Right elevation and plan of the Type 23
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History | |
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Germany | |
Name | Seeadler |
Namesake | Sea eagle |
Builder | Reichsmarinewerft Wilhelmshaven |
Yard number | 103 |
Laid down | 5 October 1925 |
Launched | 15 July 1926 |
Commissioned | 15 March 1927 |
Fate | Torpedoed and sunk, 14 May 1942 |
General characteristics (as built) | |
Class and type | Type 23 torpedo boat |
Displacement | |
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 |
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Propulsion | 2 × shafts; 2 × geared steam turbine sets |
Speed | 32–34 knots (59–63 km/h; 37–39 mph) |
Range | 1,800 nmi (3,300 km; 2,100 mi) at 17 knots (31 km/h; 20 mph) |
Complement | 120 |
Armament |
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Seeadler was the second of six Type 23 torpedo boats built for the German Navy (initially called the Reichsmarine and then renamed as the Kriegsmarine in 1935). The boat made multiple non-intervention patrols during the Spanish Civil War in the late 1930s. During World War II, she played a minor role in the Battle of Kristiansand during the Norwegian Campaign of 1940. Seeadler spent the next couple of years escorting minelayers as they laid minefields and laying minefields herself. She also spent the latter half of 1941 escorting convoys through the Skaggerak. The boat returned to France in 1942 and was one of the escorts for the capital ships sailing from France to Germany through the English Channel in the Channel Dash. Seeadler then helped to escort one commerce raider through the Channel and was sunk by British forces while escorting another blockade runner in May.