Capture of Serampore | |||||||||
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Part of the English Wars | |||||||||
![]() Painting of Danish Serampore (Frederiksnagore), by Peter Anker | |||||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||||
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Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
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Units involved | |||||||||
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Strength | |||||||||
12 ships c. 40 men Few cannons | 3 ships Unknown amount of men | ||||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||||
12 ships | Unknown |
The Capture of Serampore (Danish : Overtagelsen af Frederiksnagore), also commonly known as the Second Capture of Serampure (Den anden overtagelse af Frederiksnagore), was a siege and capture of the Danish colony of Serampore by British forces on 28 January 1808. The Danes capitulated immediately after the arrival of the British, as the latter's forces were far superior.
In 1801, the conflict between Denmark–Norway and Great Britain extended to their colonial territories, including India. On 8 May 1801, Serampore, a settlement of Danish India, capitulated to British forces led by Colonel Dickson. [1] Similar occurrences took place in Tranquebar and the Danish West Indies. However, the hostilities came to an end following the Treaty of Amiens in 1802, which stipulated that Britain would withdraw from Danish possessions. [2] [1]
A second rupture between Britain and Denmark–Norway occurred in September 1807, and Lieutenant Colonel Carey was sent to capture Serampore. [3] On the morning of 28 January 1808, Carey led three Sepoy companies from Fort William over the Hooghly River and surrounded Serampore. [4]
According to Carl Bering Liisberg in his Danmarks søfart og søhandel, a British detachment marched into Serampore, disarmed the guards, and occupied the lodge without any time for a Danish surrender. [1] However, according to other sources, Colonel Carey demanded the surrender of the town and factory, which the Danish governor, Jacob Kræfting, steadily accepted. [4] [5] Additionally, all twelve Danish vessels harbouring in the Hooghly River were seized by the companies. [6] [7]
Britain would occupy Serampore until 1815, however, Kræfting would preserve his position as Governor, while being paid by the British commissioner. [5]
Despite British demise, the Baptist Serampore Mission Press would lose its Danish protection but was allowed to operate without interruption. [8] [6]
Frederick VI was King of Denmark from 13 March 1808 until his death in 1839 and King of Norway from 13 March 1808 to 7 February 1814. He was the last king of Denmark–Norway. From 1784 until his accession, he served as regent during his father's mental illness and was referred to as the "Crown Prince Regent". For his motto he chose God and the just cause and since the time of his reign, succeeding Danish monarchs have also chosen mottos in the Danish language rather than the formerly customary Latin.He was succeeded by his half cousin Christian.
William Carey was an English Christian missionary, Particular Baptist minister, translator, social reformer and cultural anthropologist who founded the Serampore College and the Serampore University, the first degree-awarding university in India.
The Gunboat War was a naval conflict between Denmark–Norway and Great Britain supported by Sweden during the Napoleonic Wars. The war's name is derived from the Danish tactic of employing small gunboats against the materially superior Royal Navy. In Scandinavia it is seen as the later stage of the English Wars, whose commencement is accounted as the First Battle of Copenhagen in 1801.
The history of the Danish navy began with the founding of a joint Dano-Norwegian navy on 10 August 1510, when King John appointed his vassal Henrik Krummedige to become "chief captain and head of all our captains, men and servants whom we now have appointed and ordered to be at sea".
Peter Erasmus Müller, was a Danish historian, linguist, theologian, and bishop of the Diocese of Zealand from 1830 until his death.
Danish India was the name given to the forts and factories of Denmark in the Indian subcontinent, forming part of the Danish overseas colonies. Denmark–Norway held colonial possessions in India for more than 200 years, including the town of Tharangambadi in present-day Tamil Nadu state, Serampore in present-day West Bengal, and the Nicobar Islands, currently part of India's union territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The Danish and Norwegian presence in India was of little significance to the major European powers as they presented neither a military nor a mercantile threat. Dano-Norwegian ventures in India, as elsewhere, were typically undercapitalized and never able to dominate or monopolize trade routes in the same way that British, French, and Portuguese ventures could.
HMS Russell was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 10 November 1764 at Deptford.
Jochum Nicolay Müller was a Norwegian naval officer who, as a midshipman, excelled at mathematics. As a junior lieutenant he met Horatio Nelson, and as a captain commanded the Finnmark squadron. He finally rose to the rank of Vice Admiral in the independent Royal Norwegian Navy.
Danish Asiatic Company was a Danish trading company established in 1730 to revive Danish-Norwegian trade on the Danish East Indies and China following the closure of the Danish East India Company. It was granted a 40-year monopoly on Danish trade on Asia in 1732 and taken over by the Danish government in 1772. It was headquartered at Asiatisk Plads in Copenhagen. Its former premises are now used by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Frantz Christopher Henrik Hohlenberg was a Danish naval officer who specialised in ship design and had little seagoing experience. He succeeded Ernst Wilhelm Stibolt as Master Shipbuilder (fabriksmester) at the Royal Danish Dockyards in 1796. His ships included five ships of the line and 18 frigates. Three of the ships of the line and nine of the frigates were captured at the 1807 Battle of Copenhagen and subsequently added to the Royal Navy. He resigned after a controversy in 1803.
HDMS Nidelven was a brig launched at Copenhagen on 1 December 1792. She was present at both British attacks on Copenhagen, and the British Royal Navy seized her at Copenhagen on 7 September 1807 at the surrender of Copenhagen. The British took her into service as HMS Nid Elven. She served between 1808 and 1809, during which time she captured a small French privateer. She was laid up in 1809. The Navy sold her in 1814.
The Slave raid of Suðuroy was a slave raid by pirates from Northwest Africa that took place on Suðuroy in the Faroe Islands in the summer of 1629. It resulted in the abduction of over thirty people, mainly women and children, who were evidently not ransomed and lived their lives in slavery on the Barbary Coast of North Africa.
Arveprinsen af Augustenborg, also referred to as Prinsen(Printzen)af Augustenborg 0r Arve-Prindsen, was an East Indiaman of the Danish Asiatic Company, constructed in Copenhagen in 1789. She sailed on eight expeditions to the Danish India between 1789 and 1807. In January 1808, she was condiscated by the British in the Bay of Bengal.
The Tillali Massacre, or the Battle of Tillali was a confrontation on 30 June 1756 during the Cattle War, between the Danish command at the village of Tillali (Thillaiyadi) and the Raja of Thanjavur, Pratap Singh. The confrontation resulted in a Thanjavurian victory and a subsequent massacre of most Danish troops. After the victory, the Thanjavurian army led a further invasion into Danish Tranquebar and besieged Fort Dansborg.
The Capture of Tranquebar or the Surrender of Tranquebar was a British takeover of the capital of Danish India, Tranquebar. The capture was quick and successful, with the Dano-Norwegian governor, Peter Anker, surrendering within the arrival of the British.
The British occupation of Serampore also referred to as the English occupation of Serampore was a siege and thereafter a minor military occupation by the United Kingdom on the Danish trading post of Serampore in 1763.
The Plunder of Nancowry or the Battle of Nancowry was a British plunderer of the Danish colony at Nancowry Island in 1805.
The Surrender of Tranquebar or the Capture of Tranquebar was a surrender of the capital of Danish India, Tranquebar, in 1808 to the British East India Company as a result of the English Wars. The capital would surrender almost immediately after the arrival of a British force.
The Capture of Serampore, alternatively the Capture of Frederiknagore, was a British capture of the Danish colony of Serampore on 8 May 1801 during the English Wars. The British met no resistance, and could subsequently quickly capture the settlement.
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