Lougen (centre) at the battle of West Kay in combat with Experiment and Arab | |
History | |
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Denmark | |
Name | Lougen |
Builder | Stibolt of Nyholm, Copenhagen |
Launched | 10 September 1791 |
Commissioned | 1792 |
Out of service | In dock during 1793, 1794, 1797 and 1800 |
Fate | Broken up 1802 |
Notes |
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General characteristics | |
Class and type | Lougen-class brig-of-war |
Displacement | 169½ tons |
Length | 93 ft 6 in (28.50 m) |
Beam | 26 ft (7.9 m) |
Draught |
|
Sail plan | Brig |
Complement | 85 men |
Armament | 18 × 18-pounder short cannon |
HDMS Lougen [1] was a brig of 18 guns, launched in 1791, and the name-vessel of her class of six brigs designed by the naval architect Ernst Stibolt. [2] She was the first Danish warship to be copper-sheathed. [3] She was active protecting Danish merchant shipping and suppressing pirates in the Mediterranean and in the Caribbean. In March 1801, she fought off the British privateer Experiment and the 22-gun warship HMS Arab in a single action. [Note 1] When the British captured the Danish West Indies in 1801, Lougen was part of the booty. The British later returned her to Denmark where she was broken up in 1802.
Returning to Denmark in October 1794 Lougen and three smaller ships repatriated 125 troublesome (striking?) house builders to Rostock. [4]
On 1 September 1800, Lougen came to the rescue of the schooner Den Aarvaagne, [Note 3] when the latter was under attack by the British privateer Dreadnought. On Lougen's approach, the privateer broke off the action.
Later in 1800, Lougen captured the privateer Eagle and brought the captured schooner into St Thomas. [2]
On 3 March 1801, as rumours of a diplomatic rift between Britain and Second League of Armed Neutrality were first reaching the Danish West Indies, and a full month before the first Battle of Copenhagen, Lougen met and fought with HMS Arab and the privateer Experiment off West Kay, St Thomas. The two British ships approached the brig Lougen, under the command of Captain Carl Wilhelm Jessen, and the schooner Den Aarvaagne. Arab, commanded by Captain John Perkins, approached the two Danish vessels and, according to Danish accounts, without warning, fired several broadsides at Lougen before the Danish ship was able to return fire. Lougen, which had escaped serious damage, began to return fire steadily. Experiment initially attempted to capture Den Aarvaagne, but Den Aarvaagne obeyed orders to stay out of the fight and instead escaped south to Christiansted on St Croix with its intelligence on British actions. Experiment then joined Arab in the attack on Lougen, with the two British ships sandwiching the Danish ship. During the engagement, which lasted for over an hour, one of Lougen's shots struck the Arab's cathead and loosed the bower anchor. (Perkins reported that it was the first shot from Lougen that loosed the bower anchor.) Arab's crew was unable to cut the anchor free, leaving Arab unable to manoeuvre effectively. This allowed Jessen to steer a course that brought Lougen under the protection of the shore batteries and then into St Thomas. The Danish government awarded Captain Jessen a presentation sword made of gold, a medal and 400 rixdollars (the equivalent of a whole year's salary for a captain in the Danish Navy) for his actions. [6]
British naval and military activity in the area could not be countered. British forces took Lougen as a prize when they occupied the Danish West Indies in March. One year later, in 1802, the British returned Lougen to Denmark when peace was restored. The Danes later decommissioned the brig and she was broken up.
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John Perkins, nicknamed Jack Punch, was a British Royal Navy officer. Perkins was perhaps the first mixed race commissioned officer in the Royal Navy. He rose from obscurity to be a successful ship's captain in the Georgian Royal Navy. He captained a 10-gun schooner during the American War of Independence and in a two-year period captured at least 315 enemy ships.
HMS Arab was a 22-gun post ship of the Royal Navy. She was formerly the 18-gun French privateer Brave, which the British captured in 1798. She served during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars until she was sold in 1810.
HDMS Lougen was a Danish naval brig launched in 1805. She saw service in the Danish navy and participated in two notable actions against the British Royal Navy during the Gunboat War. In 1814, as a result of the Treaty of Kiel, the Danes transferred her to the Norwegian navy. The Norwegians sold her to German merchants in the Scheld in 1825. She was finally shipwrecked near Bremerhaven in 1881.
Three ships of the Royal Danish Navy have borne the name HDMS Lougen. The name "Lougen" is derived from the river Laagen in Norway.
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The Battle of West Kay sometimes also referred to by the Danish name as the Battle of Fugleklippen, was a naval battle between Denmark-Norway and The United Kingdom. The battle took place at the Skerry of West Kay, near St. Thomas, and ended in a Danish victory, which would later on have a significant national importance for Denmark.