Hekla (ship, 1882)
The Hekla was a torpedo boat of the Royal Dutch Navy .
The boat was built in 1881 at the Yarrow & Co. shipyard on the Isle of Dogs in Poplar , London , as a spar torpedo boat, designated No. XXI during construction, and entered service in 1882 as a second class torpedo boat Hekla. The construction costs amounted to 104,404 guilders . The only sister ship , the Etna , was built in 1882 at the same shipyard as No. XXII and also put into service in 1882.
The boats were 31.40 m long and 3.81 m wide, had a draft of 1.68 m and displaced a maximum of 46 tons . A steam engine with a locomotive boiler produced 550 PSi and a maximum speed of 21.4 kn over one screw . The bunker stock of 5 tons allowed a distance of 560 nm at a cruising speed of 10 kn. Armament originally consisted of two 35.6-cm Spier torpedoes in the bow and two 3.7-cm Hotchkiss 37/20 cannons in individual statements on the nave. The spars were replaced by two torpedo tubes at Yarrow & Co. in 1885 . The crew numbered 13-15 men. At first, the two boats were even equipped with sails , which were only removed in 1893.
The two boats were reclassified as 1st class torpedo boats in 1891. From 1907 to 1913 the Hekla was assigned to the Dutch submarine weapon under construction. Their tasks were the escort and security of submerged submarines , the introduction of downed exercise torpedoes and the training of submarine personnel.
The Hekla was decommissioned in 1913, the Etna a year earlier.