HNoMS Lyn (1882)

History
Lyn class torpedo boat Blink.

Name:	Lyn
Ordered:	1882
Launched:	1882
Commissioned:	1882
Fate:	Scrapped, 1920
General characteristics
Type:	Torpedo boat
Displacement:	42 long tons (43 t)
Complement:	11
Armament:	1 × 37 mm (1.5 in) gun 1 × fixed torpedo tube

HNoMS Lyn - or just Lyn in Norwegian - was the lead ship of a class of 27 torpedo boats built between 1892 and 1912. The name means Lightning. By modern standards, she was extremely lightly armed with just one 'quick fire' 37 mm cannon and a single, fixed torpedo tube, but in her time she did pack a punch. Later boats of her class carried heavier armament. Lyn was later renamed Od, before she and most of her class were scrapped in 1920, long after they were obsolete.

Small, nimble and fast craft for their time, the class provided much of the backbone for the Royal Norwegian Navy in the time leading up to Norwegian independence in 1905, and also during World War I. The class was often referred to as cigars due to their shape as seen on the photos. These qualities made them excellent torpedo boats - small size and low freeboard - but also made them very uncomfortable boats to crew, with cramped quarters and not very seaworthy.

Over the 30 years the class was built, the size increased steadily, as well as the armament. The last boats in the class had a displacement almost twice that of Lyn, and two fixed torpedo tubes instead of just one. The class was in the later years of their service referred to as "2nd class" torpedo boats, to differentiate them from the larger "1st class" torpedo boats, which had one or two moveable torpedo launchers on deck.

Gallery

Six of the Lyn class torpedo boats in attack formation during World War I.
Models of late production Lyn class torpedoboats, seen from starboard.
Models of late production Lyn class torpedoboats, seen from the stern.

Torpedo boats of the Royal Norwegian Navy

Early single ships	Rap (1873) Ulven (1878)

2. class	Lyn Glimt Blink Pil Snar Orm Oter Varg Raket Lyn Blink Glimt Djerv Dristig Kvik Hvas Kjæk Hauk Falk Ørn Ravn Grib Jo Lom Skarv Teist Kjell

1. class	Hval Delfin Hai Storm Brand Trods Laks Sild Sæl Skrei

3. class	Myg

Trygg class	Trygg Snøgg Stegg

List of torpedo boats of the Royal Norwegian Navy

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Saturday, October 10, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.