HDMS Lougen (1805)

Last updated
HDMS Lougen.jpg
An 1814 drawing of Lougen
History
Naval Ensign of Denmark.svgDenmark
NameLougen
Builder Stibolt of Nyholm, Copenhagen
Launched20 July 1805
FateTransferred to Norway in 1814
Swedish and Norwegian naval ensign (1815-1844).svg Norway
NameLougen
Acquired1814
DecommissionedSold to merchant service 1825
FateWrecked in 1881 at Bremerhaven
General characteristics
Class and typeBrig-of-war
Displacement310 tons [1]
Length
Beam27 ft 4 in (8.33 m) [1]
Depth of hold10 ft 3 in (3.12 m) [1]
Sail plan Brig
Complement85 men
Armament18 × short 18-pounder guns + 2 × long 6-pounder guns in 1808 [1]

HDMS Lougen [2] [3] 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.

Contents

Danish Navy

Lougen vs. Childers

On 14 March 1808 Lougen found the British brig Childers engaged in escort duty in Norwegian waters. Lougen tried over the course of several hours to bring about an engagement, and eventually succeeded, but Childers escaped much damaged though her crew did suffer casualties.

Lougen vs. Seagull

C. W. Eckersberg: Den engelske Kutterbrig Seagull, Cap. Cathcart, buxeres, ramponeret og synkefaerdig, ind i Fosholm Bugten ved Christiansand, efter en 2 Timers haardnakket Faegtning den 19de Junii 1808, med Orlogs Briggen Lougen, Captain Lieut. P. F. Wulff, tilsidst understottet af 4 KKanonbaade, under Lieut. Fons. 19+9- Tegning af C. W. Eckersberg visende orlogsbriggen LOUGEN.jpg
C. W. Eckersberg: Den engelske Kutterbrig Seagull, Cap. Cathcart, buxeres, ramponeret og synkefærdig, ind i Fosholm Bugten ved Christiansand, efter en 2 Timers haardnakket Fægtning den 19de Junii 1808, med Orlogs Briggen Lougen, Captain Lieut. P. F. Wulff, tilsidst understøttet af 4 KKanonbaade, under Lieut. Føns. 19+9-

On Sunday, 19 June 1808, off the Naze of Norway in the vicinity of the port of Kristiansand, Seagull encountered and chased Lougen. [4] Lougen, under the command of First Lieutenant Peter Frederik Wulff, [1] tried to maintain a distance from Seagull to take advantage of the range of her 18-pounders relative to the range of Seagull's 24-pounder carronades. The chase brought both vessels close in shore where the fresh breeze was lessening to a near calm. Seagull tried to get between Lougen and the shore to prevent her from reaching Kristiansand.

Unfortunately for Seagull, about 20 minutes into the engagement six Danish gunboats arrived from behind some rocks, and in two divisions of three each, took up positions on Seagull's quarter, where they fired on her with their 24-pounder guns while Lougen fired on her larboard bow. Within half an hour the Danish fire had badly damaged Seagull's rigging and dismounted five of her guns. Eventually Seagull's captain, Commander Robert B. Cathcart, who was himself severely wounded, struck, having lost eight men killed and 20 wounded. [4] Lougen had only one man killed and a dozen men slightly wounded.

Shortly after Seagull had surrendered, and after her crew and wounded had been taken off, she sank. A number of the prize crew from the Lougen drowned as Seagull sank. The Danes later recovered Seagull and took her into their naval service.

In Northern Waters

Jochum Nicolay Müller, a native of Trondheim, took command of Lougen in 1809. During the summer of 1809, three British vessels – HMS Snake (18; Commander Thomas Young), HMS Nightingale (16), and HMS Gallant (14) – operated in the far northern waters of Norway, briefly occupying, after one failed attempt, the small town and sheltered harbour of Hammerfest near North Cape.

