''Danmark'' was an armored frigate of the Royal Danish Navy originally ordered by the Confederate States Navy. The origins of the ''Danmark'' lie in efforts of the

Confederate States of America The Confederate States of America (CSA), commonly referred to as the Confederate States or the Confederacy was an unrecognized breakaway republic in the Southern United States that existed from February 8, 1861, to May 9, 1865. The Confeder ...

to purchase warships in Europe, which is to say in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

and

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

, during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

. These efforts were led by James Dunwoody Bulloch, but the ''Danmark'' was ordered by another Confederate agent, Lieutenant (later Commander) James H. North. North was sent to Europe by Confederate Navy secretary Stephen Mallory with the aim of buying a completed sea-going ironclad warship, the

French Navy The French Navy (french: Marine nationale, lit=National Navy), informally , is the maritime arm of the French Armed Forces and one of the five military service branches of France. It is among the largest and most powerful naval forces in t ...

's ''Gloire'', and ordering a similar vessel on Confederate account. The French government refused to sell ''Gloire'', or to allow a sister ship to be built in French shipyards. North proceeded to Britain, where the Whig government had adopted a

laissez-faire ''Laissez-faire'' ( ; from french: laissez faire , ) is an economic system in which transactions between private groups of people are free from any form of economic interventionism (such as subsidies) deriving from special interest groups. ...

attitude to American arms-buying. Here he met with George Thomson, co-owner of the

Clydebank Clydebank ( gd, Bruach Chluaidh) is a town in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland. Situated on the north bank of the River Clyde, it borders the village of Old Kilpatrick (with Bowling, West Dunbartonshire, Bowling and Milton, West Dunbartonshire, Mil ...

shipbuilders J. & G. Thompson. North signed a contract with Thomson's on 21 May 1862 for an armoured frigate of some 3,000 tons and 80 metres in length, for a contract price of 190,000 pounds sterling—around two million

Confederate dollar The Confederate States dollar was first issued just before the outbreak of the American Civil War by the newly formed Confederacy. It was not backed by hard assets, but simply by a promise to pay the bearer after the war, on the prospect of Sou ...

s at the prevailing rate of exchange—paying a deposit of 18,000 pounds. Thomson's contracted to the deliver the ship by 1 June 1863. Known to the Confederates as "North's ship", or as "Number 61", she was ''Santa Maria'' to her builders. As finally completed, she displaced 4,750 tons, a slab-sided three-masted barque. Under steam, she would make . By the summer of 1863, the Confederate agents in Europe were seeking to sell off North's ship, offering her to the

Imperial Russian Navy The Imperial Russian Navy () operated as the navy of the Russian Tsardom and later the Russian Empire from 1696 to 1917. Formally established in 1696, it lasted until dissolved in the wake of the February Revolution of 1917. It developed from a ...

. The ship was clearly unsuited to Confederate needs, being too large and requiring too large a crew for their limited resources, and her draft of 6 metres was too deep for operations in the shoal waters on the Confederate coasts. Thompson's too were concerned that they would not be allowed to deliver the ship to the Confederates in the changed political climate and cancelled the contract in late 1863. Work continued slowly on the ship, which was launched on 23 February 1864. The outbreak of the

Second War of Schleswig The Second Schleswig War ( da, Krigen i 1864; german: Deutsch-Dänischer Krieg) also sometimes known as the Dano-Prussian War or Prusso-Danish War was the second military conflict over the Schleswig-Holstein Question of the nineteenth century. T ...

led the Royal Danish Navy to purchase the ship, but delays in fitting out and working up meant that she was not ready for service before the end of the war. The ''Danmark'' undertook only one active commission, from June to October 1869. At sea with her armament aboard she rolled violently, and the coal consumption of her engines was extremely high. As a result, she remained in reserve thereafter, becoming a barracks ship in 1893 before being eventually scrapped in 1907. As commissioned into Danish service, she was armed with 20 60-pounder (8-inch) smoothbore muzzle-loading guns of 88 hundredweight and 8 18-pounder rifled muzzle-loading guns of 40 hundredweight. In 1865 this was changed to an all-rifled muzzle-loading armament of 12 60-pounder guns and 10 24-pounder guns. Two more 24-pounder guns were added in 1867.

References

* * * Noirsain, Serge, ''La flotte européenne de la Confederation sudiste.'' Confederate Historical Association of Belgium, 2000. Published without ISBN * * Still, William H. (ed.), ''The Confederate Navy: The Ships, Men and Organization, 1861–1865.'' Conway Maritime Press, 1997. {{DEFAULTSORT:Danmark Ironclad warships of the Confederate States Navy 1864 ships Ironclad warships of the Royal Danish Navy Ships built on the River Clyde