To be more specific, he was from Åland where this fleet also resided. Part of Finland, but also semi-autonomous and Swedish speaking. Smack in the middle of the Baltic sea between Stockholm and Southern Finland.

There’s an amazing naval museum in Mariehamn that lays all these things out. There’s also a children’s book about a girl going on the voyage as late as the 1950s iirc (real story). And a verified real pirate flag.

tl;dr: long distance, sailing ships were still faster and/or cheaper than steam/diesel ships back then.

It should be added that the still young Finland was a very poor country back then and wages were likely even lower than elsewhere.