Gor class gunship

The "Gor"-class was a class of two gunboats built for the Royal Norwegian Navy between 1884 and 1887. Small, nimble vessels, they were armed with a single large caliber gun for offensive purposes and several small, quick firing guns for self defence.

The main gun was large for such a small craft, roughly a quarter of the length of the whole vessel, and of the same caliber as heavy battleship guns of the same era. It must be assumed that the "Gor"-class was built in the belief that they would have been able to inflict serious damage to an opposing battleship.

ervice history and fate

Shortly before World War I, both vessels were rebuilt as minelayers. During this rebuild, the heavy, large caliber gun was replaced with a more modern 12 cm breachloader, and one of the 37 mm guns was replaced with a more potent 57 mm ("Tyr") or 76 mm ("Gor") gun. With the heavy gun and ammunition removed, these diminutive vessels could then carry a useful number of mines.

Both vessels were kept in service until the German invasion in 1940 and both fell into German hands for the remainder of the war.

After World War II, the vessels were returned to the Royal Norwegian Navy, and scrapped.

References

* [http://navalhistory.flixco.info/H/288122x53056/8330/a0.htm Naval history via Flix: KNM Gor] , retrieved 1 March 2006
* [http://www.lokalhistoriskarkiv.no/arkivet/historiske_sider/horten_verft/byggenummer Byggenummer ved Horten verft] , retrieved 1 March 2006
* [http://hem.fyristorg.com/robertm/norge/Norw_navy_ships.html Ships of the Norwegian navy] , retrieved 1 March 2006