HDMS Friderichsværn

HDMS Friderichsværn was a Danish frigate built at Nyeholm, Copenhagen, in 1783. The British Royal Navy captured her in 1807 and took her into service as HMS Frederickscoarn. It sold her in 1814.

History
Denmark-Norway
Name: HDMS Friderichsværn
Namesake: Staverns Fortress, an early anchorage and shipyard on the Oslo Fjord
Builder: Gerner, Nyeholm, Copenhagen
Launched: 1783
Commissioned: 1784
Captured: August 1807
UK
Name: HMS Frederickscoarn[Note 1]
Acquired: 1807 by capture
Fate: Sold 1814
General characteristics [1]
Tons burthen: 776 (bm)
Length: British:130 ft 2 in (39.7 m) (overall); 107 ft 9 3⁄8 in (32.9 m) (keel)
Beam: British:36 ft 9 3⁄8 in (11.2 m)
Depth of hold: British:9 ft 10 in (3.0 m)
Complement: Danish:226 (when taken)
Armament:
  • Danish (when taken):
    • Upper deck:26 × 12-pounder guns
    • QD/Forecastle

Danish service

Henrik Gerner designed Friderichsværn.[Note 2] She saw service in the Danish-Norwegian fleet until 1807, when she was captured shortly before the Battle of Copenhagen (1807).

Capture and Service in the British Navy

On 13 August 1807, as the British fleet assembled outside Copenhagen, Friderichsværn was ordered to set sail for Norway. Two British Royal Navy ships chased her and the faster HMS Comus soon captured her.[3]

In the action, the British suffered only one man wounded. The Danes lost 12 men killed and 20 wounded, some mortally.[4] In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Comus 15 Augt. 1807", to all surviving claimants from the action.[5]

Friderichsværn entered British service as the British fifth rate frigate Frederickscoarn. She was commissioned under Commander John Martin Hanchet. She arrived at Chatham on 13 November 1807 and was laid up. Between March and June 1811 she underwent fitting at Chatham as a receiving ship. From 1812 to 1814 she was in ordinary at Chatham.[1]

Fate

Frederickscoarn was sold in December 1814 for £1220.[1]

Notes
  1. There is discussion on the Battle of Copenhagen (1807) talk page concerning this accidental renaming.
  2. Technical drawings of the ornamentation of the gallery and windows are available on the Danish database.[2]

Citations
  1. Winfield (2008), pp. 215-6.
  2. Danish Navy database- Friderichsværn
  3. Munch-Petersen (2007), pp. 171-172.
  4. "No. 16062". The London Gazette. 5 September 1807. p. 1157.
  5. "No. 20939". The London Gazette. 26 January 1849. p. 241.

References
  • Munch-Petersen, Thomas (2007). Defying Napoleon - How Britain Bombarded Copenhagen and seized the Danish fleet in 1807. Sutton.
  • Winfield, Rif (2008). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 1-86176-246-1.
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