Finnish gunboat Hämeenmaa

Hämeenmaa was a gunboat that served in the Finnish Navy during World War II. She was built in 1917. As the ship had changed hands many times during the turbulent last years of World War I she had been renamed many times: In Russian service, she was called Pingvin, later, in German service, her name was Wulf. Finally the Germans handed her over to the Finns in 1920, who renamed her Hämeenmaa. After World War II, she served as a trawler in the Baltic Sea. She was scrapped in 1953.

Interwar period
Hämeenmaa took part to the tragic autumn training cruise of the Finnish Navy in 1925 1925 where torpedo boat S2 foundered at heavy seas. Hämeenmaa had started leaking while enduring the storm and when it finally reached the dock at Veitsiluoto it's rear deck was already at sea-level.

In September 1939 Hämeenmaa joined with Finnish Coastal Fleet in vicinity of Åland to relieve FINNISH GUNBOAT Karjala and later patrolled the northern Baltic Sea and the Sea of Åland together with her sister ship FINNISH GUNBOAT Uusimaa.

Winter War
Hämeenmaa and Uusimaa were detached from the Coastal Fleet on 6 January 1940 to provide escorts for shipping in the Gulf of Bothnia after several submarine sightings had been made north of Åland. When returning to Turku in 25 January 1940 Hämeenmaa damaged its propeller in the ice had to be docked for repairs.