HNoMS Ellida (1880)

The HNoMS "Ellida" was a 1. class gunboat built for the Royal Norwegian Navy. Like all other Norwegian gunships of her era, she carried a reasonable heavy armament on a diminutive hull. A distinct feature of "Ellida" was that her funnel could be raised and lowered as needed.

It's unclear from the sources if the listed armament is the original armament, or if Ellida originally was armed with a much heavier main gun like the slightly older 1. class gunboat Sleipner. Ellida, like Sleipner, carried an underwater torpedo tube in her bow for firing Whitehead torpedoes, and she was the second vessel in the Royal Norwegian Navy equipped with this weapon.

"Ellida" underwent a refit in 1896, and was reclassified as a steam corvette. From 1898 she was used as a training vessel for cadets. In 1914 "Ellida" was refitted once more, and became the mother ship and support vessel for the early Norwegian submarines (the A-class. "Ellida" was decommissioned and sold off in 1925.

The vessel was built at the Naval Yard at Horten, and had the yard number 59.

Notes and references

* [http://www.mil.no/sjo/start/fakta/historie/dagfordag/jul/article.jhtml?articleID=98853 Sjøforsvaret dag for dag: 1 juli] , retrieved 3 March 2006
* [http://www.lokalhistoriskarkiv.no/arkivet/historiske_sider/horten_verft/byggenummer Byggenummer ved Horten verft] , retrieved 3 March 2006