HNoMS Tordenskjold
HNoMS Tordenskjold, known locally as Panserskipet Tordenskjold, was a Norwegian coastal defence ship. She, her sister ship,, and the slightly newer 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
Built at Elswick and nearly identical to her sister ship, 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 guns in barbettes, six, six, and six smaller quick-firing guns. The ship could manage a speed of over. Protected by belt armor of thickness, the ship also featured gun barbettes with nearly of steel armor and an armored deck.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. In May, 1945 she was damaged by RAF aircraft at Svolvaer and beached. She was refloated later in the year. After the war Tordenskjold was used briefly as a floating barracks. On 17th of May 1945, while Norwegians celebrated their National Day, the ship had docked at Svolvaer to transport close to 500 germans in the area to a camp in Bogen outside Narvik. The ship hit a big rock below the surface outside the Island Lille-Molla, where the german captain Alfred Kemerer Rumors of alcohol and sabotage led to an big argument between Norwegian and German marine leaders.The ship stayed on Lille-Molla until she was sold for scrapping in 1948.
It was intended to augment the Norwegian coastal defence ship fleet with the two ships of the, 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 were forced to soldier on long after they were obsolete.