HDMS Peder Skram was the third and final member of the Herluf Trolle class of coastal defense ships built for the Royal Danish Navy.

Peder Skram took part in routine training exercises and cruises in northern European waters in the years between her completion in 1909 and the start of World War I in 1914.

She thereafter served as part of Denmark's neutrality patrols during the war, and she was involved in an incident between a British submarine and two German torpedo boats in 1915.

The 1920s and 1930s saw intermittent activity for Peder Skram, mainly due to tight naval budgets that precluded significant operations.

In the early 1890s, the Germans had completed eight coastal defense ships of the Siegfried and Odin classes, prompting the Danish government to consider strengthening their fleet in 1894 in response.

Funds for the first ship, Herluf Trolle, were authorized in 1896, but the weak Danish financial position delayed work on a second vessel—Olfert Fischer—until 1900 and the third member of the class, Peder Skram, until 1905.

She carried up to 271 long tons (275 t) of coal, which allowed the ship to steam for 2,620 nautical miles (4,850 km; 3,020 mi) at an economical speed of 9 knots (17 km/h; 10 mph).

In early 1913, Peder Skram visited the Hook of Holland and Rotterdam in the Netherlands, before returning to routine training duties with her two sister ships later in the year.

The Danish fleet, which at that time consisted of Peder Skram and her two sisters, fifteen torpedo boats, seven submarines, and six mine-warfare vessels, employed a strategy of laying minefields in its territorial waters to prevent belligerent ships from entering.

The surface warships, including Peder Skram, patrolled the narrow and shallow waterways, where they would be difficult to attack in the event that Denmark was brought into the conflict.

[5][6] On the night of 18–19 August 1915, the British submarine HMS E13 attempted to pass through the Danish Straits, but ran aground off Saltholm.

Initial contact was made by Danish patrol boats, which informed the British that they had twenty-four hours to withdraw before they would be interned.

The ships of 1st Squadron were sent south to oversee the British attempts to refloat the submarine and prevent any German naval forces from interfering, which would have been a violation of Denmark's neutrality.

[5] In the aftermath of World War I, the Danish naval budget was significantly reduced, which kept much of the fleet laid up due to a lack of funds.

Peder Skram was commissioned in October 1920 to serve as the command ship during training exercises with the fleet's torpedo boats and submarines, which were held off Southern Jutland.

She was recommissioned again in May 1935, this time to join the escort for the new royal yacht, also named Dannebrog, to Stockholm for the marriage of Princess Ingrid of Sweden to the Danish crown prince, Frederik.

The Danish naval budget was so tight that Peder Skram proceeded most of the way on her own at the economical speed of 8 knots (15 km/h; 9.2 mph) to save coal.

The Danish Navy ordered Peder Skram to begin embarking ammunition and stores, and placed her on a 48-hour notice for steam, though she was not formally recommissioned until 20 September.

When Germany invaded Denmark on 9 April 1940, Peder Skram was based in Frederikshavn, and saw no action before the Danish government surrendered, some six hours after the invasion began.

British RAF reconnaissance aircraft spotted the ship off Friedrichsort in January 1945, and she was damaged in a bombing raid in April that forced her crew to run her aground to avoid sinking.

The crew worked for three days to seal the hull and refloat the ship, before towing her back to Holmen Naval Base in Copenhagen.

In the meantime, Peder Skram was sold to the ship breaking company H. J. Hansen on 1 April 1949, and she was broken up at their facility at Odense later that year.