In the spring of 1810 the two Danish-Norwegian brigs Lougen and Langeland (under the newly promoted Captain Müller and Senior Lieutenant Thomas Lütken, respectively) left Fredericksværn and reached Hammerfest on 28 June. Three gun-schooners - Nornen, Valkyren, and Axel Thorsen - each with two 24-pounder guns, one fore and one aft – had joined them en route. This squadron sailed to find the British squadron in the waters of North Cape, for which, however, there were few and poor charts, and no pilotage instructions. The two remaining British ships, Nightingale and Gallant, had been warned of the Danes' approach and had left, apparently having sailed to Greenland to escort a convoy of British whalers. In the absence of the enemy, coastal trade blossomed with Russia and the Danish vessels escorted a final convoy of the year into Trondheim, [5] including 11 prize merchant ships. [6] [lower-alpha 2]

On 31 July 1811, Lougen, in company with the brigs Lolland and Kiel, encountered HMS Brev Drageren and HMS Algerine cruising together in Long Sound, Norway. [lower-alpha 3] The Danes had 54 guns and 480 men, against the British 22 guns and 107 men. [lower-alpha 4] Outnumbered and outgunned, the British vessels took flight. [8]

The next day Brev Drageren unsuccessfully re-engaged first one and then two of the brigs. In the inconclusive engagement each British vessel sustained one man killed, and Brev Drageren also had three wounded. [8] In the second day's fight, Algerine sent a boat and sweeps to Brev Drageren, which helped her escape the Danes, though not until after her crew had rowed for 30 hours. [7] [8] Lolland captured two mercantile galleases that Brev Drageren had been escorting. [9]

Fate

After the Treaty of Kiel and Norway's separation from Denmark, Lougen was transferred to the Norwegian navy in 1814. In 1825 the Norwegians sold her into the merchant navy and she moved to the Scheldt. She was shipwrecked in 1881 at Bremerhaven.

Notes

  1. In Danish feet (slightly longer than British feet) she measured 93ft 6in in length by 10ft 6in in beam, with a depth in hold of 10ft 6in.
  2. In 1811 protection of the north fell to the smaller ships; first the Dane-Norwegian navy and then the Norwegian navy maintained a naval presence in the area until 1816, but the primary mission became one of improving charts and pilot instructions for these waters.
  3. James reports that the three Danish vessels were the 20-gun Langeland, the 18-gun Lügum, and the 16-gun Kiel. [7] However, there are no Danish records of any vessel with the name Lügum, or anything like it, and one can infer from a biography of the captain of Langeland that she was not present at the action.
  4. The Naval Chronicle gives the Danish strength as 60 guns (all long 18-pounders), and 550 men.

Citations

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Dansk Militærhistorie
  2. Danish Naval Museum database Archived 2016-03-28 at the Wayback Machine Lougen including design plans
  3. Record card for Lougen II
  4. 1 2 "No. 16184". The London Gazette . 17 Sep 1808. pp. 1284–1285.
  5. Aftenpost, 29 May 1922, as repeated on website Archived 2016-03-03 at the Wayback Machine . Translated from the Danish
  6. Topsøe-Jensen Vol II pp. 227-229
  7. 1 2 James (1837), Vol. 5, p. 346.
  8. 1 2 3 Naval Chronicle Vol. 26 (Jul-Dec 1811), pp. 284-286.
  9. Wandel (1915), p. 369.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gunboat War</span> 1807–1814 war between Denmark–Norway and the United Kingdom

The Gunboat War was a naval conflict between Denmark–Norway and the British 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Action of 16 May 1797</span> Naval battle near Tripoli, Libya

The action of 16 May 1797 was a naval battle that took place near Tripoli in Ottoman Tripolitania. The Danish squadron was attacked by a Tripolitan squadron that outnumbered them in number of vessels. The result was a strategic victory for Tripoli.

HDMS <i>Najaden</i> (1796)

HDMS Najaden was a frigate of the Royal Dano-Norwegian Navy, which she served from 1796 until the British captured her in 1807. While in Dano-Norwegian service she participated in an action at Tripoli, North Africa. She served the Royal Navy as the fifth rate HMS Nyaden from 1808 until 1812 when she was broken up. During her brief British service she participated in some small attacks in the Barents Sea during the Anglo-Russian War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jens Schou Fabricius</span>

Jens Schou Fabricius was the Norwegian appointed Minister of the Navy 1817–1818. He served as a representative for Søe-Deffensionen at the Norwegian Constitutional Assembly at Eidsvoll in 1814. During his naval career he served first the Danish Crown until the separation in 1814 of Norway from Denmark, and thereafter the Norwegian-Swedish Crown. Fabricius retired from the navy as a vice admiral.

