Finnish minelayer Louhi
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| History | |
|---|---|
 Finland
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| Name: | Louhi |
| Namesake: | Louhi |
| Owner: | Finnish Navy |
| Builder: | Kolomna Shipyard, Moscow, Russia |
| Launched: | 1916 |
| Commissioned: | 1918 |
| In service: | 1918–45 |
| Fate: | Sunk by German submarine U-370 on 12 January 1945 |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 776 tons |
| Length: | 50 m (160 ft) |
| Beam: | 8 m (26 ft) |
| Draft: | 2.7 m (8 ft 10 in) |
| Propulsion: | 800 shp (600 kW) |
| Speed: | 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph) |
| Complement: | 41 |
| Armament: | In 1920s:
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Louhi was a Finnish Navy minelayer. The ship was originally constructed for the Imperial Russian Navy but was taken over by the Finns during the Russian Civil War. She had originally been named Voin, but was renamed as M1 (Miinalaiva 1) in Finnish service. In 1936 she was given the more personal name Louhi, following the procedure of all other major ships in the Finnish navy.
The ship was designed as a minelayer but was not particularly good at it due to its slow speed, bad seakeeping qualities and inadequate storage space. During peacetime, Louhi or M1 was used as depot ship with its storage rooms refitted as crew quarters.
Louhi sunk on 12 January 1945, while returning from a mine laying operation. An explosion at the stern of the ship at 12:50 sank the ship in two minutes, with 11 casualties.
The minelayer Voin was built during World War I in Kolomna near Moscow, and it was deployed at the Baltic Sea. It was involved in a few mine laying operations, but when the Russians left Finland, it was left to the Finns and was christened M-1. It was at the time the biggest ship in the Finnish Navy fleet.
From summer of 1919, M1 amongst other Finnish naval vessels was tasked with security and patrol duties the Koivisto region where a British naval detachment was located. The aim was to provide protection to the British vessels. The British were in the area all the way until the Treaty of Tartu in 1920, operating against Russian vessels.
During the 1920s and 1930s, M-1, from 1936 on Louhi, functioned as a navy training vessel and a mother ship to Finnish submarines. On 12 September 1939, Louhi was moved to the Sea of Åland.
In 1939, at the start of the Winter War, the ability of the Finnish Navy to lay mines was poor. Louhi was at the time the most efficient Finnish mine layer. The rest of the fleet that could be used in this function consisted of five mine boats of the T class, other surface vessels and submarines, and the civilian vessels commissioned by the Finnish Navy. Only Louhi was able to deploy large mine fields.
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Wikipedia