Wreck of Danish flagship blown up by Nelson found

The remains of the Danish–Norwegian flagship Dannebroge, destroyed by the British Navy under the command of then Vice Admiral Horatio Nelson during the Battle of Copenhagen in 1801, have been discovered by maritime archaeologists from the Danish Viking Ship Museum.

The blockship Dannebroge was at anchor in the harbor of Copenhagen, serving as a central command ship of the Danish–Norwegian fleet as it was under heavy attack by the Royal British Navy. In the early morning of April 2, 1801, Dannebroge was bombarded by two British ships and hit with incendiary shells. The crew had to fight the fires that had broken out all over the ship while still dodging artillery. The battle raged for hours, the Danish fleet steadily weakening, until at 4:00 PM a ceasefire was declared and fighting stopped.

Dannebroge, adrift and aflame, exploded at 4:30 PM. What was left of the ship and its contents sank onto the seabed. Out of the crew of 357, 53 died on the ship and another three were wounded so severely they died from their injuries in the hospital. There were 48 wounded who survived, and 19 were lost, their bodies never recovered.

Archaeologists began exploring the seabed of Copenhagen harbor over the past few weeks in advance of the planned construction of the new artificial island of Lynetteholm. The site is 50 feet below the surface, dark, cold and silty. Visibility is almost zero, so divers had to move slowly and deliberately. The excavation has so far revealed ship timbers, a ballast pile, cannon and objects belonging to the crew — uniform badges, shoes, clay pipes, weapons. A fragment of a jawbone of one of 19 missing was found.

Archaeological materials form the Battle of Copenhagen have never been excavated or even sought out before now, despite the significance of the battle in Danish history.

The Battle of Copenhagen is part of our national narrative, written into books, painted on canvases, and embedded in our culture. For that reason, every single find is—according to Otto Uldum—an important source for understanding our shared history. And this means that the excavation of Dannebroge is not only about archaeology, but about an event that has shaped Denmark’s history and self‑understanding:

“Every time we say even a little something about a shoe or a bone, it matters just a bit more, because this is actually the Battle of Copenhagen.”

According to the archaeologist, the archaeological finds contribute a dimension that written sources and the museums’ collections of prestigious objects do not contain. These are not objects created to commemorate or impress. They are the remains of the majority, offering broader perspectives and new sources for a history we may think we already know:

“Statistically, it is easier for us to find something that belonged to the ordinary sailor. We have found more remains of shoes from common gunners than of the officers’ fine boots—and you have to be lucky to find those, because there weren’t many such boots on board, but there were an awful lot of those gunner’s shoes. In that sense, what we find is probably more representative—socially speaking,” Otto Uldum concludes.

* This article was originally published here