HNoMS Tordenskjold

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Tordenskjold in 1900
Career
Ordered:	1896
Laid down:	1897
Launched:	1897
Commissioned:	21 March 1898
Fate:	Scrapped 1948
General characteristics
Displacement:	3,858 tons
Dimensions:	92.66 m x 14.78 m x 5.38 m
Armament:	2 x 21cm/45 (8.2 inch) guns 6 x 12cm/45 (4.7 inch) guns 6 x 7.6cm/40 (3 inch) guns 6 x 1pdr Quick Fire gun 2 x 45 cm (18 inch) submerged torpedo tubes
Aircraft:	none
Propulsion:	4,500 hp (3 355.6 Kw), 16.9 knop (31.3 km/h, 19.4 mph)
Crew:	245
Plans of the Tordenskjold class battleships. Note heavy guns in forward and aft turret, and secondary armament in central battery.

The HNoMS Tordenskjold, known localy as KNM Tordenskjold or Panserskipet Tordenskjold, was a Norwegian coastal battleship. She, her sistership Harald Haarfagre and the slightly newer Eidsvold class was built as a part as the general rearmament in the time leading up to the events in 1905. Tordenskjold remained an important vessel in the Royal Norwegian Navy until she was considered unfit for war in the mid 1930s.

[edit] Description

Models of the coastal battleships Tordenskiold and Eidsvold. Tordenskjold in the front.

All but identical to her sistership Harald Haarfagre, Tordenskjold was named after Peter Wessel Tordenskjold, an eminent Norwegian naval hero in the service of the Kingdom of Denmark-Norway.

Built as a typical pre-dreadnought battleship on a small scale, she carried guns of a wide range of calibers.

[edit] Service history and fate

A vital part of the Royal Norwegian Navy, Tordenskjold performed ordinary duties until 1918, when she was turned into a cadet ship. She performed well in this role until considered "unfit for war" in the mid 1930's. After the German invation of Norway, she was seized by the Germans and rebuilt as a floating Flak battery under the name Nymphe. After the war Tordenskjold was used briefly as a floating barracks before she was sold for scrapping in 1948.

It was intended to augment the Norwegian Panserskip fleet with the two ships of the Bjørgvin class, ordered in 1912, but after these were confiscated by the British Navy at the outbreak of World War I the Tordenskjold class and the slightly newer, two ship strong, Eidsvold class was forced to soldier on long after they were obsolete.

Today the name KNM Tordenskjold is used on the Norwegian Naval Training Establishment (NORNAVTRAINEST) at Haakonsvern, Bergen.

[edit] References

• (Norwegian)Forsvarsnett, Sjøforsvaret dag for dag 1814-2000 : Mars Royal Noregian Navy website, some information on the history of Tordenskjold, retrieved 13 December 2005.