The history of the Danish navy began with the founding of a joint

Dano-Norwegian Dano-Norwegian (Danish language, Danish and ) was a Koine language, koiné/mixed language that evolved among the urban elite in Norwegian cities during the later years of the union between the Denmark–Norway, Kingdoms of Denmark and Norway (1 ...

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". The joint fleet was dissolved when Christian Fredrick established separate fleets for

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

and

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

on 12 April 1814. These are the modern ancestors of today's

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 ...

and

Royal Norwegian Navy The Royal Norwegian Navy () is the branch of the Norwegian Armed Forces responsible for navy, naval operations of Norway, including those of the Norwegian Coast Guard. , the Royal Norwegian Navy consists of approximately 3,700 personnel (9,450 i ...

The task of the navy

The primary task of the fleet in the first period of its existence was to counter the power of the

Hanseatic League The Hanseatic League was a Middle Ages, medieval commercial and defensive network of merchant guilds and market towns in Central Europe, Central and Northern Europe, Northern Europe. Growing from a few Northern Germany, North German towns in the ...

and secure control in the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by the countries of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and the North European Plain, North and Central European Plain regions. It is the ...

. The fleet was expanded to be one of the largest in Europe under the direction

Christian IV Christian IV (12 April 1577 – 28 February 1648) was King of Denmark and Norway and Duke of Holstein and Schleswig from 1588 until his death in 1648. His reign of 59 years and 330 days is the longest in Scandinavian history. A member of the H ...

with 50-105 larger warships and a large number of brigs and sloops, numbering in total around 75. In the 17th and 18th centuries during the period of absolutism its primary aim was to control the Strait of

Øresund Øresund or Öresund (, ; ; ), commonly known in English as the Sound, is a strait which forms the Denmark–Sweden border, Danish–Swedish border, separating Zealand (Denmark) from Scania (Sweden). The strait has a length of ; its width var ...

against the

Swedish Empire The Swedish Empire or the Great Power era () was the period in Swedish history spanning much of the 17th and early 18th centuries during which Sweden became a European great power that exercised territorial control over much of the Baltic regi ...

. In this period it consisted of 45

ships of the line A ship of the line was a type of naval warship constructed during the Age of Sail from the 17th century to the mid-19th century. The ship of the line was designed for the naval tactic known as the line of battle, which involved the two column ...

with an average of 60 guns, plus 20-40

frigate A frigate () is a type of warship. In different eras, the roles and capabilities of ships classified as frigates have varied. The name frigate in the 17th to early 18th centuries was given to any full-rigged ship built for speed and maneuvera ...

s, large enough to counter the

Royal Swedish Navy The Swedish Navy () is the maritime service branch of the Swedish Armed Forces. It is composed of surface and submarine naval units – the Fleet (), formally sometimes referred to as the Royal Navy () – as well as marine units, the Amph ...

at the time. The number of guns on the ships of the line was smaller, a feature only the Dano-Norwegian navy had- different from the average number of cannons mounted on warships of the great sea powers of the time but it was partly a deliberate decision of the admiralty, in order to make the ships able to navigate in the countless narrow waters around the Danish isles. The Napoleonic Wars also saw the construction of nearly 200 gunboats during the Gunboat War with the United Kingdom after the British decisively defeated the Dano-Norwegian fleet and captured their entire navy. The Bille Family with Steen Andersen Bille had a large role in the reconstruction of the Dano-Norwegian fleet. The navy was considered to be the King's personal property, and "the King's waters" consisted of the sea off Denmark, Norway the

Faroe Islands The Faroe Islands ( ) (alt. the Faroes) are an archipelago in the North Atlantic Ocean and an autonomous territory of the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. Located between Iceland, Norway, and the United Kingdom, the islands have a populat ...

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

and

Greenland Greenland is an autonomous territory in the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. It is by far the largest geographically of three constituent parts of the kingdom; the other two are metropolitan Denmark and the Faroe Islands. Citizens of Greenlan ...

