(1 notion of armour-plating followed the American civil war, a few
monitors were built, but it was of course impossible for a nation
numbering less than two million persons to keep up with the
rapid development of large and very costly vessels that followed.
We confined ourselves mainly to strengthening to some extent the
defence of the slcjcergaard by building small steam gun-boats with
heavy guns. The importance of defence by torpedoes in waters
like those of Norway, was soon understood; and the first torpedo-
boat built for any foreign government was for the Norwegian
navy, by Thomycroft (1873).
I t was not before 1895, however, that the development of the
Norwegian navy again made any advance worthy of remark.
Attention was then turned to other branches of the fleet equally
necessary for a country like Norway, that is obliged to procure
the necessaries of life across the sea, namely armoured and more
sea-going war-vessels. As these ships, however, must also be
adapted for employment within the skjsergaard, nature itself sets
a limit to their size, a limit also more nearly corresponding to
the financial capacity of the country. The type chosen was the
3rd or 4th class iron-clad of the large navies, or coast-defenee
vessels of from 3600 to 4000 tons, with a-speed of 17 knots. TJp
to the present, Norway has had 4 of these ships built at the Elswick
Works, Neweastle-on-Tyne (2 of them, will be finished in -1900)6
They aré comparatively strongly protected and armed, the armament
being two 21 cm. guns in turrets, and a secondary battery
of 6 guns, 12 cm. on the two ships first built and. 15 cm: in
armour-plated casemates on the two last, all quick-firing, and moreover
from 12 to 14 76 37 mm. quick-firing guns besides two
broadside submarine launching tubes for Whitehead torpedoes. The
complement of men is about 240.
The 4 monitors have been re-armed, their old, heavy, but
short guns having been exchanged for smaller, quick-firing guns
(12 cm.). With their low speed, however, they can scarcely be
regarded as anything but floating batteries for local defence.
The Norwegian navy has two rather large gun-boats of 1100
and 1400 tons displacement, with a protective deck over the vital
parts, a speed of 15 knots, and armed with two 12 or 15 cm.
guns, in addition to some of smaller calibre. There are further
8 small gun-boats, with one large gun (21—27 cm.) each, only
one of them having any armour-plating. Their speed is low,
and they are only intended for coast defence within the skjEer-
gaard.T
he torpedo-boats, which, in our complicated waters with
their numerous channels and sounds between the islands, must
have unusually favourable conditions for their operations, and can
make it very unsafe for any hostile ships, number 28. One of
them is a 380-tons division boat, 10 of them are 84 tons with a
speed of 23 knots, and 17 are from 40 to 65-tons with a speed
of 18 or 19 knots.
These, chiefly new vessels (46 in all) amount to about 29,000
tons, with 53,000 horse power, 174 guns (54 of them from 12 to
27 cm.), and manned with about 3000 men. There are also a
number of old gun-boats and training-ships.
The principal naval station and dockyard is at Karljohansvern,
at Horten, where most of the war-ships have been built. There
are also smaller naval stations at Tonsberg, Kristiansand and
Bergen.
The fleet is manned with merchant sailors, who serve their
time of military service in the navy. On conscription at the age
of 22, they must have served at least a year on merchant ships
in foreign waters. The number of recruits is about 1500 annually,
and there is therefore a far greater number of sailors of the age
in which military service is compulsory, than is necessary even
for a considerably larger fleet. I t has therefore been moved, this
year that only the number necessary for the actual needs of the
navy (at present about 650 yearly) shall be taken up for a year’s
naval training.
Signal-stations have been established along the coast, manned
with about 150 enlisted men.
The warrant- and petty-officers of the navy are trained at
Horten. They are organised in (1) a naval corps (gunners, seamen,
and signalmen, non-commissioned officers, and pupils), (2) a tor;
pedo corps, (3) an artisans’ corps (engineers, engine-room-artificers,
stokers, armourers and carpenters). The school-courses last 4 years.
Lastly, there is (4) a hospital corps. The actual number of noncommissioned
officers and enlisted men amounts to about 1000.
Of commissioned officers there are about 80 regular, and 60
belonging to the reserve, besides medical officers. These numbers
will be considerably increased in the course of the next few years-
They are educated at the naval academy, where the course is 5
20