HNoMS Tordenskjold

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Tordenskjold in 1900
Career
Ordered:	1896
Laid down:	1897
Launched:	18 March 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 21 cm/45 (8.2 inch) guns 6 x 12 cm/45 (4.7 inch) guns 6 x 7.6 cm/40 (3 inch) guns 6 x 1 pdr Quick Firing 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 knots (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.

Tordenskjold, known locally as Panserskipet Tordenskjold, was a Norwegian coastal battleship. She, her sistership Harald Haarfagre and the slightly newer Eidsvold class were 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.

Contents 1 Description 2 Service history and fate 3 Today 4 Footnotes 5 Literature 6 See also 7 References

[edit] Description

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, carrying out eighteen training cruises until considered "unfit for war" in the mid 1930s. After the German invasion of Norway, she was seized by the Germans and rebuilt as a floating flak battery with 10.5 cm AA guns and renamed 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 battleship fleet with the two ships of the Bjørgvin class, ordered in 1912, but after these were confiscated by the Royal Navy at the outbreak of World War I the Tordenskjold class and the slightly newer, two ship strong, Eidsvold class were forced to soldier on long after they were obsolete.

[edit] Today

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

[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

[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.

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