HDMS ''Bellona'' was a frigate of the

Royal Danish Navy The Royal Danish Navy (, ) is the Naval warfare, sea-based branch of the Danish Armed Forces force. The RDN is mainly responsible for maritime defence and maintaining the sovereignty of Denmark, Danish territorial waters (incl. Faroe Islands and ...

, which she served from 1835 to 1862. On her maiden voyage to the Mediterranean Sea, she picked up some of

Bertel Thorvaldsen Albert Bertel Thorvaldsen (; sometimes given as Thorwaldsen; 19 November 1770 – 24 March 1844) was a Danes, Danish-Icelanders, Icelandic Sculpture, sculptor and medallist, medalist of international fame, who spent most of his life (1797–183 ...

's sculptures. Thorvaldsen lived 40 years in Rome. In 1840, she was sent on a partly diplomatic and partly scientific expedition to

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

Construction and design

''Bellona'' was built at Nyholm to a design by Andreas Schifter.She was one of four frigates in the same class. The others were HDMS ''Freya'' (1824-1853), (1832-1864) and (1822-1863) ''Bellona'' was long, with a beam of and a draught of . She displaced 705 læster. Her complement was 404 men. She was equipped with 46 18 pound cannons.
A model of this ship, placed in 1840, can be seen in St. Jørgensbjerg Kirke in

Roskilde Roskilde ( , ) is a city west of Copenhagen on the Danish island of Zealand. With a population of 53,354 (), the city is a business and educational centre for the region and the 10th largest city in Denmark. It is governed by the administrative ...

Career

Mediterranean Sea

''HDMS Bellona'' was launched on 15 September 1830. Commissioned on 1 May 1835, she completed an expedition to the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern Eur ...

from

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

between 1 May and 5 September 1835. She was under the command of captain Louis de Coninck and brought back some of

's works.

Voyage to South America

From 24 August 1840 to 21 August 1841, under command of captain

Christian Wulff Christian Wilhelm Walter Wulff (; born 1959) is a retired German politician and lawyer who served as President of Germany from 2010 to 2012. A member of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany, Christian Democratic Union (CDU), he previously ...

, she completed a voyage to South America. The primary purpose of this voyage was the establishment of trade agreements with the

n states, but also to establish contact to emigrated Danish citizens and in general fly the Danish flag in the new world. Scientific expeditions were also in fashion (not the least the recently completed voyage of HMS ''Beagle'' 1831-36 with

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English Natural history#Before 1900, naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all speci ...

on board) and the Danish King

Christian VIII Christian VIII (18 September 1786 – 20 January 1848) was King of Denmark from 1839 to 1848 and, as Christian Frederick, King of Norway in 1814. Christian Frederick was the eldest son of Hereditary Prince Frederick, a younger son of King Fred ...

had a keen interest for natural sciences. Thus on board ''Bellona'' was the 41 year old naturalist

Henrik Nikolai Krøyer Henrik Nikolai Krøyer (22 March 1799 – 14 November 1870) was a Danish zoologist. Born in Copenhagen, he was a brother of the composer Hans Ernst Krøyer. He started studying medicine at the University of Copenhagen in 1817, which he later c ...

. Almost nothing is known from direct sources about Krøyer's work on ''Bellona'', but indirectly from his later scientific publications it is evident that he collected a wealth of animals, in particular

crustacean Crustaceans (from Latin meaning: "those with shells" or "crusted ones") are invertebrate animals that constitute one group of arthropods that are traditionally a part of the subphylum Crustacea (), a large, diverse group of mainly aquatic arthrop ...

First Schleswig War and later years

In 1847, from 15 May to 18 August, she was commissioned to pick up a load of cereal products in St. Petersburg. She was then equipped for service in the

First Schleswig War The First Schleswig War (), also known as the Schleswig-Holstein uprising () and the Three Years' War (), was a military conflict in southern Denmark and northern Germany rooted in the Schleswig–Holstein question: who should control the Du ...

. On 10 August 1849, she ran aground in the

Elbe The Elbe ( ; ; or ''Elv''; Upper Sorbian, Upper and , ) is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Giant Mountains of the northern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia (western half of the Czech Republic), then Ge ...

whilst blockading

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

. The blockade was due to be lifted the next day. ''Bellona'' was in use as a naval training ship from 16 May to 25 September 1858. She was under command of captain R. F. E. Dirkinck-Holmfeld.

Fate

She was decommissioned from the Navy on 25 June 1862. She was for a while used as a storage facility at

Høruphav Høruphav is a small town located on the island of Als in south Denmark, in Sønderborg Municipality Sønderborg Municipality (, ), is a '' kommune'' in the Region of Southern Denmark partially on the Jutland peninsula and partially on the island ...

in 1864 before being broken up in 1868. In his memoirs, published as
Min Rejsegennem Livet
', Andreas Drachamnn, who served as ship's physician onboard the ship, had provided an account of her voyage to Livorno.

References

External links

Fregatten Belonas togt til Sydamerika 1840-41

Den danske besejling af Sydamerika i det 19. århundrede

*Danish Naval Museu
website
- then click Skibregister, then B, and the Bellona record is on page 2. - - the ship's record, which gives further references to Topsøe-Jensen for the naval officers who saw service in this ship
Marcussen Website
*T. A. Topsøe-Jensen og Emil Marquard (1935) “Officerer i den dansk-norske Søetat 1660-1814 og den danske Søetat 1814-1932“. Two volume
Volume 1
an
Volume 2
- the database for all ships in the Danish Navy.

Sailing ships of Denmark Ships built in Copenhagen 1830 ships Maritime incidents in August 1849 Research vessels of Denmark Ships designed by Andreas Schifter