''Norske Løve'' was a ship with 36 cannons owned and operated by the

Danish East India Company The Danish East India Company ( da, Ostindisk Kompagni) refers to two separate Danish-Norwegian chartered companies. The first company operated between 1616 and 1650. The second company existed between 1670 and 1729, however, in 1730 it was re-fo ...

History

Faroe stamp 175 the church of torshavn - bell

The ship's bell is dated to 1704, although a ''Norske Løve'' was recorded as running a cargo of

slaves Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

for the

in the Indian Ocean in 1682. Similarly, a ''Norske Løve'' is recorded calling at the

Danish colony , conventional_long_name = Danish overseas colonies , status = Empire , status_text = , life_span = 1536–1953 (Denmark)1536–1814 (Norway) , government_type = Constitutional monarchy , even ...

Tranquebar Tharangambadi (), formerly Tranquebar ( da, Trankebar, ), is a town in the Mayiladuthurai district of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu on the Coromandel Coast. It lies north of Karaikal, near the mouth of a distributary named Uppanar of the Kave ...

in 1690 and 1706, although this may have been one of the numerous

Dano-Norwegian Navy The history of the Danish navy began with the founding of a joint Dano-Norwegian 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 h ...

vessels of that name. ''Norske Løve'' left

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

on 4 December 1707. She was hit by lightning on December 18. On the 19th, her master Roluf Meincke decided to cut the

main mast The mast of a sailing vessel is a tall spar, or arrangement of spars, erected more or less vertically on the centre-line of a ship or boat. Its purposes include carrying sails, spars, and derricks, and giving necessary height to a navigation ligh ...

, which brought the

mizzen mast The mast of a sailing vessel is a tall spar, or arrangement of spars, erected more or less vertically on the centre-line of a ship or boat. Its purposes include carrying sails, spars, and derricks, and giving necessary height to a navigation ligh ...

down with it. Around noon the same day, a

breaker Breaker may refer to: Objects * A breaking wave on water, or a "breaker", a shallow over which waves break * Circuit breaker, an electrical overload switch * Breaker (hydraulic), a percussion hammer attached to an excavator People * Breaker Mor ...

hit her, killing 14 men and damaging the ship further. On 31 December 1707, ''Norske Løve'' sank in

Lambavík Lamba (, da, Lamhauge), is a small village in the bottom of the inlet of Lambavík on the east coast of Eysturoy, Faroe Islands. There are similarly named places, Lamba in Shetland and Lambay in Ireland. Settlement The houses in Lamba are sp ...

in the

Faroe Islands The Faroe Islands ( ), or simply the Faroes ( fo, Føroyar ; da, Færøerne ), are a North Atlantic island group and an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark. They are located north-northwest of Scotland, and about halfway bet ...

. Around 100 men survived. Salvage of the ship began immediately, but a landslide during the night buried it, whence it has not been recovered. The ship's bell was removed, however, and subsequently used for

Tórshavn Cathedral Tórshavn Cathedral ( fo, Havnar Kirkja, or ''Dómkirkjan'') is the second oldest received church of the Faroe Islands, on Tinganes in the old town of Tórshavn.

, where it still resides. A model of the ship was also constructed and hung as one of three

votive ship A votive ship, sometimes called a church ship, is a ship model displayed in a church. As a rule, votive ships are constructed and given as gifts to the church by seamen and ship builders. Votive ships are relatively common in churches in the Nordi ...

s within the church. (On the model, the name is spelled ''Nordishe Løwe''.) A model ship in the church of

Eiði Eiði (''Northern Faroese'' �ɔiːjɪ) is a village located on the north-west tip of Eysturoy in the Faroe Islands. It is the seat of Eiði Municipality. It is located 4 km north of Ljósá and 6.5 km west of Funningur. History Eiði was first ...

is supposed to be a copy of the model in Tórshavn.

Norska Løva in Faroese literature

A poem (folk song) about the event is commonly used accompanied with the Faroese chain dance in the Faroe Islands, it is written in Danish. The title is Norske Løve. The Faroese author

Jógvan Isaksen Jógvan Isaksen (born 25 August 1950 in Tórshavn) is a Faroese writer and literary historian. He is best known for his crime novels and for his book about Faroese literature (1993, in Danish). He is leader of the Faroese publication house whi ...

has written a crime novel with the title ''Norska Løva'', published in 2010.ms.fo
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References

Shipwrecks in the North Sea Maritime incidents in 1707 Shipwrecks of the Faroe Islands Maritime incidents in the Faroe Islands {{ship-stub

History

Norska Løva in Faroese literature

See also

References