Living proof: Working in Copenhagen harbor, marine archaeologists have found the wreck of the Dannebroge, a Danish man-of-war that was sunk over 200 years in the past by ships of the British Royal Navy. The Dannebroge was sunk throughout the Battle of Copenhagen in 1801, and here is the actually cool factor: This ship was the first goal of the Royal Navy, and it is a near-certainty that Lord Horatio Nelson himself laid eyes – effectively, eye – on the ship earlier than it went down.
Greater than 200 years after being sunk by Adm. Horatio Nelson and the British fleet, a Danish warship has been found on the seabed of Copenhagen Harbor by marine archaeologists.
Working in thick sediment and nearly zero visibility 15 meters (49 toes) beneath the waves, divers are in a race towards time to unearth the Nineteenth-century wreck of the Dannebroge earlier than it turns into a building website in a brand new housing district being constructed off the Danish coast.
Denmark’s Viking Ship Museum, which is main the monthslong underwater excavations, introduced its findings on Thursday, 225 years to the day because the Battle of Copenhagen in 1801.
And a few findings there have been. Cannon, fixtures, and even the jawbone of one of many unrecovered crew members. It is an enchanting look into the previous, when issues have been very completely different than right this moment; naval battles throughout and since World Battle 2 have usually been fought at a distance, principally by plane and now, missiles and drones. it in 1801, it was wood ships and iron males, going through iron shot that tore ships aside, making very efficient shrapnel out of heavy oak.
Within the Battle of Copenhagen, Nelson and the British fleet attacked and defeated Denmark’s navy because it fashioned a protecting blockade exterior the harbor.
1000’s have been killed and wounded throughout the brutal hourslong naval conflict, thought-about certainly one of Nelson’s “nice battles.” The intention was to drive Denmark out of an alliance of Northern European powers, together with Russia, Prussia and Sweden.
On the middle of the preventing was the Danish flagship, the Dannebroge, commanded by Commodore Olfert Fischer.
The 48-meter (157-foot) Dannebroge was Nelson’s foremost goal. Cannon hearth tore by way of its higher deck earlier than incendiary shells sparked a hearth aboard.
“(It was) a nightmare to be on board certainly one of these ships,” Johansen mentioned. “When a cannonball hits a ship, it’s not the cannonball that does probably the most harm to the crew, it’s wood splinters flying in every single place, very very like grenade particles.”
This, the stays of the Danish flagship, is all that is left of these courageous males.
Learn Extra: Heroes of Our Previous: Expedition Locates Lengthy-Misplaced WWII Ship Sunk by the Imperial Japanese Navy
Memorial Day Weekend: Grave Robbers Are Desecrating WWII Shipwrecks to Loot ‘Pre-Battle’ Metal
Whereas we take pleasure in studying in regards to the historic significance of this fund and the artifacts recovered, we also needs to take a second to recollect the boys on each side. Some members of the crew of the Dannebroge, in spite of everything, went down with their ship, making this not solely an enchanting archeological discover but additionally a grave website.
We neglect our historical past at our peril. That is why finds like this are vital; they level out one thing elementary about humanity, and it is this: The historical past of mankind is the historical past of battle, in 1801, and now; in Copenhagen harbor, and within the skies over Iran. And so long as we now have iron males to man these aluminum plane, we’ll be advantageous.
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