HMS Dictator was a 64-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 6 January 1783 at Limehouse. She was converted into a troopship in 1798, and broken up in 1817.

HMS Algerine was a Pigmy–class 10-gun schooner of the Royal Navy. She was launched in March 1810. She served in the North Sea and then transferred to the West Indies, where she was wrecked in 1813.

HDMS Brev Drageren was a Danish let brigger, launched in 1801 for the Royal Danish Navy. She was one of the many vessels the Danes surrendered to the British after the Battle of Copenhagen in 1807. She was subsequently added to the Royal Navy as HMS Brev Drageren, and was involved in two notable actions while in British service. She was sold in 1825.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Saltholm</span>

The Battle of Saltholm was fought on 9 June 1808 during the Gunboat War. Danish and Norwegian ships attacked a British convoy off the island of Saltholm in Øresund Strait near Copenhagen.

HMS <i>Seagull</i> (1805) Royal Navy brig (1805–1808); then Dano-Norwegian service

HMS Seagull was the name vessel for the Seagull class of brig-sloops of the Royal Navy. She was launched on 1 July 1805 and saw active service under the British flag in Danish waters until 19 June 1808 when Dano-Norwegian forces sank her. The Danes raised her and refitted her for service in the Dano-Norwegian Navy, which she served until the end of the English Wars in 1814. She then was transferred to the Norwegians. She was finally decommissioned in 1817.

HMS <i>Grinder</i> (1809) Gunboat of the Royal Navy

Grinder was a gunboat serving as a tender, rather than a commissioned warship, to HMS Anholt, the British garrison on the island of Anholt during the Gunboat War. Grinder's origins are obscure, but the Danes captured her in 1810 and the British recaptured her in 1811. She was sold in 1832.

HDMS Søormen was a 12-gun cutter of the Royal Dano-Norwegian Navy, built in 1789. After being captured by the British in 1808 she was added to the Royal Navy as HMS Salorman. She was wrecked in 1809.

HMS Fama was the Danish brig Fama, of fourteen guns, built in 1802, that the British captured in 1808. She was wrecked at the end of the year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hans Peter Holm</span>

Hans Peter Holm was a Danish naval officer who commanded vessels of the Dano-Norwegian Navy in several actions. He commanded several naval vessels during the Gunboat War. His most important action occurred in 1812 at the Battle of Lyngør when a British squadron, led by the British ship-of-the-line HMS Dictator, destroyed his vessel, HDMS Najaden. Holm sustained wounds in the battle but survived, only to drown in an accident shortly afterwards.

HDMS Lolland was launched in March 1810. She served in at least four major engagements during the Gunboat War before she was transferred to the Norwegian navy after the Treaty of Kiel brought about the separation of Norway from Denmark in 1814. Lolland continued to serve with the Norwegian Navy until sold in 1847.

The brig HDMS Langeland, launched in late 1808 and fitted out in 1809, was one of four brigs transferred to Norwegian ports from Denmark on 1 January 1810. From Norway she escorted Danish cargoes or harried enemy (British) merchant shipping. She took part in a successful cruise to the North Cape along with the brig Lougen in 1810 and was later taken into the fledgling Norwegian navy after the 1814 Treaty of Kiel. She was sold into merchant service in 1827.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jochum Nicolay Müller</span>

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.

HDMS <i>Allart</i> (1807)

HDMS Allart, a brig launched at Copenhagen in June 1807, was amongst the ships taken by the British after the second Battle of Copenhagen. In British service, she was recaptured by Danish-Norwegian gunboats after venturing too close inshore. Her subsequent service was in the Dano-Norwegian Navy's Norwegian Brig Division, which harried enemy frigates and convoys in Norwegian waters. On the separation of Denmark from Norway in 1814, Allart transferred to the Norwegian navy, who sold her in 1825.

HDMS Friderichsværn was a Danish frigate built at Nyeholm, Copenhagen, in 1783. The British Royal Navy captured her in 1807 and took her into service as HMS Frederickscoarn. It sold her in 1814.

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Broder Knud Brodersen Wigelsen</span>

Broder Knud Brodersen Wigelsen was an officer in the Royal Danish-Norwegian navy at the time of the gunboat war with Britain. After the war he served in various capacities, principally in the Danish customs service.

References

Danish