HNLMS Schorpioen

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Schorpioen in Den Helder, Netherlands
Career (Royal Netherlands Navy)
Name: Schorpioen
Namesake: Scorpion
Builder: Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée, La Seyne-sur-Mer, France
Laid down: August 1867
Launched: 18 January 1868
Completed: 1 October 1868
Recommissioned: 1 April 1909
Decommissioned: 1982
In service: 1868
Out of service: 1906
Reclassified: As an accommodation hulk, 1 April 1909
Struck: 28 November 1906
Homeport: Den Helder
Captured: May 1940
Career (Nazi Germany)
Acquired: May 1940
Captured: 8 May 1945
Career
Name: Schorpioen
Acquired: 8 May 1945
Recommissioned: 18 May 1947
Decommissioned: 1982
Struck: 1982
Homeport: Den Helder
Identification: HW-5, 1947
A-882, 1954
Status: Museum ship, 1982
General characteristics (as completed)
Class & type: Schorpioen-class monitor
Displacement: 2,175 metric tons (2,141 long tons)
Length: 195.7 ft (59.65 m) (p/p)
Beam: 39 ft (11.9 m)
Draught: 15 ft 10 in (4.8 m)
Installed power: 2,225 ihp (1,659 kW)
4 boilers
Propulsion: 2 shafts, 2 steam engines
Speed: 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph)
Range: 1,030 nmi (1,910 km; 1,190 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Complement: 136
Armament: 2 × 1 − Armstrong 9-inch (229 mm) muzzle-loading rifles
Armour: Belt: 3–6 in (76–152 mm)
Gun turrets: 8–11 in (203–279 mm)
Deck: .75–1 in (19–25 mm)
Conning tower: 5.7 in (144 mm)

HNLMS Schorpioen is a Schorpioen-class monitor built in France for the Royal Netherlands Navy in the 1860s. These new ships were equipped with heavy rifled 23 cm guns, and a heavy armor. The hull had an armor plated belt of 15 cm (6 inches) and the gun turret, housing the two guns, had almost 30 cm (12 inches)of armor.

She came from the building yard with two tripod masts and able to employ about 600 m2 of sails, but she proved to be a difficult sailing ship and some years later the yards, masts and the sails were removed. As with the Buffel her huge steam engines gave her a max. speed of 13 knots (24 km/h). Her striking weapon was the pointed ram bow, slightly different than the Buffel's, but she never ever used this overestimated weapon.

Service record

As with the Buffel, her record is not very impressive. In 1886 the Schorpioen was hit in the stern quarter by a paddle steam tugboat in the harbor of Den Helder and sank in two hours. Fortunately, she could be raised and repaired. In 1906 she completed her role as an operational warship and was transformed into an accommodation ship.

At the beginning of World War II, she fell into German hands, was towed to Germany, and served there as a lodging - and storage ship. After the war, in 1947 she was found in Hamburg (Germany) and towed back to Den Helder; again to become a lodging ship, first in Amsterdam and later in Den Helder where she became the barracks for the Dutch WRNS. In 1982, after decommissioning, she was bought by a private foundation that was established to transform her into a floating museum in Middelburg, in the southern part of the country. Seven years later, after a complete renovation, she opened her doors to visitors, as a museum.

In 1995, the Royal Netherlands Navy purchased her back and put her under the supervision of the Dutch Navy Museum in Den Helder where she is now the third, and largest, vessel on display. In May 2000, after a renovation period of eighteen months to restore her to her former glory, the ship was opened to visitors.

See also

Notes

    References

    • Gardiner, Robert, ed. (1979). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905. Greenwich: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-8317-0302-4. 
    • "Dutch Ironclad Rams". Warship International (Toledo, OH: Naval Records Club) IX (3): 302–04. 1972. 
    • Silverstone, Paul H. (1984). Directory of the World's Capital Ships. New York: Hippocrene Books. ISBN 0-88254-979-0. 

    External links

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    Coordinates: 52°57′45″N 4°46′19″E / 52.96242°N 4.77206°E / 52.96242; 4.77206

    • List of ironclads of the Netherlands
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