HNoMS Harald Haarfagre
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  Plans of the Tordenskjold class coastal defense ships. Note heavy guns in forward and aft turret, and secondary armament in central battery. |
|
| Career |  |
|---|---|
| Ordered: | 1896 |
| Laid down: | 1897 |
| Launched: | 4 January 1897 |
| Commissioned: | 21 March 1898 |
| Fate: | Scrapped 1948 |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 3,858 tons |
| Dimensions: | 92.66 m x 14.78 m x 5.38 m |
| Armament: | As built: 2 x 21cm/45 (8.2 inch) guns 6 x 12cm/45 (4.7 inch) guns 6 x 7.6cm/40 (3 inch) guns 6 x 1pdr Quick Fire gun 2 x 45 cm (18 inch) submerged torpedo tubes After German rebuild:[1] 6 x 10,5 cm AA guns 2 x 40 mm AA guns 14 x 20 mm AA guns |
| Aircraft: | none |
| Propulsion: | 4,500 hp (3 355.6 Kw), 16.9 knop (31.3 km/h, 19.4 mph) |
| Crew: | 245 |
The HNoMS Harald Haarfagre, known locally as Panserskipet Harald Haarfagre, was a Norwegian coastal defense ship. She, her sistership Tordenskjold and the slightly newer Eidsvold class were built as part of the general rearmament in the time leading up to the events in 1905. Harald Haarfagre remained an important vessel in the Royal Norwegian Navy until she was considered unfit for war in the mid 1930s.
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[edit] Description
.png/200px-HNoMS_Eidsvold_and_HNoMS_Tordenskiold_(models).png)
All but identical to her sistership Tordenskjold, Harald Haarfagre was named after Harald I of Norway, known as Harald Fairhair in English, the semi-mythical first king of a united Norway.
Built as a typical pre-dreadnought battleship on a smaller scale, she carried guns of a wide range of calibers.
[edit] Service history and fate
A vital part of the Royal Norwegian Navy, Harald Haarfagre performed ordinary duties until she was considered "unfit for war" in the mid 1930's. After the German invasion of Norway, she was seized by the Germans and rebuilt as a floating Flak battery under the name Tethis. After the war Harald Haarfagre was used briefly as a floating barracks, and for transporting German POWs, before she was sold for scrapping in 1948.
It was intended to augment the Norwegian Panserskip fleet with the two ships of the Bjørgvin class, ordered in 1912, but after these were confiscated by the British Navy at the outbreak of World War I the Tordenskjold class and the slightly newer, two ship strong, Eidsvold class was forced to soldier on long after they were obsolete
Today the name KNM Harald Haarfagre is used on the Royal Norwegian Navy Basic Training Establishment, located in Madla, Stavanger.
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ Abelsen 1986: 289
[edit] Literature
- Abelsen, Frank: Norwegian naval ships 1939-1945, Sem & Stenersen AS, Oslo 1986 ISBN 82-7046-050-8 (Norwegian)&(English)
[edit] See also
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