the New Shipyard was located, and opposite to it, on the mainland, is Varvi, which is named after the old shipyard.
• The Svartholm sea fortress is located further out in the Loviisa Bay.

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3. NAVIGATION / SEAFARE

1st room upstairs

Navigation

• Seafarers of the past understood that the most important thing in determining location (latitude) was to determine the measured height of a celestial body above the horizon. The north-south position of the ship was estimated by observing celestial bodies.
  • The invention of the chronometer H4 (1761, watchmaker John Harrison) made it possible to determine accurate time at sea, which was crucial in calculating longitude.
• The use of mirrors in measuring instruments revolutionized the determination of angle magnitude in the 18th century.
  • In the 18th–19th centuries, the octant was part of the standard equipment of the mates in merchant ships.
• When the semi-arc of the octant was expanded from 45 degrees to 60 degrees, the wooden frame was changed to brass and more optics were added to the instrument, the result was the sextant.
  • The mirror sextant was developed by John Hadley in 1731.
• Modern maps are still based on the latitudes of the Earth drawn up in the 15th century.
  • Today’s mariners locate their ships at sea using the same coordinates, although the information comes via satellites.

Depth gauging and nautical charts

• Depth gauging was the most important navigational aid in the Baltic Sea for mapping its shallow coasts.
  • o In depth gauging, the depth of the water was measured using a plumb line and lead weight.
  • In the 18th century, pilot officers were responsible for gauging depth. A skilled man could measure depths of up to 20 fathoms with a 25 fathom plumb line while the ship was moving at a speed of 10 knots.

• In the Swedish Empire, the development of navigation skills is closely linked to the mapping of the Baltic Sea, pilotage and the growth of the Swedish navy.
  • In 1747, Field Marshal Augustin Ehrensvärd was to develop the coastal defences of the eastern part of Sweden: depth measurements were made on the southern coast of Finland, including in Loviisa, and new maps were drawn up.
  • Pilot officer Jonas Hahn published maps of the Loviisa Bay in 1748 and 1751.

Loviisa Maritime School

• The Loviisa Maritime School (1907–1926) trained second officers and coastal and Baltic Sea sailors at a one-year course.
• The language of instruction was Swedish.
• The school initially operated in the Loviisa town hall.
• Mathematics, nautical science (navigation skills), nautical astronomy and meteorology were a central part of the maritime school’s curriculum.
• The training also included instruction in the following subjects: seamanship, shipbuilding, signalling, mechanical propulsion, maritime laws and regulations, geography, Swedish and Finnish, German and English, accounting and health.

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4. THE AGE OF STEAMSHIPS AND SLOOPS

2nd room upstairs

Steamships

• Steamships gradually replaced sailing ships during the 19th century.
• The first steamship built in Finland was the paddle steamer Ilmarinen, which was built in 1833 in Varviniemi, Puhos.
• In the beginning of the 20th century, the majority of ships were already steamships: ocean sailings from Loviisa ended in 1913, when the three-masted barque Tjerimai was sold.
• Steamships were used for both passenger and cargo traffic.
  • A regular passenger steamship traffic ran along the coast via Loviisa in 1839–1946.

Nordström Shipping Company

• The shipping company was founded in 1926 when Ragnar Nordström acquired a majority of the company “Lovisa Ångfartygs Ab”.
• It initially operated in coastal traffic, but later expanded to cargo, passenger, tanker and fishing vessel traffic.
• The shipping company’s fishing fleet, Loviisan Kalastus Oy, participated in herring fishing in Icelandic waters between 1931 and 1953.
• During World War II, the shipping company lost 13 cargo ships and 2 steam trawlers.
• The Nordström shipping company ceased operation in 1970 due to financial difficulties, and its ships were sold to Finnlines.

Herring fishing: As a herring packer in the northern Arctic Ocean

• Hemming Elfving, the managing director of a canning factory in Hanko, began fishing for herring in the Icelandic waters with his own ships in 1929.
• In 1931, Elfving acquired the S/S Petsamo. The ship served both as a mother ship and a kind of herring factory for herring fishing.
  • Steam trawlers and seiners were responsible for the fishing.
  • The fish was salted and stored on the mother ship.
  • 28 machines for cutting off the heads of the herring were built on the mother ship: in 1932, Elfving came up with the idea of hiring young girls and women as herring packers to operate the machines.
  • Another large ship, s/s Astrea, also had a few such machines.
  • Handling the herring and salting it in barrels was physically demanding and required speed and endurance in cold and damp conditions. 1000 barrels of salted herring could be produced per day.
  • When the herring flocks were large, the working days of the packers were long, and they could work without a break for up to 3–4 days.
  • The fishing season lasted from the beginning of July to the beginning of September.
  • Women’s industrial work on ships received a lot of publicity in the magazines of that time.
  • Women’s work on ships was finally banned by a government decision, the summer of 1937 being the last summer for the herring packers.

