Valkyrjen (ship, 1895)
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 The Valkyrjen in Kiel, 1900 |
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| Overview | |
| Type | destroyer |
| Shipyard |
Schichau-Werke , Elbing |
| Keel laying | 1895 |
| Launch | 1895 |
| delivery | May 17, 1896 |
| Decommissioning | September 27, 1920 |
| Removed from ship register | May 12, 1922 |
| Technical specifications | |
| displacement |
375 t, maximum 415 t |
| length |
59.4 m over all |
| width |
7.42 m |
| Draft |
2.59 m |
| crew |
59 men |
| drive |
2 Thornycroft boilers , |
| speed |
23 kn |
| Range |
2300 nm at 10 kn |
| Armament |
2 × 76 mm Armstrong rapid fire guns , |
| Coal supply |
88 t |
The Valkyrjen built near Schichau was the first destroyer of the Norwegian Navy , which it referred to as a torpedo boat hunter (Norwegian "torpedobåtjager"). The financial means for the construction were raised among Norwegian women, and that is why the ship got its name and was also often referred to as the “Damenes Krigsskib” (ladies' warship). The Valkyrjen finally retired from the service of the Norwegian Navy in 1922.
Building history
The operational planning when the order was placed provided for the fight against smaller torpedo boats at sea. The ship was too slow and not agile enough for that. The armament was not really superior to the usual torpedo boats either. The ship was practically only the flagship of the newly ordered 105 t torpedo boats, 1st class, of which the first three - Hval , Delfin and Hai - were also delivered by Schichau. Seven other boats of this size were then built in Norway, the Storm and Laks class boats .
The Valkyrjen was a further development of the German division torpedo boat , the previous German version of which, the D 9 , had only one chimney, much shorter masts and a different armament with roughly the same displacement and dimensions.
The Valkyrjen was a two-chimney ship with two relatively high masts. The front mast stood in the hollow between the forecastle and the bridge. The rear mast was quite far back and had booms. Their armament consisted of two 76 mm L / 44 - Armstrong -Schnellfeuergeschützen type N, which were set up on the centreline at the end of the forecastle below the back just before the small Popp. There were also four 37-mm L / 45 Hotchkiss - machine guns and two 450-mm deck officer torpedo tubes . The rotatable pipes were installed on the midship line between the chimneys and behind the rear mast.
Until the Draug was commissioned in 1908, the Valkyrjen remained the only destroyer in the Norwegian Navy. The completely outdated ship was never modernized and only scrapped after the First World War .
Mission history
The Valkyrjen made her first test run on May 11, 1896 and was already put into service in Horten on May 17, 1896 . In 1900 she took part in a visit to a Norwegian fleet in Kiel, which also included the coastal armored ship Tordenskjold , the gunboat Frithjof and four torpedo boats. In 1901 the Valkyrjen made a long voyage along the Norwegian coast with the coastal armored ships Tordenskjold , Harald Haarfagre and Norge .
When Norway broke away from the personal union with Sweden in 1905, there were no battles, although the Swedish Navy moved many of its units to the Kattegat . The Valkyrjen was the flagship of six 1st class torpedo boats that were stationed at the Oslofjord in order to, together with the four coastal armored ships, fend off a feared Swedish attack from the sea on Oslo and the military and industrial installations in eastern Norway (Skagerrak squadron).
In World War I, Norway remained neutral, and its navy was limited to the protection of Norwegian territorial waters .
End of the Valkyrjen
After the war, the Valkyrjen was decommissioned on September 27, 1920 and sold for demolition in May 1922, which was then carried out the following year.
literature
- B. Weyer: Taschenbuch der Kriegsflotten , JF Lehmanns Verlag, Munich, 1905
Web links
- The Valkirjen
- The Valkyrjen and side view 1905
- Pictures of a model of the Valkyrjen in the Marine Museum
- Valkyrjen (Torpedo Boat Destroyer, 1897-1922)
Footnotes
- ↑ 12pdr-12cwt QF
- ^ The 37 mm Hotchkiss cannon on Naval Weapons
- ^ Jacob Børresen: Sjømilitære krigsforberedelser i ytre Oslofjord summer 1905. Vestfold University College and Borre Historical Society. Archived copy ( memento of the original dated August 11, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (norw.) (accessed April 19, 2012)
