| Dirk Vries writes:
'Schorpioen', now moored at the former
naval Dockyard
Den Helder, she is now part of the collection
of the Dutch
naval museum and hence again in the care (and
benefiting
from the budget) of the Royal Netherlands
Navy.
The forecastle is under repair now and
bowsprit, anchor-
davits and skylights have been temporarily
removed to
allow the replacement of deck-planking, that
suffered
rotting. The same will be done to the wooden
deck house
behind the turret. By the way, all deck housing
is still
original. The original turret (the present one
is dummy)
was of the Coles design just like the turrets
of the
Australian 'Cerebus'.
Unlike 'Cerebus' she carried only one turret
due to her
prime assignment as a coast defence ram-ship. I
suppose
the events of the 1866 battle of Lissa
confirmed the
choice to earmark the ram as the main armament
of
'Schorpioen'. Although built in France (the
only Dutch
warship ever!) 'Schorpioen' received her guns
from
Armstrong at Newcastle, Great Britain, after
commissioning. These guns are long gone now
but
plans have been made to recover the same type
of
guns from the monitor 'Adder', lost in the
North Sea
in 1882. (This hardly seaworthy low freebard
monitor
was accidentally flooded in a
storm.)
|
