HNoMS Kjell was the final ship of twenty-seven 2nd class torpedo boats built for the Royal Norwegian Navy, launched at the Royal Norwegian Navy's shipyard in Horten on 12 March 1912 with build number 106. Kjell saw more than 32 years of service, the first 28 years in the Royal Norwegian Navy during the First World War and in the interwar period, the last four in the Kriegsmarine, having been captured in the first days of the 1940 Norwegian campaign. After being rebuilt as a minesweeper by the Germans, she was sunk by Royal Air Force de Havilland Mosquito fighter bombers on 28 September 1944. Divers rediscovered the shipwreck in 2006. Characteristics Kjell was the last of 27 small, cigar-shaped, pre-First World War torpedo boats built for the Royal Norwegian Navy. The other ships in her post-1905 series were the 1906 Teist (black guillemot) and the 1907 Skarv (cormorant). The series' main armament consisted of two deck-mounted torpedo launchers and one fixed torpedo tube in the bow. While Teist and Skarv were both armed with two guns, Kjell was equipped with a single main gun. Unlike all the preceding Norwegian torpedo boats the Officers' Mess on board Kjell was located in the bow section, with easy access to the command position in the tower. First World War The Royal Norwegian Navy mobilized on 2 August 1914, shortly after the outbreak of the First World War. With Norway having declared herself a neutral country the torpedo boats were ordered to carry the lion's share of the neutrality protection patrols. This was despite their less than satisfactory seaworthiness in open seas, having been designed for service close to shore and in the many Norwegian fjords. The background for the decision to deploy the torpedo boats as the main Norwegian patrol force was based on the small ships being more economic to operate than the navy's larger vessels in a time of uncertain coal and oil supplies. In one episode during her First World War service Kjell intercepted the British submarine on 2 July 1916. The submarine had hailed and fired two shots at the 578-ton Norwegian steamer SS Prunelle of Bergen, off Lindesnes in southern Norway. The British submarine managed to dive and make good its escape, but although E30s crew claimed that Prunelle was from shore and hence outside Norwegian territorial waters, the Norwegians claimed that the steamer was only from