HDMS ''Printz Friderich'' was a ship-of-the-line launched in 1764, to a design by Frederik Michael Krabbe, a naval officer and leading ship designer of that period.The spelling of the ship's name in records has varied slightly over the years eg Printz, Prinds, Prinz and several variations of Friderich, Frederich. The title used for this article is the name as on the design plans. Two other ships — ''Norske Løve'' and ''Øresund'' — were constructed to the same design. Little is known of her service history beyond that she received a new keel in 1775. She was lost in 1780. Her wreck was rediscovered in 2018 by Kim Schmidt/Undervandsgruppen

Service

In 1770–1771, the ship was part of a squadron under Admiral F. C. Kaas active off Algiers. During this time, on 1 October 1770 the ship ran aground at the entrance to Port Mahon
In September 1774, ''Printz Friderich'' returned to Denmark from the West Indies.

Loss

On 29 September 1780, ''Printz Friderich'' was under the command of

Andreas Lous Andreas Lous (1728 - 1797) was a Danish naval officer responsible for early navigational charts of Danish Waters and the dredging of harbours, in addition to sea-time on various Danish warships. He was captain of the ship-of-the-line HDMS Printz F ...

, a well respected naval officer and chart maker of the period. She ran aground on the shoal

Kobbergrund Kobbergrund is a shoal in the Kattegat 11 kilometers (7 miles) East South East of the Danish island of Læsø, lying close to the main shipping lanes from the south. Shipwrecks It is the site of several shipwrecks, including the Russian ship ''B ...

southeast of the island of

Læsø Læsø ("Isle of Hlér") is the largest island in the North Sea bay of Kattegat, and is located off the northeast coast of the Jutland Peninsula, the Danish mainland. Læsø is also the name of the municipality ( Danish, '' kommune'') on that ...

in the

Kattegat The Kattegat (; sv, Kattegatt ) is a sea area bounded by the Jutlandic peninsula in the west, the Danish Straits islands of Denmark and the Baltic Sea to the south and the provinces of Bohuslän, Västergötland, Halland and Skåne in Sweden ...

and was a total loss. The vast majority of the crew were rescued and landed on Læsø - only eight or ten men were drowned. Supplies were quickly sent to Læsø for the survivors. The court martial of Captain Lous and his officers for the loss of the ship exonerated Lous (who had been ill and confined to his cabin for three days), but considered three lower-ranking officers (Lars Kinck, StiboltThis was Andreas P. Stibolt. Three members of the extended Stibolt family served in HDMS ''Printz Friderich'' at various times. and Fleischer) culpable. Almost a month later the Danish frigate ''Kiel'' under Claus Frandsen Tønder also ran aground near Læsø but escaped without damage having jettisoned eight cannon. She then took on board one hundred of the ''Printz Friderichs crew from the island.

Wreck

All sign of the ship disappeared from view, and almost from memory. In 2018 a specialist Underwater Group,Danish Research Website
/ref> using several forms of modern survey equipment eventually found the wreck largely intact.A similar search for , which in 1812 too was lost off Læsø, has so far proven unsuccessful.

Notes

Citations

References