, large parts of the Baltic, the waters east of the North Cape and off

Spitsbergen Spitsbergen (; formerly known as West Spitsbergen; Norwegian language, Norwegian: ''Vest Spitsbergen'' or ''Vestspitsbergen'' , also sometimes spelled Spitzbergen) is the largest and the only permanently populated island of the Svalbard archipel ...

. For the entire period of its existence its main base was Holmen in

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 ...

, but on different occasions smaller task forces was stationed in Fredriksvern in

and in

Glückstadt Glückstadt (; ) is a town in the Steinburg district of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is located on the right bank of the Lower Elbe at the confluence of the small Rhin river, about northwest of Altona. Glückstadt is part of the Hamburg ...

Navy personnel

In 1709 there was about 19,000 personnel enrolled in the common fleet. Of these 10 000 were Norwegian. When Tordenskjold made his raid at Dynekil in 1716, over 80% of the sailors and 90% of the soldiers were Norwegian.Ole Feldbæk, ''Gyldendal og Politikens Danmarkshistorie'', volume 9, 2003. pp. 135. . During peacetime most of the navy personnel served in the merchant fleet, which was of considerable size in the 18th century. The main problem for Denmark-Norway in case of war was thus often to round up the required number of skilled sailors for the navy. The navy was for a large part funded by Norwegian means as a royal resolution dictated that the income from Norway was to be used towards its construction and upkeep. The majority of the ships of the line in the 17th and 18th centuries were named after the royalty of Denmark-Norway, as well as the lands of the kingdoms. At the end of the 18th century, it became more common to name them in a national romantic vein, using names from the history of Denmark and from the

Old Norse Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...

mythology.

Ships

Ships include:The Royal Danish Naval Museum
website lists over 2400 ships with access to their design plans and models where such exist. Th

starts with one dated 1640 and reaches 1938. Using Danish language settings, it is possible to search for/filter specific types of ship, the designers by name, and specific dates. Also from this museum is the '
skibregister
'', consisting of record cards for individual ships (where they have been saved) * , (1504–?) * , (1504–?) * a.k.a. ''Hunden'' and ''Skjodehunden'' (c. 1600) * a.k.a. ''Løven'' (c. 1600) * a.k.a. ''Grønlandiske Kat'' (1605–1611) * , warship (1601–1624) * , (c. 1616) * , warship (1624–1645) * , warship (1634–1653) * , warship (1649–1673) * , warship (1650–1687) * a.k.a. ''Prinsesse Charlotte Amalie'' and ''Enigheden'', warship (1651–1679) * , warship (1652–1676) * , warship (1654–1666) * a.k.a. ''Christianus Quintus'', (1665–1708) ''Orlogsskib'' * , warship (1665–1679) * , warship/frigate (1666–1700) * , warship (1680–1715) * , ship of the line (1692–1710) * a.k.a. ''Store Christianus Quintus'' (1699–1732) warship * , ship of the line (1703-1728) * , artillery pram (1718–?) * , warship (1735–1764) * , warship (1753–1775) * , frigate (1753–1776) * , frigate (1758–1785) * , warship (1765–1798) * , warship (1767–?) * , warship (1768–1799) * , bomb vessel (1771–?) * , ship of the line (1775–1801) * , frigate (1778–?) * , frigate (1783–1807) * , cutter (1783–1799) * , gun barge (1785–1801) * , cavalry pram (1786–1805) * , ship of the line (1787–1801) * , frigate (1787–1806) * , lugger (1788–1797) * , warship (1789–1807) * , frigate (1790–1807) * , frigate (1796–1807) * , warship (1797–1807) * , warship (1804–1808) * , frigate (1811–1812) * Thorbjørn, icebreaker (1996-2015) * Danbjørn, icebreaker (1996-2023)

Notes

Sources

External links

Danish Naval History

''Danske og Norske Søværnet''

Danish maritime history and the shipyard (historic timelines)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Royal Danish Navy (1510-1814) 1510 establishments in Denmark Disbanded navies Military units and formations disestablished in 1814 Organizations established in the 1500s Military units and formations established in the 16th century Military history of Denmark Military history of Norway