A more than two centuries old shipwreck, sunk during the Battle of Copenhagen, has been spotted on the seabed of the Danish capital’s harbour by a team of marine archaeologists. It would be the Dannebroge, a Danish warship armed with 60 cannons, destroyed in 1801 by the British fleet led by Admiral Horatio Nelson. The discovery was announced by the Viking Ship Museum, whose experts are conducting excavation and recovery operations. So far, two cannons, fragments of uniforms, shoes, bottles and human remains belonging to some crew members have been found.
The naval clash between the British and Danish navies
The Dannebroge carried around 350 sailors and it is estimated that over 50 lost their lives during the battle. The battle, fought on 2 April 1801, was a violent naval clash between the British and Danish navies. London aimed to dismantle the League of Armed Neutrality, an alliance of Northern European powers that had trade relations with Napoleonic France. In the course of the day, twelve Danish ships were destroyed.
Tests
According to archaeologists, the Dannebroge was hit repeatedly by enemy fire before exploding. The identification of the wreck was made possible by comparing the recovered wooden remains with the original drawings of the vessel, as well as through dendrochronological analyses that dated the wood to 1772, the year the ship was built. A further clue was the widespread presence of cannon balls on the surrounding seabed. Recovery operations are made particularly difficult by the poor visibility at a depth of about 15 metres, where divers report that they often have to proceed more by touch than by sight.
“This is the first time that archaeological investigations directly related to the Battle of Copenhagen have been conducted,” said excavation manager Otto Uldum. “Despite the fact that it is a central event in Danish history, it had never been studied archaeologically until now.”
Rected in an area intended to become an artificial island for a building project
The site of the wreck is located in an area destined to become an artificial island for a building project, a circumstance that accelerated the recovery of the finds. In a historical paradox, the battle turned out to be partly futile: a few days before the battle, Russian Tsar Paul I had been assassinated, an event that effectively led to the collapse of the League of Armed Neutrality, the main target of the British attack.