German torpedo boat Albatros

59°5′40″N 10°47′30″E / 59.09444°N 10.79167°E / 59.09444; 10.79167

Albatros

Right elevation and plan of the Type 23
History
Germany
Name	Albatros
Namesake	Albatross
Builder	Reichsmarinewerft Wilhelmshaven
Yard number	105
Laid down	5 October 1925
Launched	15 July 1926
Completed	15 May 1927
Fate	Beached, 10 April 1940
General characteristics (as built)
Class and type	Type 23 torpedo boat
Displacement	923 long tons (938 t) (standard) 1,290 long tons (1,310 t) (deep load)
Length	87.7 m (287 ft 9 in) o/a
Beam	8.25 m (27 ft 1 in)
Draft	3.65 m (12 ft)
Installed power	3 × water-tube boilers 23,000 shp (17,000 kW)
Propulsion	2 × shafts 2 × geared steam turbine sets
Speed	33 knots (61 km/h; 38 mph)
Range	1,800 nmi (3,300 km; 2,100 mi) at 17 knots (31 km/h; 20 mph)
Complement	120
Armament	3 × single 10.5 cm (4.1 in) guns 2 × triple 500 mm (19.7 in) torpedo tubes 30 mines

Albatros was the fourth of six Type 23 torpedo boats built for the German Navy (initially called the Reichsmarine and renamed the Kriegsmarine in 1935). Completed in 1927, Albatros often served as a flagship of torpedo boat units. The ship made multiple non-intervention patrols during the Spanish Civil War in the late 1930s. After an attack by aircraft of the Spanish Republican Air Force killed German sailors in 1937, she participated in the retaliatory bombardment of Almería.

At the beginning of World War II in 1939, Albatros helped to lay minefields and made anti-shipping patrols before participating in Operation Weserübung, the German invasion of Norway in April 1940. The ship fired the first shots of the campaign when she encountered and crippled a Norwegian patrol boat. She was lightly damaged during the Battle of Horten Harbor. Albatros then ran aground and was wrecked.