- HNoMS Thor
HNoMS "Thor" was a monitor built for the
Royal Norwegian Navy in 1871. She was decommissioned in 1918, long after her heavy guns were outdated. She was considered an improvement on the "Skorpionen" class of monitors, with heavier armour and a wider beam.The name was a reference to the Norse god
Thor . The earlier monitor "Mjølner" was named after Thor's hammer.Details
"Thor" was armed with two heavy rifled muzzleloaders in a revolving turret. She had 7 inches of iron armour on her deck, and her turret was protected by 14 inches of iron armour.
Wreck
After decommissioning, "Thor" was intended for scrapping. On
March 7 , 1919, while being towed to the scrapyard, the ship was caught in a storm that broke the towing cable, stranding "Thor" on an island outsideVerdens Ende inVestfold . Two crew members were killed in the accident. "Thor" later sank in shallow water. A salvage operation removed parts of the ship, but the wreck remains largely intact and now lies at a depth of 8 to 14 meters southwest of Verdens Ende. [http://www.skovheim.org/located/vestfold/thor/thor.htm Skovheim.org database entry on "Thor"] , access date 2 January, 2007]"Thor" is one of only three accessible monitor wrecks in the world, the others being USS "Monitor", which lies at about 60 meters some 42 kilometers southeast of
Cape Hatteras ,North Carolina and the other being HMVS "Cerberus", in 5 metres of water in Victoria, Australia.Trivia
*
Johan Oscar Smith , founder ofSmith's Friends served as a gunnery officer on "Thor" in 1898.References
* [http://navalhistory.flixco.info/H/287758x53056/8330/a0.htm Naval History via Flix: KNM "Thor"] , access date January 16, 2006
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