The Forum Marinum in Turku, Finland is not so much a museum, as a large collection of ships and boats - four of which are warships.Karjala is a Turunmaa class corvette built in Finland in the 1960s. Her most prominent feature (at least for me) is the gun on the foc'sle, which seems disproportionately big for the size of the ship - you could almost say she has "inverse Vanguard syndrome"! Keihässalmi is a minelayer built in the 1950s. The two of them are berthed in the Aura river, a short walk from Turku Castle, with Keihässalmi outboard of Karjala. I discovered on arrival that they are only open to visitors during summer - which apparently finished around the middle of August, despite the fact that yesterday was 20 degrees and sunny - which I would have thought might pass for Summer in Scandinavia! Anyway, there was no way of talking myself onto the ships, and with their mooring arrangements, it was pretty difficult to get photos of them either - particularly Keihässalmi, which I had to drive around to the other bank of the river to view.There was a bit more luck with the other two warships, as they were both housed in a large boat-house, which was open to the public without charge. While they couldn't be boarded (not unusual for museum ships this small), there was an elevated walkway between them so that you could see everything you wanted.Tyrsky was a Motor Torpedo Boat built in Finland during WW2, effectively to an Italian design. After WW2, Finland was prohibited from owning MTBs by the Peace Treaty, and so the existing MTBs were converted into Motor Gun Boats. As a museum ship, Tyrsky has been reconverted into an MTB, and there were several workmen onboard doing maintenance when I was there.The other small warship in the boathouse was Nuoli 8, which was built as a Motor Gunboat in the 1960s.All four ships looked to be well-maintained. As well as the ships there were several other items, both in the boathouse, and on the jetty next to the two ships, such as mines, torpedoes, depth charge mortars, and the actual paravane from the Coast Defence Ship Ilmarinen which snagged the mine which subsequently sunk her. Nearby in the same precinct there was also the 105mm gun that was fitted to the gunboat Matti Kurki in the 1920s - which had originally been a Russian 102mm gun which the Finns rebored during WW2. It is now the centre-piece for a bicycle rack!It was disappointing not getting onboard the two bigger ships after travelling so far, but it was good to see these ships being well looked after in what is obviously a well-funded and professionally run museum.
