HNoMS Tordenskjold

Tordenskjold in 1900
Career (Norway)
Name: Tordenskjold
Namesake: Peter Tordenskjold
Ordered: 1896
Laid down: 1897
Launched: 18 March 1897
Commissioned: 21 March 1898
Captured: by the Germans in 1940
Career (Nazi Germany)
Name: Nymphe
Acquired: 1940
Fate: Handed back to Norway after VE Day
Service record
Operations: Occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany
Career (Norway)
Name: Tordenskjold
Acquired: 1945
Fate: Scrapped 1948
General characteristics as built
Class and type:Tordenskjold-class coastal defence ship
Displacement:3,858 long tons (3,920 t)
Length:92.66 m (304 ft 0 in)
Beam:14.78 m (48 ft 6 in)
Draught:5.38 m (17 ft 8 in)
Propulsion:Coal-fired reciprocating steam engines, 4,500 hp (3,356 kW)
Speed:16.9 knots (19.4 mph; 31.3 km/h)
Complement:245
Armament:• 2 × 21 cm (8 in)/45 guns
• 6 × 12 cm (5 in)/45 guns
• 6 × 7.6 cm (3 in)/40 guns
• 6 × 1-pounder QF guns
• 2 × 45 cm (18 in) submerged torpedo tubes
Armour:Belt : 7 in (178 mm)
Turrets : 8 in (203 mm)
General characteristics after German rebuild
Displacement:3,858 long tons (3,920 t)
Length:92.66 m (304 ft 0 in)
Beam:14.78 m (48 ft 6 in)
Draught:5.38 m (17 ft 8 in)
Propulsion:Coal-fired reciprocating steam engines, 4,500 hp (3,356 kW)
Speed:16.9 knots (19.4 mph; 31.3 km/h)
Complement:245
Armament:• 6 × 10.5 cm AA guns
• 2 × 40 mm AA guns
• 14 × 20 mm AA guns[1]
Armour:Belt : 7 in (178 mm)
Turrets : 8 in (203 mm)

HNoMS Tordenskjold, known locally as Panserskipet Tordenskjold, was a Norwegian coastal defence ship. She, her sister-ship Harald Haarfagre, and the slightly newer Eidsvold-class were built as a part of 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.

Description

Models of the coastal defence ship Tordenskiold and Eidsvold. Tordenskjold in the front.

Built at Elswick[2] and nearly identical to her sister-ship 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: two 8.2-inch guns in barbettes, six 4.7-inch, six 3-inch, and six smaller quick-firing guns. The ship could manage a speed of over seventeen knots. Protected by belt armor of seven inches thickness, the ship also featured gun barbettes with nearly eight inches of steel armor and an armored deck.[3]

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.

In German service as a flakship in 1940, renamed Nymphe.

It was intended to augment the Norwegian coastal defence ship 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.

Today

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

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Abelsen, Frank (1986). Norwegian naval ships 1939-1945 (in Norwegian and English). Oslo: Sem & Stenersen AS. p. 290. ISBN 82-7046-050-8.
  2. ↑ Keltie, J.S., ed. The Statesman's Year Book: Statistical and Historical Annual of the States of the World for the Year 1900. New York: MacMillan, 1900. p 1066. (Retrieved via Google Books 3/5/11.)
  3. ↑ Keltie 1900, p. 1066.

See also