The Boat Hall
The Boat Hall is located behind the SØBJØRNEN. In the Centre you see the Danish Navy’s first helicopter, a French ALOUETTE III produced by Aerospatiale. This helicopter was used by the Danish Naval Air Squadron. A total of eight helicopters of this type were purchased. The first ALOUETTE was flown in from France in June 1962, and the last of this type was decommissioned in 1982, when it was succeeded by the British LYNX helicopter, which according to the defense agreement from 2005 will be supplemented with the British Merlin-type. The ALOUETTE carried a crew of 1-2 men and could carry up to 5 passengers or two stretchers. The undercarriage of the ALOUETTE consisted of two floats enabling her to land on the sea.
The Navy’s helicopters are mainly used on board the inspection ships in the waters around Greenland and the Faeroe Islands. Here they carry out fisheries inspections, sea rescues, transport and surveillance. Prior to the introduction of helicopters fisheries inspection and sea rescue at Greenland and the Faroe Island were done solely by inspection-ships and cutters. Due to a great ship disaster (the HANS HEDTOFT) and the extension of the fishing limits, the Navy extended its capacity by introducing helicopters. This meant that larger areas at sea could be kept under surveillance, and the helicopters could direct the inspection vessel to the actual scene of operation.
The hall contains four crafts from the Royal Yacht DANNEBROG. It is the original motor boat built in 1931, a lifeboat, a whaleboat, and the ”Prinsessejollen” (the princesses’ boat), a sailing-boat in fine condition. This boat was presented to princess Margrethe (the present Queen of Denmark) and her two sisters, princesses Benedikte and Anne Marie. The boat was onboard the Royal Yacht, and when in port or at anchor, the princesses could amuse themselves by sailing their own boat.
You also find a motorboat from the training ship DANMARK. When Denmark was occupied by German troops in 1940, this ship was in American waters. The ship was then placed at the disposal of the US Coast Guard, who during World War II trained more than 5000 cadets onboard her. The Coast Guard supplied the ship with this motorboat at the time, and it remained on board until 1997 when it was replaced by a new one.
The exhibition also contains a German one- man-torpedo of the NEGER type. It consists of an electric 21 cm torpedo slung under a 53 cm torpedo, which has been modified to contain the one man crew, who was seated in a cockpit below a Perspex hood. In the cockpit were only very limited navigational kit. The pilot had very few possibilities of escape. The craft made a max. speed of three knots and its range was about 30 miles. This craft was, contrary to later models, incapable of diving. It operated together with various other types of midget submarines in the ”The small battle weapon force” (Kleinkampfmittel-Verband) of the German Navy. They were brought into action against the Allied invasions in 1944 of Italy and Normandy, but without success, contrary to those used by the British and the Italian navies, which were much more successful.