HNoMS Fridtjof Nansen OPV

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The Fridtjof Nansen at sea
Career
Ordered:	?
Laid down:	?
Launched:	5 November 1930
Commissioned:	29 May 1931
Fate:	Ran aground on an unmarked shallow and sunk outside Jan Mayen 8 November 1940.
General characteristics
Displacement:	1275 tons
Dimensions:	72,8 m x 10.5 m x 5,7 m
Armament:	2 x 10 cm (4 inch) guns 2 x 47 mm (1.85 inch) automatic guns
Propulsion:	2000 hp, 2 shafts, 15 knots
Crew:	67

HNoMS Fridtjof Nansen is the first ship in the Norwegian armed forces to be built specially to perform coast guard and fishery protection duties. Command was assumed 29 May 1931 by commander Ole A. Blom. She was built as build number 118 at Marinens Hovedverft in Horten.

Contents 1 Evacuation and exile 2 Name 3 Source 4 See also 5 Source

[edit] Evacuation and exile

After surviving several air attacks without damage during the Norwegian campaign Fridtjof Nansen was one of the thirteen Royal Norwegian Navy vessels that made it to the UK, as she escaped westwards at the dawn of the June 10, 1940 mainland Norwegian capitulation. On June 8, 1940 she took on board in Tromsø Rear Admiral Henry E. Diesen and foreign minister Halvdan Koht in addition to some other refugees. She arrived at Torshavn on the Faroe Islands on June 13 and later sailed to Great Britain where she was made war ready. 29 August 1940 she was posted as a patrol vessel in Iceland to reinforce the British naval forces there. On November 8 she ran on an unmarked shallow outside Jan Mayen and sank. The crew of 67 was saved.

[edit] Name

She was named after Fridtjof Nansen - the great Norwegian explorer, scientist, diplomat and Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

[edit] Source

• Abelsen, Frank: Norwegian naval ships 1939-1945, Sem & Stenersen AS, Oslo 1986, ISBN 82-7046-050-9

[edit] See also

• List of World War II ships

[edit] Source

• Royal Norwegian Navy
• Royal Norwegian Navy
• Naval history via FLIX: KNM Fridtjof Nansen, retrieved 17 March 2006