HNoMS Ellida (1880)


Ellida after the rebuild in 1896
Career
Name: Ellida
Builder: Navy Yard, Karljohansvern
Yard number: 59
Launched: 25 August 1880
Commissioned: 1 July 1882
Decommissioned: 1925
Reclassified: Steam corvette, 1896
Refit: 1896
Fate: Sold 1925
General characteristics
Class and type: .1 class gunboat
Displacement: 1,006 long tons (1,022 t) or 1,045 long tons (1,062 t) (sources disagree)
Propulsion: Reciprocating steam engines and sails
Speed: 10.5 knots (12.1 mph; 19.4 km/h) under power
Complement: 130 (121 after rebuild)
Armament: • 1 × 15 cm (6 in)/25 breech-loading gun
• 1 × 12 cm (5 in)/25 breech-loading gun
• 1 × underwater torpedo tube

The HNoMS Ellida was a 1. class gunboat built for the Royal Norwegian Navy. Like all other Norwegian gunships of her era, she carried a reasonable heavy armament on a diminutive hull. A distinct feature of Ellida was that her funnel could be raised and lowered as needed. The vessel was built at the Naval Yard at Horten, and had the yard number 59.

It is unclear from the sources if the listed armament is the original armament, or if Ellida originally was armed with a much heavier main gun like the slightly older 1. class gunboat Sleipner. Ellida, like Sleipner, carried an underwater torpedo tube in her bow for firing Whitehead torpedoes, and she was the second vessel in the Royal Norwegian Navy equipped with this weapon.

Ellida underwent a refit in 1896, and was reclassified as a steam corvette. From 1898 she was used as a training vessel for cadets. In 1914 Ellida was refitted once more, and became the mother ship and support vessel for the early Norwegian submarines (the A class). She was decommissioned and sold off in 1925.

References