Gejser (ship, 1892)

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The Gejser 1919
The Gejser 1919
Overview
Type Protected cruiser
Shipyard

Orlogsværftet , Copenhagen

Launch July 5, 1892
Namesake the Great Geyser in Iceland
Commissioning May 8, 1893
Whereabouts Sold for demolition March 29, 1928
Technical specifications
displacement

1,282 t

length

70.6 m over everything

width

10.3 m

Draft

3.5 m

crew

157 men

drive

8 Thornycroft boilers , 3,000 hp
triple expansion engines , 2 screws

speed

17.3 kn

Range

1000 nm at 10 kn

Armament

2 x 12 cm L / 40 Krupp guns
4 x 8.7-cm-L / 44 Krupp rapid fire guns
4 x 3.7 cm L / 23- Hotchkiss - revolver cannon ,
2 × 3,7 cm L / 23 Hotchkiss cannons , single-barreled,
2 × machine guns ,
1 × 45 cm bow torpedo tube ,
3 × 38 cm torpedo tubes

Coal supply

125 t

Armored deck

42 mm

Armament
1913


4 × 57 mm rapid fire guns, 2 of which were used as anti-aircraft guns, replaced the old 37 mm cannons

The Danish protected cruiser Gejser entered service in 1893 and was the second of three small cruisers that joined the Danish fleet by 1895 . It was the only Hekla- class ship with two funnels. The Gejser remained mostly in its home waters and often served as a training ship. In 1923 the cruiser had a serious accident with a fog machine.
In March 1928 the Gejser in Denmark was sold for demolition.

Building history

The Gejser was a variant of the Hekla, which had also previously been built at the Danish state shipyard . The cruiser III. Class was not a requested order from the Danish Navy, which actually wanted to purchase another ironclad like the Iver Hvitfeldt , for which the parliament, however, did not approve any funds. With the approved funds, two more Hekla- class cruisers were ordered. The most noticeable difference to its predecessor was the two chimneys. For a long time it was the only large new ship in the Danish Navy with two or more funnels. But there were more important differences.

The Gejser was the first large Danish ship to receive rapid-fire artillery as its main armament. The two 12 cm L / 40 cannons supplied by Krupp with protective shields on the fore and aft deck had a rate of fire of five rounds per minute and a range of 9,200 m compared to the very heavy 15 cm cannons of the Hekla , which only 8,000 m and one shot per minute were possible. The weapons in the swallow nests at the ends of the superstructures were also 8.7 cm rapid fire guns supplied by Krupp, which fired considerably heavier projectiles than the 57 mm Hotchkiss cannons set up at these points on the Hekla .

The light artillery was supplied by the French company Hotchkiss, whose weapons were used in all navies in the world (some manufactured under license). On all ships of the class it initially consisted of four five-barreled 37 mm Hotchkiss cannons and two individual guns. With a bow and a stern tube and two torpedo tubes on the side of the deck, all three ships had powerful torpedo armament.
The armor of the Gejser consisted of an armored deck of up to 50 mm normal steel.

A second innovation was the use of small water-tube boilers , which until then had only been used for torpedo boats and destroyers . The small boilers led to a weight saving, enabled low consumption in some speed levels and made the ship slightly faster with the same engine power. The machine was supplied by Burmeister & Wain .

Mission history

The Gejser , which took over the name of the wheeled corvette Gejser , which was broken off in 1891 , came into service for the first time on May 8, 1893 and, after the test drives, practiced with the maneuvering squadron, which also included the ironclad Iver Hvitfeldt , the cruiser Valkyrien and four torpedo boats.

The torpedo boat Søløven 1912

In 1895 the cruiser was again in service and took part in the opening of the Kiel Canal as a representative of Denmark with the sister ship Hekla and the torpedo boats Støren , Søløven , Narhvalen and Havhesten .

In the years 1896 and 1899, two further periods of service followed without any special features in the home country. In 1903 the Gejser served as a training ship for the artillery and torpedo school under Prince Waldemar . In 1905, after normal summer activity in the maneuvering squadron, in November the elected new King of Norway, Prince Carl of Denmark, was escorted to Oslo on the yacht Dannebrog together with the coastal armored ship Olfert Fischer . In 1906, the ship was completely repaired: the boiler system was renewed and several modernizations were carried out. The following year the cruiser made a trip to the Faroe Islands and Iceland with the Danish king before normal fleet exercises. After a year of rest, the Gejser was again used as a training ship for the artillery and torpedo school in 1909. From July 11 to 23, 1909, she accompanied King Frederick VIII on a state visit to Russia in order to take part in the normal exercises on return.

On October 1, 1912, the Gejser tender was part of the submarine flotilla until it was replaced by the Hekla on January 7, 1914 . The cruiser that was initially launched came back to the active fleet on August 4, 1914 and served from August 7, like the other units, alternately with the 1st Squadron on the Öresund or the 2nd Squadron in the Great Belt . On May 15, 1916, the Gejser was the fleet's training ship until September 15, when she was overhauled again. From January 17 to December 13, 1917 normal fleet service followed again. On March 31, 1919, the old cruiser was assigned to the reserve, but served as a training ship at the NCO school from May to September. In 1920 he made a few voyages in Danish waters only to be hung up.

In 1923 the Gejser was supposed to carry out some exercises and experiments. There was a serious accident on board on May 25th on Storstrøm . 55 men were injured, some very seriously, in the explosion of a smoke curtain generator. Although only an officer (Lieutenant Commander Paul C. Rützou, the commander of the torpedo boat died dolphins ) shortly thereafter, but many of the injured suffered permanent damage and disfigurement and had to undergo a variety of plastic surgery. The fog machine was about to be demonstrated to a large group of commanders and officers when the phosphorus used exploded. The Danish Crown Prince Friedrich , at that time Chief Officer of the Dolphins , did not take part in the demonstration, which resulted in the death of his commanding officer , only because the invitation was changed late. 32 of the injured remained in the nearby garrison hospital in Vordingborg due to inability to transport them and were only gradually transferred to the naval hospital in Copenhagen. In the summer there was almost another disaster when the Gejser rammed the submerged submarine Bellona , fortunately only the periscope of the submarine was damaged.

Every year from 1924 to 1927 the old cruiser made a trip with the students of the NCO school. In 1925 he belonged to a Danish naval association that visited Helsinki , Tallinn and Riga with the Niels Juel , the cruiser Hejmdal , the mine- layer Lossen , the submarines Bellona , Flora and Rota and the torpedo boats Hvalrossen , Delfinen and Sværdfisken .

On March 29, 1928, the Gejser was removed from the fleet list and sold for scrapping.

Danish cruiser

The cruiser Hejmdal 1906
Surname Launch displacement speed Main armament
Valkyria September 8, 1888 3,020 t 17.5 kn 2 × 21 cm L / 35, 6 × 15 cm L / 35
Hekla November 28, 1890 1,322 t 17.1 kn 2 × 15 cm L / 35
Gejser May 8, 1893 1,282 t 17.3 kn 2 × 12 cm L / 40
Hejmdal August 30, 1894 1,342 t 17.0 kn 2 × 12 cm L / 40

literature

Web links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Støren -class, Søløven , delivered by Thornycroft in 1887 , 110/108 t, 39.6 m long, 22 kn, 2 revolver cannons , 4 torpedo tubes
    Narhvalen -cl., Havhesten , delivered in 1888 ,     117/109 t, 41.1 m long, 21.5 kn, as above
  2. ↑ detailed report (Danish)
  3. ↑ Photo of the Hejmdal arriving