HNoMS Harald Haarfagre

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Plans of the Tordenskjold class coastal defense ships. Note heavy guns in forward and aft turret, and secondary armament in central battery.
Career
Ordered:	1896
Laid down:	1897
Launched:	4 January 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:	As built: 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 After German rebuild:[1] 6 x 10,5 cm AA guns 2 x 40 mm AA guns 14 x 20 mm AA guns
Aircraft:	none
Propulsion:	4,500 hp (3 355.6 Kw), 16.9 knop (31.3 km/h, 19.4 mph)
Crew:	245

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

Contents 1 Description 2 Service history and fate 3 Footnotes 4 Literature 5 See also

[edit] Description

All but identical to her sistership Tordenskjold, Harald Haarfagre was named after Harald I of Norway, known as Harald Fairhair in English, the semi-mythical first king of a united Norway.

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

[edit] Service history and fate

A vital part of the Royal Norwegian Navy, Harald Haarfagre performed ordinary duties until she was considered "unfit for war" in the mid 1930's. After the German invasion of Norway, she was seized by the Germans and rebuilt as a floating Flak battery under the name Tethis. After the war Harald Haarfagre was used briefly as a floating barracks, and for transporting German POWs, 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 Harald Haarfagre is used on the Royal Norwegian Navy Basic Training Establishment, located in Madla, Stavanger.

[edit] Footnotes

[edit] Literature

• Abelsen, Frank: Norwegian naval ships 1939-1945, Sem & Stenersen AS, Oslo 1986 ISBN 82-7046-050-8 (Norwegian)&(English)

[edit] See also

• List of World War II ships

v • d • e Norwegian coastal battleships Tordenskjold class: Tordenskjold | Harald Haarfagre Eidsvold class: Eidsvold | Norge Bjørgvin class': Bjørgvin | Nidaros Battleships of the Royal Norwegian Navy