HSwMS Thor (1898)
HSwMS Thor was a Swedish first class coastal defence ship. A follow-on to the name-ship of the class,, Thor differed in having improved Harvey steel armour, a greater use of electric power and two additional casemate-mounted guns. The vessel was launched in 1899 and visited Portsmouth naval base in 1907. After an upgrade between 1914 and 1916, the warship operated in support of Sweden's neutrality in the First World War, participating in the Invasion of Åland in 1918. Thor was the first Swedish vessel to arrive and remained on duty when the German dreadnought battleships and arrived. The matter was resolved peacefully. After an otherwise uneventful career, Thor retired in 1937 and broken up.
Design and development
Thor was the second member of the, a development of the earlier. Originally ordered to be a lone ship type, proved to be such a success that the Swedish Navy ordered two similar vessels on 5 May 1896 to create a three-ship class of first-class coastal defence ships, or Pansarskeppen, able to take a place in the Swedish battle line. The new ships differed from their predecessor in having improved steel, which allowed a reduction of in weight, and thus the addition of two more casemate-mounted guns. A hallmark of the improved design was extensive use of electric power, with Thor having 13 electric motors, nearly twice as many as Oden. Despite the differences, the three vessels, including the third ship, are considered members of the same Oden class. As they were named after characters in Norse mythology, the ships are also known as the mythological class.Thor had an overall length of and measured at the waterline, a beam of and a maximum draught of. Displacement was normal and full load. Power was provided by six marine boilers feeding steam to two sets of triple-expansion steam engines and rated at driving two shafts, giving a design speed of. During sea trials, the vessel exceeded, and at one point achieved. Two funnels were fitted. A full load of of coal was carried, which gave a design range of at. After reconstruction in 1914 and 1915, coal capacity was expanded to, which gave a design range of at. The ship had a complement of 254 officers and ratings. The warship was fitted out to act as a flagship.
Armament consisted of two single M1894 B guns mounted in turrets on the ship's centreline, one fore and the other aft. Each of the guns weighed. They were manufactured by the French company Société Nouvelle des Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée as the Swedish armament industry was not capable of manufacturing weapons of this calibre at the time, although this changed with the construction of Thor's sister ship Niord. The guns could fire a shell at a muzzle velocity of. The mounting, designated M1894, used electric training and manual elevation. Secondary armament consisted of six Bofors guns mounted singularly in casemates amidships. The central gun could traverse 136 degrees, while the outside weapons were limited to 115 degrees. The ship was also armed with a tertiary armament of ten single Bofors guns, two on the forward bridge, four on the forward superstructure, two on the aft superstructure and two on the aft bridge. Two machine guns were carried by the pinnaces and two machine guns were mounted on the tops. A single submerged torpedo tube was mounted in the bow. Four searchlights were carried.
The armour was of Harvey steel provided by John Brown & Company of Sheffield. It included a -long armoured belt that was between thick and wide. The main armament was protected by barbettes that were thick and turrets thick with a roof thick. The secondary armament sat on barbettes protected by thick armour, in this case nickel-steel rather than Harvey steel, the turrets having a face thick, sides thick and a roof thick. The armour on the casemates was thick. The conning tower was protected by armour and the deck was protected by two layers that had a combined thickness of thick.
Construction and career
Thor was ordered from the Bergsunds shipyard in Stockholm at a cost of 1,871,000 Swedish krona, and named on 22 August 1896. Laid down in 1896, the ship was launched on 7 March 1898 and commissioned on 29 June 1899. In 1902, vessel was equipped with a bilge keel and in 1906 a quick-firing gun was mounted on each of the ship's pinnaces, the machine gun being removed on 16 September 1908. Meanwhile, following a Royal order signed on 16 July 1907, accommodation for training cadets had been added to the superstructure. On 7 August that year, the ship joined a flotilla led by the coastal defence ship on a visit to Portsmouth, which gave the cadets onboard the opportunity to see the naval base. A similar visit took place to Dover on 4 June 1913, this time alongside the torpedo cruiser.The ship was taken out of the service and rebuilt at Karlskrona between 1914 and 1915. The fighting mast was replaced by a much smaller three-legged mast and the two funnels were replaced by one. The remaining casemate-mounted guns were removed and those mounted on the superstructure upgraded. The machine guns and torpedo tubes were removed and new boilers installed, which improved performance.
Thor resumed service to provide support to Sweden's neutrality in the First World War. Following a request from the citizens of Åland on 9 February 1918, the vessel was dispatched on 14 February to protect the Swedish citizens on the island, arriving the following day at Eckerö, instigating the Invasion of Åland. Thor was the first Swedish vessel to arrive. With Russian forces in disarray due to Russian Civil War, the Swedish government saw an opportunity to occupy the islands, which the Russians also claimed. However, Germany was also interested in gaining the islands as part of a wider strategy to control the Baltic Sea. A German fleet consisting of the dreadnought battleships and arrived on 5 March and a stand-off ensued, which was resolved peacefully two days later.
This proved to be only action in which Thor participated and, on 16 July 1937, the warship was withdrawn from service. After attempts to find a private yard that wanted to purchase the vessel for scrapping failed, the ship was broken up by the team at Karlskrona in 1942.