Battle of Copenhagen (1801) |
The Battle of Copenhagen (danish: "Slaget på Reden", Battle at Reden) was a naval battle fought on 2 April 1801 by a British fleet under the command of Admiral Sir Hyde Parker, against a Danish fleet anchored just off Copenhagen.
The main attack was led by Admiral Horatio Nelson, who famously
disobeyed Parker's order to withdraw and destroyed many of the Danish ships before the Danes agreed to a truce.
Background
The battle was due to multiple failures of diplomacy in the latter half of
1800 and the beginning of 1801; an Armed Neutrality of the
Scandinavian countries and Russia, in combination with Napoleon's domination of the
European continent, was perceived by Great Britain
as a serious threat to her existence. However, the Danes were themselves more afraid of Russia and France.
In early 1801, the British government assembled a fleet at Yarmouth, with the
goal of intimidating the Danish before the Baltic Sea thawed and released the
Russian fleet from its bases at Kronstadt and Revel (now Tallinn). The fleet sailed on 11 March and reached the Skaw on 17 March.
The battle
A disagreement between Parker and Nelson saw Nelson's proposal for a pre-emptive show of force overruled and the demands made
by a single frigate; the Danish refused to negotiate. The Danish had prepared for the attack and placed a line of defensive
blocking ships along the western side of the harbour.
The Copenhagen road was both treacherous, and well-defended. With 12 of ships with the least draft, Nelson picked a way
through the shoals and commenced action the morning immediately after negotiations had broken down.
For over four hours, the battle was a close run affair with three British vessels stuck on sandbars. At one point three hours
into the battle, Parker signalled to Nelson to disengage, but Nelson ignored the signal. It was on this occasion that Nelson is
said to have put his telescope to his blind eye, and maintained he could not read the signal.
Eventually, following an extensive shelling of harbour and nearby buildings, Nelson offered surrender terms to which the
Danish agreed.
Aftermath
This was not to be the end of Danish difficulties with the British. In 1807 similar
circumstances led to another British attack, in the second Battle of Copenhagen.
The ships
Danish ships, Fischer's division
- Provesteenen
- Wagrien
- Rendsborg
- Nyeborg
- Jylland
- Svaerdfisken
- Cronborg
- Hayen
- Elven
- Dannebroge
- Aggershus
- Floating
Battery No. 1
- Saelland
- Charlotte
Amalia
- Sohesten
- Holsteen
- Indfodsretten
- Hiaelperen
Danish ships, Steen Bille's division
British ships, Nelson's squadron
- Polyphemus
- Isis
- Edgar
- Ardent
- Glatton
- Elephant
- Ganges
- Monarch
- Defiance
- Russell
- Bellona
- Agamemnon
- Desiree
- Amazon
- Blanche
- Alcmene
- Arrow
- Dart
- Brig sloops Cruizer, Harpy, Jamaica
- Bomb vessels Discovery, Explosion, Hecla, Sulphur, Terror, Volcano,
Zebra
- Fireships Otter, Zephyr
British ships, Parker's
(to be added)
Reference
- Dudley Pope, The Great Gamble: Nelson at Copenhagen (1972)
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