First the largest cog in the world, now a warship from the sea battle between the British Admiral Nelson and the Danish fleet in 1801: During excavation work off Copenhagen, archaeologists discovered the wreck of the warship “Dannebroge”, which sank in 1801. This served as a flagship in the defense of Copenhagen, but was hit in battle and sank. 19 crew members remained missing. The archaeologists have now found the first relics of these dead.
In the period around 1800, two power blocs fought each other in the Second Coalition War: On the one side were Great Britain and its allies, including the Habsburg Empire and initially also Russia. On the other side were Spain and the French Republic under their general Napoleon Bonaparte. When Denmark, Norway and Russia also threatened to join this anti-British coalition, the British decided to launch a preemptive strike: a fleet of twelve ships of the line, six frigates and other ships from the Royal Navy under the command of Admiral Horatio Nelson set course for the Skagerrak and the Baltic Sea. On March 23, 1801, the British fleet initially anchored at the entrance to Øresund.
The Battle of Copenhagen
After final negotiations failed, Lord Nelson’s fleet took up position in a shallow inlet directly in front of Copenhagen, the King’s Deep. By this time, the Danish fleet had already established a defensive line of interconnected, anchored blockade ships: old warships whose rigging and masts had been partially removed and which had been converted into floating fortresses. In the center of this line lay the flagship of the Danish defenders under their commander Olfert Fischer: the Dannebroge. This 48 meter long, 60-gun former ship of the line was commissioned into the service of the Danish Navy in 1774 and has now also been converted into a floating battery.
On the morning of April 2, 1801, the two lines of warships face each other. The British superior force is equipped with a total of 1,270 cannons, the Danish defenders and their hastily assembled blockade ships with a total of 833 cannons. With the first cannon shots an inferno breaks out, the ships, which are only a few hundred meters apart, fire one broadside after another at their counterparts. The Danes’ flagship, the Dannebroge, is targeted by two British ships of the line. At around 4:00 p.m. on the afternoon of April 2nd, the Dannebroge caught fire, exploded shortly afterwards and sank. Of the 357 crew, 48 are wounded, 53 die and 19 remain missing to this day.
The wreck of the Dannebroge
Now archaeologists led by Otto Uldum from the Danish Viking Ship Museum have found the wreck of the Dannebroge. It lies in 15 meters of water at the bottom of the muddy Königstief. Because of poor visibility, the team had to examine the mud meter by meter before they found the remains of the warship. “We have no doubt that these are the remains of a large warship. The dimensions of the planks correspond exactly to those of the Dannebroge and the dendrological dates match the ship’s construction in 1772,” reports Uldum. “Therefore, we can say with almost certainty that we have found the remains of the exploded Dannebroge here.”
The underwater archaeologists have already mapped the shipwreck and brought individual finds to the surface, including cannonballs, ballast and numerous everyday objects of the sailors and volunteers who helped defend Copenhagen at the time. “We found personal items: shoes, scraps of clothing and various small objects that sailors carried with them back then – clay pipes, uniform badges and weapons,” reports Uldum. These finds are a valuable testimony to the ordinary soldiers and sailors who fought in this battle. Items from officers and other high-ranking people are much more common in museum collections. “But what we find is, at least socially speaking, far more representative of the majority of sailors,” Uldum said.
First remains of the missing sailors
As archaeologists point out, this is the first time that tangible evidence of the famous Battle of Copenhagen has been unearthed and can be examined. “Although this sea battle was a central event in Danish history, no one has yet researched it archaeologically,” says Uldum. That’s what makes the wreck find so special. Among the finds from the Dannebrog is the first remains of one of the 19 sailors reported missing after the battle. “We found what was undoubtedly a human lower jaw as well as several other bones, including ribs,” reports Uldum. “We’re still a long way from sifting through and analyzing the material from the wreck, but we’ll bring everything up.”
Source: Vikingeskibs Museet Roskilde