HNoMS Rap

The Norwegian warship "HNoMS Rap" was a torpedo boat built in 1873. She was one of the first torpedo boats to carry the self-propelled Whitehead torpedo after being converted to use them in 1879, the same year the Royal Navy's HMS "Lightning" entered service. The name "Rap" ("Rapp" in the modern spelling) translates as "quick" - a fitting name for a fast attack boat.

The "Rap" was ordered from Thornycroft shipbuilding company, England, in either 1872 or 1873, and was built at Thornycroft's shipyard at Chiswick. Managing a speed of convert|14.5|kn|km/h|0, she was one of the fastest boats afloat when completed. The Norwegians initially planned to arm her with a spar torpedo but this may never have been fitted. "Rap" was briefly used for experiments with a towed torpedo before finally being outfitted with launch racks for the new self-propelled Whithead torpedoes in 1879. Her initial commanding officer was First Lieutenant Koren, who also designed the torpedo racks.

Although "Rap" had been built several years earlier, the first true torpedo boat built to carry self-propelled torpedoes was the British HMS "Lightning", and she was in fact fitted with such torpedoes before "Rap". The first warship of any kind to carry self-propelled torpedoes was the HMS "Vesuvius" of 1873.

With a displacement of less than ten tons, "Rap" was very limited in terms of endurance and seaworthiness, and over the next three decades "Rap" would be followed by many other Norwegian torpedo boats of ever-increasing size and complexity. She was finally stricken from the fleet in 1920, long after she had become obsolete.

Today, the "Rap" is exhibited at the Naval Museum in Horten, Norway.

"Rap" also gave name to a class of six MTBs built for the Royal Norwegian Navy in the 1950s.

External links

* [http://www.knmskjold.org/images/rap.jpgPicture of Rap]
* [http://www.22mtb.com/Loggbok-bilder/0419/rap1.jpgA view of the newly restored Rap] One 'frame' with a torpedo clearly visible on the side.
* [http://www.22mtb.com/Loggbok-bilder/0419/rap2.jpgCloseup of the bridge of Rap] Note how small the boat actually is.