HDMS ''Grønland'' (Greenland) was a

ship 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 tactics in the Age of Sail, naval tactic known as the line of battl ...

of the Dano-Norwegian Navy, built in 1756six technical drawings of this ship are available on-line at th
Danish Naval Museum website
(click vis) and decommissioned in 1791. ''Grønland'' spent considerable time in the Mediterranean Sea, where she protected Danish merchant convoys. ''Grønland'' took part in the bombardment of

Algiers Algiers is the capital city of Algeria as well as the capital of the Algiers Province; it extends over many Communes of Algeria, communes without having its own separate governing body. With 2,988,145 residents in 2008Census 14 April 2008: Offi ...

in 1770 but otherwise did not see any action in battle. It is noted in the Danish Admiralty's papers that she was an unusually seaworthy ship.

Convoys in the Mediterranean Sea

During the first years in service ''Grønland'' spent a significant part of her time in 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 ...

, where she escorted Danish merchant ships. Denmark-Norway was not part in the seven-years' war (1756–63) and the merchant fleet was thus threatened by both French and British privateers. Although Denmark-Norway was neutral the French merchant brothers Couturier had persuaded the Danish King Frederik V to provide a navy ship as protection for Danish ships transporting goods from the

Levant The Levant ( ) is the subregion that borders the Eastern Mediterranean, Eastern Mediterranean sea to the west, and forms the core of West Asia and the political term, Middle East, ''Middle East''. In its narrowest sense, which is in use toda ...

Marseille Marseille (; ; see #Name, below) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Bouches-du-Rhône and of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region. Situated in the ...

for the brothers. This arrangement ended, however, when the British

under command of

Hugh Palliser Admiral Sir Hugh Palliser, 1st Baronet (26 February 1723 – 19 March 1796) was a Royal Navy officer and politician. As captain of the 58-gun HMS ''Eagle'' he engaged and defeated the French 50-gun ''Duc d'Aquitain'' off Ushant in May 1757 du ...

, managed to capture a Danish merchant ship ''Den flyvende Engel''. ''Den flyvende Engel'' was part of a convoy that ''Grønland'', under command of Henrik Lorenz Fisker, was escorting. Shrewsbury had 70 cannons against ''Grønlands 50, which likely contributed to Fisker's decision not to open fire. Because of the incident, Fisker was replaced by Simon Hoogland in Marseilles and he was later brought for a court-martial when he returned to Denmark. However, he was cleared of all charges.

The Danish Arabia Expedition

The first voyage to the Mediterranean by ''Grønland'' in 1761 can be said to be the world's first oceanographic expedition, as the ship had on board a group of scientists appointed by Frederik V for an expedition to Arabia. The group consisted of linguist Frederik Christian von Haven, surveyor

Carsten Niebuhr Carsten Niebuhr, or Karsten Niebuhr (17 March 1733 Cuxhaven, Lüdingworth – 26 April 1815 Meldorf, Dithmarschen), was a German mathematician, Cartography, cartographer, and Geographical exploration, explorer in the service of Denmark-Norway. He ...

, naturalist

Peter Forsskål Peter Forsskål, sometimes spelled Pehr Forsskål, Peter Forskaol, Petrus Forskål or Pehr Forsskåhl (11 January 1732 – 11 July 1763) was a Sweden, Swedish exploration, explorer, oriental studies, orientalist, natural history, naturalist, and ...

, physician Christian Carl Kramer, artist and painter Georg Wilhelm Baurenfeind and assistant Lars Berggren. One of the explicit tasks of the expedition was to study and describe the marine life in the open sea, including finding the cause of mareel, or milky seas. For this purpose the expedition was equipped with nets and scrapers, specifically designed to collect samples from the open waters and the bottom at great depth. ''Grønland'' brought the expedition as far as

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

, where the expedition continued over land to explore the

Arabian Peninsula The Arabian Peninsula (, , or , , ) or Arabia, is a peninsula in West Asia, situated north-east of Africa on the Arabian plate. At , comparable in size to India, the Arabian Peninsula is the largest peninsula in the world. Geographically, the ...

(in particular present day

Yemen Yemen, officially the Republic of Yemen, is a country in West Asia. Located in South Arabia, southern Arabia, it borders Saudi Arabia to Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, the north, Oman to Oman–Yemen border, the northeast, the south-eastern part ...

) and the

Red Sea The Red Sea is a sea inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. Its connection to the ocean is in the south, through the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait and the Gulf of Aden. To its north lie the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and th ...

. Only one member of the expedition,

, survived and returned to Denmark in 1767, but he brought with him the enormous collections of especially Forsskål. His descriptions of animals collected, together with drawings and sketches by Baurenfeind, were posthumously published as the book ''Descriptiones Animalium'', which stands out as one of the most important contributions to natural history in the 18th century. Many of the specimens collected by Forskål are today among the most valued treasures of the Natural History Museum of Denmark. Also the many detailed maps made by Niebuhr and ethnographic observations and artifacts collected by the expedition still today provides one of the most important sources of information about the life in 18th century

Later years

''Grønland'' mostly served in Danish waters, but after a major overhaul in 1769 she was in 1770 again sent to the Mediterranean in what is known as the Danish–Algerian War. This time under command of commander Count Moltke and in a fleet that also included three other ships of the line, two frigates, two gunboats and two transport ships, in total 3000 seamen and 516 soldiers. The fleet was sent on a mission to resolve a dispute with the

Dey Dey (, from ) was the title given to the rulers of the regencies of Algiers, Tripolitania,Bertarelli (1929), p. 203. and Tunis under the Ottoman Empire from 1671 onwards. Twenty-nine ''deys'' held office from the establishment of the deylicate ...

about the taxes paid by Dano-Norwegian ships for passage. The fleet, under command of Admiral Frederik Christian Kaas, bombed Algiers from the sea, but was unsuccessful in making a deal with the Dey. Two years later ''Greenland'' again returned to Algiers, this time under command of Admiral Hoogland, and negotiated a treaty with the Dey. After return to Copenhagen, ''Grønland'' served as a guard ship and in the last years as part of the moored blockade of Copenhagen, until she was decommissioned in 1791.

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Grønland (1756) Research vessels of Denmark Ships of the line of the Royal Dano-Norwegian Navy Ships built in Copenhagen 1756 ships