A visit to one of the World's oldest Naval Museums

I've recently been to the Swedish equivalent and I think I may have earlier mentioned somewhere in the comment section of this blog, or in someone else's blog, that I live close to the Norwegian Naval Museum, and that I might post a report from it as there are several fellow wargame bloggers and readers who are interested in Naval history and wargaming. I decided to do it during summer time as they also have some outdoor exhibitions. Recently the weather has been sunny and warm here so I decided to take the 30 minutes ferry-trip from Moss (where I live) to Horten where the Norwegian Naval Museum is located on the old main Naval Base, Karljohansvern. It's not the main Naval base anymore as it's moved to Bergen, but the Navy still have some few services left there. -amongst them the Naval Museum, which is one of the oldest Naval museums in the World, and the oldest opened to the public (1853).

It was lovely weather to spend on deck with a cup of coffee. Horten is just 30 minutes away (on the other side of the Oslofjord):

The Norwegian Naval Museum at Karljohansvern is located in the building to the right. All ships are open to the public. Even if the Museum has preserved ships, they have a lot of models. A lot (!) The Ship to the left is a decommissioned Oslo Class Frigate:

Outside the museum there is a selection of ship-guns and another ship; a Kobben Class Submarine:

A torpedo launcher and a Storm Class Fast attack boat:

This is a model of how the Main Naval base looked like when established. Many of the buildings are unfortunately demolished now, but the naval museum can be seen as the 2 long red buildings on the right. Too bad the 'Citadelle' on the hill in the center was demolished as well:

Now it's only a model left of it:

Inside the museum parts of the exhibition are really old:

Some of their models are enormous: 

Norway has a very long coast and have been a maritime nation ever since. This reflects our navy which until the end of the cold war actually has been quite large. During the 16th and 17th century Norway did not only have larger sail ships, but had also developed several smaller ships, often only armed with a cannon or two to operate inshore. These were very manoeuvrable and probably the first gunboats:

Peter Wessel Tordenskjold was a Norwegian officer in the Danish/Norwegian fleet, and was a true naval tactician. Due to his daring and successfull operations and victories against the Swedish navy during the Great Northern War he was promoted to Vice Admiral. Here are a couple of his commissioned ships:

The statue of Tordenskjold to the left, overlooking his old ships:

A periodic Regal-ship with an early form of 'camouflage' making it difficult to specify it's course due to colors and perspective:

During the Napoleonic wars Denmark/Norway was on the French side, which resulted in several clashes with The Royal Navy. This is a model of the Battle of Lyngør in 1812, which was won by the British:

On the museum there is also an armory showing a lot of old and modern weapons. Here are some early models of machineguns. The one to the right was used in Norway's first Monitor:

The Norwegian Navy's first monitor "Skorpionen" from 1866. Totally 4 monitors entered Norwegian service:

Off course there must be a Viking ship on a Norwegian Naval Museum. These warships were very innovative for their time, being very seaworthy and able to landings operations in shallow waters at the same time. This big model is of the 'Gokstad' ship from 890. It was found only 45km away from the museum. The ship has been copied several times, and I think this is the ship Emhar used for a prototype for their model:

A selection of small arms used by the Navy:

A section of the museum are about the Royal family and the ships in their service:

During WW2 the Norwegian Navy went 'overseas' and joined the allied service. Norway did not only participating with it's huge merchant navy, but also in very offensive roles with Norwegians serving on allied ships and operating 12 Destroyers, 7 Corvettes, 30 MTBs, 9  motorlaunchers, 4 submarines, 4 submarine hunters, 38 minesweepers, 12 patrol vessels and 2 depot ships on their own in allied service. Several Flower Class Corvettes were operated by Norwegians in the Atlantic:

Several Norwegian crew members lost their life during WW2, and a room in the museum are dedicated to them:

Respect!

From the Submarine section:

After WW2 the Norwegian Navy operated 3 ex-German VIIC submarines until 1964:

Before WW2, the Navy also had their own Air Force.

The Norwegian Fleet Arm also had their base at Karljohansvern:

The Norwegian Fleet Arm was undergoing modernization towards the outbreak of WW2, but the Heinkel entered service  too late to make any difference. They were seized by the Germans and entered German service instead. Earlier this summer I saw a similar model on the Swedish Naval Museum:

After WW2, 2 Flower Class Corvettes were still in Norwegian service. This is it's post war scheme: 

Norway operated several Fast attack boats and MTBs during WW2, and continued to do so after the war as the Norwegian coast was ideal for such small crafts to operate against larger ships. After WW2 there were several British ships in service, but also several ex-German S-Boots and a flotilla of ex-American Elco PT-Boats:

Norway soon designet a own Class called Tjeld (after the bird). The design was so successful that USA bought them for service in Vietnam. Some even claims that some of these ships were operated by Norwegians. It's a Norwegian design, so a similar model is actually exhibited on the National Museum where I work:

This is a model of a Storm Class:

-Which also is the same Class of ship exhibited outside. The public can go aboard it:

Norway was also operating one of the World's first torpedo boats built in UK in 1873. KNM "RAP" ("Fast") was the fastest ship of it's time with 16,5 knots:

Earlier the Naval Museum used to exhibit THE KNM "RAP" outside the museum, but it was later removed due to it's bad condition being permanent displayed outside. I know they have later renovated and conserved it, but it's not exhibited anymore (yet). -So this is an exclusive thing for the readers of this blog; a revisit of the preserved original "Rap", one of the first ever modern Torpedo Boats. I was given an exclusive tour to one of their magazines to have a look at it:

In this magazine, not open to the public, there were also 2 newly conserved German WW2 mini-submarines, which also used to be exhibited on the outside before. The German occupation forces operated several mini-submarine stations on Norway:

Back inside the public exhibition again I went into the Coast Guard section:

There they have a model of the latest ship in the Coast Guard, Jan-Mayen Class, which only one or two has recently entered service. More of them are under way:

In the Coast Guard section there were also a model of KV "Nornen", on which my oldest son served for 2 years:

There is also a small exhibition of the more modern Norwegian Naval Special Operation Forces. They also operates inland, and have seen active service in Afghanistan and in the Bay of Aden in anti-pirate operations:

When I visit museums I usually visits (and takes a photo of) their museum-shop. This one has no models, kits, soldiers or what so ever. Not even Cobi blocks, which seems to be popular at other (military-) museums these days. Earlier they used to have a lot of military surplus from the Navy, but now it was mostly books, cups, stuffed animals of 'mascots' and some few toys. Not very interesting from a modeller's perspective. 

One other thing I usually visits on museums are their cafeterias. No exception this time:

Another nice thing about going to museums are doing research for own modelling projects. I found this, showing an unusual view of a camouflage pattern:

I'll post more information about the project as a blogpost when I finally get around to it, and have something to post. This visit also inspired me to do some maritime modelling or wargaming. The latter would have to be easy and free like all the other wargames I've been played and reviewed in this blog. Time will show. Please follow for updates.

I hoped you stayed until the end of this blogpost and enjoyed this very brief virtual tour at the Norwegian Naval Museum in Horten. The staff there are really friendly and helpful, and I do really recommend you to visit it if you're in the area.