A torpedo boat is a relatively small and fast naval ship designed to carry torpedoes into battle. The first designs were steam-powered craft dedicated to ramming enemy ships with explosive spar torpedoes. Later evolutions launched variants of self-propelled Whitehead torpedoes.
The Royal Norwegian Navy is the branch of the Norwegian Armed Forces responsible for naval operations of Norway, including those of the Norwegian Coast Guard. As of 2008, the Royal Norwegian Navy consists of approximately 3,700 personnel and 70 vessels, including 4 heavy frigates, 6 submarines, 14 patrol boats, 4 minesweepers, 4 minehunters, 1 mine detection vessel, 4 support vessels and 2 training vessels.
HMCS Haida is a Tribal-class destroyer that served in the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) from 1943 to 1963, participating in World War II and the Korean War. She was named after the Haida people.
HMS Bristol (D23) was a Type 82 destroyer, the only vessel of her class to be built for the Royal Navy. Bristol was intended to be the first of a class of large destroyers to escort the CVA-01 aircraft carriers projected to come into service in the early 1970s but the rest of the class and the CVA-01 carriers were cancelled as a result of the 1966 Defence White Paper which cut defence spending.
HNoMS Tordenskjold, known locally as Panserskipet Tordenskjold, was a Norwegian coastal defence ship. She, her sister ship, Harald Haarfagre, and the slightly newer Eidsvold class were built as a part of the general rearmament in the time leading up to the events in 1905. Tordenskjold remained an important vessel in the Royal Norwegian Navy until she was considered unfit for war in the mid-1930s.
HNoMS Draug was the lead ship of the three-ship Draug class of destroyers built for the Royal Norwegian Navy in the years 1908–1913. The four-stacked destroyer was kept in service long after she was obsolete, and took part in the defence of Norway during the German invasion in 1940.
HNoMS Garm was the third destroyer built for the Royal Norwegian Navy, and was a Draug class destroyer. Garm was constructed several years after her two sister ships, but to the same plans. She was built at the naval shipyard in Horten, with yard number 107.
The Sleipner class was a class of six destroyers built for the Royal Norwegian Navy from 1936 until the German invasion in 1940. The design was considered advanced for its time, and it was the first class of vessels for the Norwegian Navy that used aluminium in the construction of the bridge, the mast and the outer funnel. Extra strength special steel was used in the construction of the hull. Unlike the earlier Draug class the Sleipner class had comparatively good capabilities in both main guns, anti-aircraft artillery and anti-submarine weapons. The class was named after Sleipnir, the eight-legged horse of Odin.
HNoMS Tyr was a Gor-class Rendel gunboat built for the Royal Norwegian Navy at Karljohansverns Verft Naval Yard in Horten. She was laid down in 1884 and launched in 1887 with build number 67. Tyr was one of a class of two gunboats - the other ship in her class being HNoMS Gor. Gor and Tyr can be seen as improved Vale-class gunboats, of 290 tons instead of the 250 tons standard for that class.
HNoMS Ellida was a 1. class gunboat built for the Royal Norwegian Navy. Like the other Norwegian gunships of her era, she carried a reasonable heavy armament on a diminutive hull. A distinct feature of Ellida was that her funnel could be raised and lowered as needed. The vessel was built at the Naval Yard at Horten, and had yard number 59.
HNoMS Olav Tryggvason was a minelayer that was built by the naval shipyard at Horten in the early 1930s with the yard number 119. She served in the Royal Norwegian Navy until captured by the Germans in 1940. The Germans renamed her first Albatros II, and a few days later Brummer. She was wrecked in a British bombing raid in northern Germany in April 1945.
HNoMS Viking was a 1. class gunboat built for the Royal Norwegian Navy. Like the other Norwegian gunboats of her era, she carried a heavy armament on a diminutive hull. The vessel was built at the Naval Yard at Horten, and had yard number 72.
HNoMS Frithjof was a 1. class gunboat (built for the Royal Norwegian Navy. Like the other Norwegian gunboats of her era, she carried a heavy armament on a diminutive hull. The vessel was built at the Naval Yard at Horten, and had yard number 76.
HNoMS Sleipner was a destroyer commissioned into the Royal Norwegian Navy in 1936. The lead ship of the Sleipner class, she gained near-legendary status in Norway by enduring over two weeks of intense air attack by Luftwaffe bombers following the 9 April 1940 invasion of Norway. After the resistance in South Norway started unravelling she made her way over the North Sea to continue the fight against the Germans from exile. After serving as a convoy escort along the coast of the United Kingdom, she was decommissioned in 1944. She was recommissioned in 1948 after being converted to a frigate. Along with her surviving sister ships she was sold for scrapping in 1959.
HNoMS Gyller was a Sleipner-class destroyer commissioned into the Royal Norwegian Navy in 1938. Along with the other Sleipner-class vessels in commission at that time, she took part in protecting Norwegian neutrality during the Second World War. After initially serving in the far north during the Finno-Soviet Winter War, she was redeployed to Southern Norway, escorting ships through Norwegian territorial waters. When the Germans invaded Norway on 9 April 1940, she was docked at Kristiansand. After taking part in the defence of the port city, she was captured intact by the invading Germans. Renamed Löwe, she sailed with Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine for the duration of the war.
HNoMS Odin was a Sleipner-class destroyer that entered service with the Royal Norwegian Navy in 1939. She and the other Sleipner-class vessels were built as part of a Norwegian rearmament scheme in the last years leading up to the Second World War. In 1940, she had taken part in protecting Norwegian neutrality, before being caught in the German invasion of Norway on 9 April 1940. After fighting the invasion forces at Kristiansand, she was captured and pressed into Kriegsmarine service for the duration of the war. After the end of the war, she was returned to Norway. In 1948, she and her surviving sister ships were converted to frigates and remained in service until sold for scrapping in 1959.
HMS Rorqual (N74) was a British mine-laying submarine, one of the six ships of the Grampus class of the Royal Navy. She was built by Vickers Armstrong, Barrow and launched 27 July 1936. She served in the Second World War in the Mediterranean and in the far east. She was the only Grampus-class submarine to survive the war, and she is considered the most successful minelaying submarine of World War II, sinking 57,704 GRT of enemy shipping, 35,951 of which through her mines.
The Trygg class was the third and last class of torpedo boats to be built for the Royal Norwegian Navy. The three Trygg ships were constructed from 1919 to 1921 at Moss Verft in Moss (Trygg) and Horten naval yard.
HNoMS Tor was a Sleipner-class destroyer of the Royal Norwegian Navy that was launched in September 1939. She was under outfitting and testing when Nazi Germany invaded Norway on 9 April 1940. Although scuttled by Norwegian naval personnel to prevent her from being captured by the invading forces, she was soon salvaged by the Germans and put into service with the Kriegsmarine. Under the name Tiger she served out the war as an escort and training vessel, being recovered by the Norwegians in Denmark after the German capitulation in 1945. After the war she was converted to a frigate and served until 1959.
Norway
