The fleet's vessels consisted of traditional Mediterranean-style galleys, prams, gunboats and specially-designed broadside-armed "archipelago frigates".

All types had the ability to operate under oars and a small draft, enabling them to navigate the shallow and often treacherous inshore waters.

After the Treaty of Nystad in 1721, the Swedish high command realized the need of a fast and agile marine unit that could maneuver in littoral waters.

In 1766, the ruling Caps faction of the Swedish parliament ordered that the archipelago fleet be merged with the navy.

[4] The main headquarters of the archipelago fleet were located at Stockholm and Sveaborg, with smaller stations established in other places over time.

The Swedish navy struggled throughout the war, failing to achieve the major victory required to leave the Russian capital of Saint Petersburg open to invasion; it also sustained considerable losses.

On the other hand, the archipelago fleet was far more successful, although it suffered a few initial setbacks, including a tactical defeat against its Russian equivalent at Svensksund in August 1789; however, it achieved a resounding victory against the Russian inshore fleet at the second battle of Svensksund on 9 July 1790.

[7] The war against Russia showed that the heavy archipelago frigates lacked the mobility required for inshore operations, while smaller rowed craft were far more efficient.

Sveaborg, the cornerstone of the defense of Finland, was also lost at an early stage, along with most of the ships of the Finnish squadron.

Ships were also lost when the archipelago fleet, which had been docked for the winter at Åbo, was burned by the Swedes to prevent their capture.

The war ended with a harsh peace treaty, in which Sweden permanently lost all of Finland to Russia.

[10] In 1823, the archipelago fleet was once again merged with the high-seas navy, and had a minor renaissance between 1866 and 1873 as part of the coastal artillery.

[12] The result was four new vessel types that combined the maneuverability of oar-powered galleys with the superior sail plans and decent living conditions of sailing ships: the udema, pojama, turuma and hemmema, named after the Finnish regions of Uudeenmaa (Uusimaa), Pohjanmaa, Turunmaa and Hämeenmaa (Tavastia).

After the war of 1788–1790, it consisted mostly of smaller vessels, primarily specially designed yawls and sloops that carried only one or two heavy guns, usually 24-pounders.

The heavy gun and the small size of the vessel required that the design have a distinct tail for stability.

Only roughly 13 meters in length the longboats were equipped with eight oar pairs with single 12 or 24-pounder cannon in the bow and total of 16 lighter 3-pounder swivel guns mounted along the sides.

The prams were built in different sizes but the most common was roughly 40 m long and 10 m wide with a draft of less than 3 meters.