HNoMS Lyn

HNoMS Lyn - or just "Lyn" in Norwegian - was the lead ship of a class of 27 torpedo boats built between 1892 and 1912. The name means "Lightning". By today's standards, she was extremely lightly armed with just one 'quick fire' 37 mm cannon and a single, fixed torpedo tube, but in her time she did pack a punch. Later boats of her class carried heavier armament. "Lyn" was later renamed "Od", before she and most of her class were scrapped in 1920, long after they were obsolete.

Small, nimble and fast craft for their time, the class provided much of the backbone for the Royal Norwegian Navy in the time leading up to Norwegian independence in 1905, and also during World War I. The class was often referred to as "cigars" due to their shape as seen on the photos. Ironically, the very same quailties that made them excellent torpedoboats - small size and low freeboard - also made them very uncomfortable boats to crew, with cramped quarters and not very seaworthy.

Over the 30 years the class was built, the size increased steadily, as well as the armament. The last boats in the class had a displacement almost twice that of "Lyn", and two fixed torpedo tubes instead of just one. The class was in the later years of their service referred to as "2. klasse" (2nd class) torpedoboats, to differentiate them from the larger "1. klasse" (1st class) torpedoboats, which had one or two moveable torpedo launchers on deck.

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