• Ragnar Nordström started herring fishing in the wake of Elfving in 1931.
• August 11, 1931, became a historic day for Loviisa, when the first “batch of Loviisa herring” arrived in the port of Valko.
  • There was a barrel factory and a fish processing factory in Loviisa, owned by Nordström.
  • Herring packers worked not only on the crews of fishing vessels but also at the herring factories in Hanko and Loviisa.

• In 1936, Elfving’s company “Kalastuslaivue Oy” and Nordström’s “Loviisan Kalastus Oy” merged to form a new company “Suomen Kalastus Oy”.
• During the Second World War, the famous mother ship s/s Petsamo was bombed and sunk on June 10, 1940.

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5. SINKING OF THE S/S MARTTI RAGNAR

Room 2, upstairs in the museum

• Time of event: Saturday, September 23, 1939, at midnight
• Location: Off the coast of Norway, 15 nautical miles from Arendal
• Ship: S/S Martti Ragnar
• Captain: John Söderblom
• Crew: The entire crew of 24 had to abandon the ship
• Cargo: Cellulose, which was classified as contraband
• Itinerary: Kemi – Veitsiluoto (departure 17.9.1939) – Ellesmere Port, England

Sequence of events:

• A German submarine stopped the S/S Martti Ragnar off the coast of Norway.
  • A powerful searchlight had been built on the ship, partly because of the mine danger, partly because the ship could thus show that it was a neutral ship when moving at night.
  • Because of the mine danger, the captain had set a course towards the Norwegian coast about 40 nautical miles north of Gothenburg.

• One of the crew members rowed the captain and the second mate to the submarine with the ship’s documents.
• The submarine’s commander stated that since the ship’s destination was England and the cargo was cellulose, the ship had to be sunk.
• The captain and the submarine’s commander agreed to allow half an hour for the crew to be removed from the ship.
• However, the submarine had drifted so far from the s/s Martti Ragnar that it took the captain fifteen minutes to return.
• Therefore, the crew, who had already gone to bed for the night, had only 15 minutes to escape.
• Since the entire crew of 24 people was packed into one of the lifeboats, they could only take what they were carrying with them.
• The Germans placed explosive charges in the ship’s cargo and engine room and detonated them at 00:35, after which the S/S Martti Ragnar sank.
• After this, the Germans gave one of the lifeboats back, and the crew could split into two boats. The submarine towed the crew about 7 nautical miles towards the Norwegian coast.
• After six hours of rowing, two Norwegian fishing vessels found the crew in the lifeboats and assisted them to Arendal.
• In Arendal, the captain met the Finnish consul who had arrived in Oslo and prepared a maritime report.
• The submarine captain gave the ship’s master a written receipt for the sinking. This receipt, torn from a notebook, is on display in the museum.
• “The German submarine captain was a determined, but a gentleman in giving us a reasonable time to escape,” said the captain of the S/S Martti Ragnar in an interview with Hufvudstadsbladet on 24 September 1939 (Hbl no. 257)

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6. CAPTAIN’S SALON – Final greetings from the museum

Museum ground floor

S/S Virgo

• The era of piston-driven steam engines as a source of energy for ships lasted only about 150 years. S/S Virgo was a typical representative of this era.
• S/S Virgo was built in 1906 for Suomen Höyrylaiva Oy.
• The ship served in cargo traffic for over 50 years, including wartime.
• During the Civil War in Finland in 1918, Virgo was involved in securing our country’s independence by transporting weapons and military equipment to the White Guard (Civil Guard).
• During World War II, in 1939–1944, Virgo continued cargo traffic.
• In 1943–1944, Virgo participated in the evacuation of Ingrians and brought thousands of refugees to Finland.
• In 1945, the ship transported aid shipments from Sweden to Finland.
• Virgo’s voyages ended in July 1963, when the ship was towed for scrapping.
• The wall panels of the ship’s captain’s saloon were preserved, and they were acquired for the Loviisa Maritime Museum in 1998 with a donation from Oy R. Nordström & Co Ab.
  • Olavi Lamminen, Yngve Lindborg and Ilmari Elo were responsible for installing the saloon panels in the museum.
• Virgo’s saloon was opened to the public in 1999 and became the museum’s central exhibition area.

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