Hekla (ship, 1890)

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The Hekla 1909
The Hekla 1909
Overview
Type Protected cruiser
Shipyard

Orlogsværftet , Copenhagen

Keel laying May 9, 1889
Launch November 28, 1890
Namesake the volcano Hekla in Iceland
Commissioning 1891
Whereabouts 1954 sold for demolition
Technical specifications
displacement

1,322 t

length

72.3 m over everything

width

10.4 m

Draft

3.5 m

crew

156 men

drive

4 cylinder boilers , 3,000 hp
triple expansion
machines , 2 screws

speed

17.1 kn

Range

1800 nm at 10 kn

Armament

2 × 15 cm L / 35 Krupp cannons
4 × 5.7 cm L / 44 Hotchkiss rapid-fire guns
6 × 3.7 cm L / 23 Hotchkiss revolver cannons ,
2 × machine guns ,
4 × 38 cm torpedo tubes

Coal supply

125 t

Armored deck

42 mm

Armament
1912


4 × 47 mm rapid fire guns replaced the old 57 mm cannons

The Danish protected cruiser Hekla , which was commissioned in 1891, was the lead ship of three small cruisers that joined the Danish fleet by 1895 . She was the only ship in the class with two 15 cm individual guns as main armament. Until 1900 the Hekla was mostly only used in the home waters. In 1902, 1905 and at times in 1907 she was a station ship in Iceland . From 1906 to 1910 the cruiser also served as a training ship.
From 1914 the now outdated cruiser was a depot ship for the Danish submarines. From 1915 the Hekla served only as a barge with the engine removed. It was not until February 1955 that the ship was sold for demolition in Denmark.

Building history

The Hekla was a considerably smaller version of the Valkyrien, which had previously also been built at the Danish state shipyard . She was intended as a reconnaissance ship and not as a combat ship. The official name was initially "orlogsskonnerter" (war schooner) despite the lack of sails. Then she and the following ships were very similar to cruiser III. Class (from 1912 only cruisers), although they were rather fast gunboats. The Hekla received two 15 cm L / 35 C.88 Krupp cannons with protective shields on the fore and aft deck of the type set up on the side of the Valkyrien . This weapon was very heavy and shot quite slowly (one shot per minute). Their weight hindered the otherwise good seaworthiness of the ship. During the Iceland missions the bow weapon was therefore dismantled in order to be more operational in the often heavy seas around Iceland. The light artillery was supplied by the French company Hotchkiss , whose weapons were used in all navies in the world (some manufactured under license). With a bow and a stern tube and two torpedo tubes on the side of the deck, the ship had strong torpedo armament. The armor of the Hekla consisted of an armored deck of 43 mm normal steel. The machines were supplied by the Danish company Burmeister & Wain .

Mission history

The Hekla came into service for the first time on May 29, 1891 and practiced with the maneuver squadron, only to be deactivated on September 29, 1891. In her second service phase from June 18 to August 4, 1892, she was used as a cadet training ship. The third period of service from August 6th to September 25th, 1894 was uneventful.

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 Gejser and the torpedo boats Støren , Søløven , Narhvalen and Havhesten . In the years 1897 and 1900, two further periods of service followed without any special features in the home country.

In 1902 the Hekla was first used as a station ship in Iceland , a mission that was repeated from March to December 1905. In 1906 the active period began in June with a trip by the Danish king to Drontheim for the coronation of his son Carl as Haakon VII of Norway. The Hekla accompanied the royal yacht Dannebrog together with the ironclad Herluf Trolle . From 1906 to 1910 she was then regularly active as a training ship from spring to the end of September. In 1907 and the first two months of service in 1909, this was connected with the abandonment of the station ship in Iceland and fishery protection tasks. During a practice shooting on August 28, 1908, there was a shooting accident east of Endelave near Aarhus . Two men were killed and five seriously injured in an explosion at the front 6-inch cannon. After serving in 1910, the cruiser was assigned to the reserve.

On January 7, 1914, the slightly armed Hekla became the living and depot ship of the submarine division . In 1915 the machine was expanded and the cruiser became a barge. From 1917 to 1922 it served as a command ship for the submarines and the flying boat division, from 1922 to August 29, 1943 only for the submarines. The then confiscated by the Germans ship served until the end of the war as a shelter in Bramsnæsvig on Isefjorden stationed minesweepers . On May 30, 1945 the Hekla was towed back to Holmen and used from November 1945 to 1954 the office and warehouse of the coastal defense forces.

On February 2, 1955, the Hekla was sold for scrapping and scrapped.

Danish cruiser

The cruiser Gejser 1919
Surname Launch displacement speed Main armament
Valkyria September 8, 1888 3,020 t 17.5 kn 2 × 210 mm 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 × 120mm L / 40
Hejmdal August 30, 1894 1,342 t 17.0 kn 2 × 120mm L / 40

literature

Web links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Støren -Kl., Søløven , delivered by Thornycroft in 1887 , 110/108 t, 39.6 m long, 22 kn, 2 revolver cannons , 4 torpedo tubes
    Narhvalen Kl., Havhesten , delivered in 1888 ,     117/109 t, 41.1 m long, 21.5 kn, as above
  2. ↑ shell explodes on cruiser NYTimes, August 29, 1908