Hemmemaa was the first and most famous of the “frigates of the archipelago” with the Turumaa. Designed by famous naval architect Frederick af Chapman to replace classic sailing frigates, too massive with a draft too strong for the Baltic shoals, the type was the spearhead of the Swedish fleet during the Second Northern war. Baltic against Catherine of Russia. The latter, as in the past and its model Pierre de Grand, uses Latin architects and builds ships directly from the Mediterranean basin, which are well adapted to the conditions of the Baltic (see “Russians Galleys”). Swedish ships were even more original. In order to reap the benefits of the galley that inflicted defeats on them during the first Baltic War, Chapman conceived a modernized and more rational version of the old Galeasses, the very one who had defeated the Turks in Lepanto 1571.

But the Galeasses have powerful artillery but in return, a strong draft. Chapman wanted to create lighter ships. His solution was to design ships with a central battery, the rest of the bridge being occupied by banks of rowers. These frigates of the archipelago, however, have three men per bench offset, and 24 to 22 guns per side, for 40 or 38 oars. The second figures are given for the smaller Turumaa. The other main difference between these two types of ships is that the Turumaa was usually only square rigged, while the Hemmemaa was most often Latin rigged. Both had 3 masts, four counting the bowsprit.