Danish Coastal Defense Ship Olfert Fischer
HDMS Olfert Fischer (1903) was a Danish coastal defense ship. The second of her class of three ships (including Herluf Trolle and Peder Skram), she was launched on 9 May 1903 and commissioned on 31 May 1905.
She had an uneventful career, as Denmark remained neutral throughout World War One. Herluf Trolle and her sisters patrolled Denmark’s coast, enforcing her neutrality. Post war, with reduced naval budgets, she was often laid up or used as a training ship. In 1936, it was decided to scrap her, but after she had been used to evaluate aerial bombing. With most of her useful equipment removed and additional armour added to protect a skeleton crew, army and navy bombers dropped a total of 386 small, practice bombs on her from 5 to 17 October October 1936. Only twelve of the 12 kg (26 lb) bombs hit Olfert Fischer.
Olfert Fischer was broken up for scrap from 1937 to 1938. Her main guns were added to the coastal defenses of Holmen Naval Base, where they remained until 1948.
