Thursday, October 18, 2007

The Danish "torpedo ram" Tordenskjold




The Danish ship Tordenskjold was rated as a "torpedo ram", but was actually a small protected cruiser with a huge gun. An old Jane's reported that the Tordenskjold was launched in 1880. The ship had a very archaic look to it. The main protection was from an arched 3-3/4in steel deck, probably with coal stored above and below it. The main armament consisted of a 14in/25 BLR. There were also 4-4.7in guns. The Tordenskjold also had four above water torpedo tubes and 8-MG. The large gun had an 8in compound barbette with a hemispherical shield. The 4.7in guns were mounted on the upper deck, aft, and had the usual shields. The designed speed was 14 knots, from an IHP of 2,600. There were two screws and cylindrical boilers. The coal capacity was 170 tons. The crew was fairly large at 220 men. The ship was quite small, with a displacement of only 2,530 tons.

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