HNoMS Norge

HNoMS Norge was a coastal defence ship of the Eidsvold class in the Royal Norwegian Navy, built by Armstrong Whitworth at the Elswick shipyard in Newcastle upon Tyne. She was launched on 31 March 1900 and commissioned in early 1901. With her sister ship Eidsvold she was one of the two largest vessels in the Norwegian fleet, displacing 4,233 tons with a crew of 270, and her main armament was two 21 centimetre guns. She was armoured with 6 inches of Krupp cemented armour in the belt and 9 inches on the two gun turrets. Norge and Eidsvold stayed the backbone of the Royal Norwegian Navy for just over forty years, kept in service because the two Bjørgvin class ships ordered in 1912 were requisitioned by the British during the First World War. On 9 April 1940 she fired on two German destroyers in Narvik harbour and was sunk by a torpedo from Bernd von Arnim in less than a minute, with 101 of her crew lost and 90 rescued. Her wreck lies about 20 metres down in Narvik harbour as a war memorial, and diving on it is prohibited.