Orlogsværftet was a Danish naval shipyard under the Royal Danish Navy. Before 1924, it was an integral part of the naval base at Holmen in central Copenhagen, Denmark, with an independent management from 1692 when Olaus Judichær became the first factory director.

HDMS Olfert Fischer was the second member of the Herluf Trolle class of coastal defense ships built for the Royal Danish Navy. The Herluf Trolle class was built in response to a naval construction program in neighboring Imperial Germany. The Danish ships were built in the late 1890s and early 1900s. They were armed with a main battery of two 240 mm (9.4 in) guns and were capable of a top speed of 15.5 knots. Because she was intended to operate as part of a solely defensive naval strategy, Olfert Fischer had a fairly uneventful career. She visited Britain in 1911 to represent Denmark at the coronation of George V and Mary. During World War I, Denmark remained neutral and Olfert Fischer was assigned to the defense forces that guarded Danish territorial waters. Sharply reduced naval budgets in the 1920s and 1930s curtailed further activities, and Olfert Fischer saw little activity during this period, apart from testing a reconnaissance aircraft in 1922. She was eventually converted into a target ship and used for tests of aerial bombing of a ship underway in October 1936, before being sold for scrap immediately thereafter.