HNoMS Sleipner (1877)

The HNoMS "Sleipner" was a 1. class gunboat built for the Royal Norwegian Navy. Like all other Norwegian gunships of her era, she carried a heavy armament on a diminutive hull.

Her main weapon was a 26 cm cannon, of the same make and model other navies mounted [ [http://navalhistory.flixco.info/H/229468x53535/8330/a0.htm GR 10in 26cm 22cal Krupp BL] , retrieved 2 March 2006] on battleships. Sleipner also carried an underwater torpedo tube in her bow for firing Whitehead torpedoes, and she was the first vessel in the Royal Norwegian Navy equipped with this weapon.

In 1900 Sleipner was rebuilt, and her masts and rigging was removed. After her rebuild she was used as a cadet ship (training vessel) until 1915, when she started a new life as a floating barracks. Between 1921 and 1932 Sleipner was used as a floating depot for the fledgling Royal Norwegian Navy Air Service, before she was finally decommissioned and scrapped in 1935.

The vessel was built at the Naval Yard at Horten, and had the yard number 56.

Notes and references

* [http://navalhistory.flixco.info/G/288085x9/8330/a0.htm Naval history via Flix: KNM Sleiner] , retrieved 2 March 2006
* [http://www.mil.no/sjo/start/fakta/historie/dagfordag/mai/article.jhtml?articleID=96426 Sjøforsvaret dag for dag: 20 mai] , retrieved 2 March 2006
* [http://www.lokalhistoriskarkiv.no/arkivet/historiske_sider/horten_verft/byggenummer Byggenummer ved Horten verft] , retrieved 2 March 2006