HNoMS Skorpionen

The HNoMS Skorpionen was built as a lead ship of her class, 3 of which were built for the Royal Norwegian navy.(Skorpionen, Mjølner and Thrudvang) The Skorpionens were Norways first Ironclad vessels, being laid down in1865 and launched in 1866. They followed a similar design to The American Union Ironclad USS Monitor with a single revolving Erickson-Coles turret, mounting 2 10.5 inch guns. Speed wise they achieved a blistering 8 knots top speed through a reciprocating 450 hp steam engine. Armour wise they mounted 300mm turret armour and130mm of deck and belt armour. Later an improvement called the Thor would be lauched. There operational careers weere very quit and as such they remained in service having never fired a shot in anger. All of these vessels would be Scrapped by 1918, as they were so old and outdated they would be more of a hazard to themselves than the enemy.