The museum center Vellamo in Kotka is the home to no less than 3 different museums: the Maritime Museum of Finland, the Coastguard Museum (hosted in the Maritime Museum boat hall) and the Kymenlaakso regional museum. In addition to museum spaces, Vellamo features changing exhibitions, has a library and organizes activities for youth.
In this post, I’ll explore the Maritime and Coastguard museums with 360° panoramas. Best viewed in full-screen mode on a desktop computer (click on “double arrow” in the lower right-hand corner). Please allow a few seconds for the panoramas to load!
Boat hall and coastguard museum
Once you enter the museum, on your left you will find the boat hall. Here the focuses is on 20th century recreational boats built and used in Finland. In the middle of the space is a walkway that takes you up to the permanent exhibition or down the stairs (or elevator) to the boat hall.
On the far side of the walkway you’ll find the Coastguard museum. The main feature of the museum is the coastguard’s motorboat 11 (Vartiomoottorivene, VMV-11). The VMV was commissioned in 1935 and stayed in active service until 1969. This part of the museum is currently (winter 2025) undergoing renovations.
Next, let’s go down into the boat hall. Recreational motorboats are featured closest to the stairs. If you look straight down in the panorama, you will see the interior of an iconic Finnish motorboat, the Marino Family Sport, built in 1958. The boat in the collection is the first boat ever built of this make and one of the first boats in Finland built (partially) in fiberglass. The family run Marino company still operates today, being one of the few boat yards in Finland that have survived from the 1950’s.
The most prominent feature of the other end of the boat hall is the display of various outboard engines. Still, you should not miss the iconic sailing boats there: the classic pan-Scandinavian Folk-boat and the 22m2 skerry cruiser Colibri VI – built in 1922 – and the 1928 12′ Olympic class, the Olympia dinghy. Don’t want to brag, but Finland took the bronze medal in the class.
Special exhibition of the Ruotsinsalmi naval battle
Before walking back up, let’s enter the museum’s special exhibition on the Ruotsinsalmi naval battle, the biggest naval battle fought in the Baltic. Having this special exhibition in Maritime museum is very appropriate, as the battle was fought just outside Kotka and could have been observed from the location of the museum!
The exhibition has two major parts. If you turn right, you will enter the space dedicated to the battle itself, including a special animated video presentation (runs every 15 minutes). Here you can find models of some of the ships that took part in the battle as well as information on the sailors and soldiers on the ships.
Turning left after the entrance takes you to the section on the Ruotsinsalmi fortifications or – in today’s terms – Kotka city. After the 1788-90 war between Sweden and Russia, the eastern parts of Finland, then being the border between Russia and Sweden, were fortified and Ruotsinsalmi played a major part in the defence. In addition to the fortifications, this part of the exhibition also presents life of the Ruotsinsalmi inhabitants.
The permanent exhibition
Next, let’s take the stairs back up and visit the museum’s permanent exhibition. The permanent exhibition presents the maritime history of Finland mainly from the perspectives of commercial and naval crafts.
The Baltic has always been the main route for Finland’s contacts with the surrounding world. The vikings (800-1100 AD) passed though Finland on their way east. In the middle ages, the Hansa and the Danes were some of the rulers of the Baltic seas and there is ample evidence for contacts across the Baltic (see next section on wrecks). From the 16 century, Finland became part of Sweden and contributed to the establishment of Sweden as a naval and military power in the Baltic.
It might be surprising, but the Baltic is a veritable treasure throve for marine archeologists. The brackish water and the silt bottoms of the Baltic Sea have preserved ships in very good condition and have provided information on all aspects of marine life: how boats were built, how they were sailed and what products were transported across the Baltic. The most spectacular wreck of the Baltic is of course the Vasa but the Finnish waters also hide many interesting and old wrecks. One example of such a wreck is the “Borstö I“. Some of the findings from the wreck can be seen in the panorama below.
Finland’s history as part of Sweden ended in 1809 when Sweden lost a war against Russia and had to cede Finland to Russia. During the 19th century Finland’s national identity grew stronger and in 1917 Finland became independent. Boating played a small part in establishing the Finnish national identity as the current Finnish flag (blue cross on white bottom) as first introduced as the flag of the NJK yacht club in 1861. The flag design became the “national” flag of Finnish yachts during the 19th century and would later influence the choice of our national flag.
One of the challenges of relying on waterways for transport has always been the Finnish winter: the waterways freeze over. Because of this Finland has established itself as one of the leading nations in the world building and operating icebreakers. Today, even during the most severe winters, the Finnish icebreaker fleet ensures around-the-year access for commercial shipping to the Finnish ports.
Did you know that Helsinki is one of the busiest ports in the world for passenger traffic? Some 10 million (!) passangers pass through the port annually, most travelling on the Helsinki-Tallinn route. Helsinki is also connected to Stockholm which is another very popular route. The ferries going to and from Helsinki are more like cruise ships than ferries and people not only use them for transport but also for short vacations.
One of the most iconic passenger/cruise ferries to ever sail to/from Helsinki was Finnjet. Finnjet did her maiden voyage in 1977 and she is still the fastest conventional passenger/cruise ferry ever built! Powered by gasturbines and reaching a top speed of 30 knots, she did the trip across the Baltic sea from Helsinki to Travemünde in Germany in just 22 hours. With a turn-around time in port of 2 hours, she did a daily run of the Baltic, always leaving the ports at the same time. Also my first trip abroad by myself was on Finnjet, going to a sailing camp in Germany. In the panorama you can see an authentic Finnjet cabin as it has been left by the passengers.
Museum ships
In addition to the indoor exhibitions, the museum also has a fleet of ships moored outside the museum. The most impressive ships are the lighthouse ship Kemi and the icebreaker Tarmo. The ships are only open in the summer.
Icebreaker Tarmo