In the Battle of Copenhagen,(Danish: Slaget på Reden, meaning "the battle of the roadstead [of Copenhagen Harbour]") also known as the First Battle of Copenhagen to distinguish it from the Second Battle of Copenhagen in 1807, a British naval fleet defeated a smaller force of the Royal Dano-Norwegian Navy anchored near Copenhagen on 2 April 1801. The battle came about over British fears that the powerful Danish fleet would ally with France, and a breakdown in diplomatic communications on both sides.
As the British ships entered the large harbour of the Danish Navy, several of its ships took up station at the harbour's roadstead, forming a blockade. The Danish fleet defended the capital with these ships and bastions on both sides of the harbour inlet. It was the second attempt by the British to try to prevent a Franco-Danish alliance, as the British had already entered Øresund with a fleet in August 1800, in order to persuade Denmark not to ally with France. The Danes agreed to the British terms upon hearing news of the assassination of Emperor Paul I of Russia, as his death meant the end of the Russian-led League of Armed Neutrality of which Denmark was a member.
Background
The battle was the result of multiple failures of diplomacy in the latter half of the 18th century. At the beginning of 1801, during the French Revolutionary Wars, Britain's principal advantage over France was its naval superiority. The Royal Navy searched neutral ships trading with French ports, seizing their cargoes if they were deemed to be trading with France.Pocock, p. 229 It was in the British interest to guarantee its naval supremacy and all trade advantages that resulted from it. The Russian tsar, Paul, having been a British ally, arranged a League of Armed Neutrality comprising Denmark, Sweden, Prussia, and Russia, to enforce free trade with France. The British viewed the League to be very much in the French interest and a serious threat. The league was hostile to the British blockade and, according to the British, its existence threatened the supply of timber and naval stores from Scandinavia.
In early 1801, the British government assembled a fleet off Great Yarmouth at Yarmouth Roads, with the goal of breaking up the league. The British needed to act before the Baltic Sea thawed and released the Russian fleet from its bases at Kronstadt and Reval (now Tallinn). If the Russian fleet joined with the Swedish and Danish fleets, the combined fleets would form a formidable force of up to 123 ships of the line. The British fleet was under the command of Admiral of the White Sir Hyde Parker, with Vice-Admiral of the Blue Horatio Nelson, 1st Baron Nelson as his second-in-command.
Frustrated by the delay, Nelson sent a letter to Captain Thomas Troubridge, a friend and a Lord Commissioner of the Admiralty.Pocock, p. 231 This prompted the Lord St Vincent (First Lord of the Admiralty) to send a private note, which resulted in the fleet sailing from Yarmouth on 12 March.Rodger. Orders were sent to Parker to go to Copenhagen and detach Denmark from the league by "amicable arrangement or by actual hostilities", to be followed by "an immediate and vigorous attack" on the Russians at Reval and then Kronstadt.Pocock, p. 232 The British fleet reached the Skaw (Danish: Skagen) on 19 March, where they met a British diplomat, Nicholas Vansittart,Pocock, p. 233 who told them that the Danes had rejected an ultimatum.
Although the British Admiralty had instructed Parker to frustrate the league, by force if necessary, he was a naturally cautious person and moved slowly. He wanted to blockade the Baltic despite the danger of the combination of fleets; Nelson wanted to ignore Denmark and Sweden, who were both reluctant partners in the alliance, and instead sail to the Baltic to fight the Russians. In the end Nelson was able to persuade Sir Hyde to attack the Danish fleet currently concentrated off Copenhagen. Promised naval support for the Danes from Karlskrona, in Sweden, did not arrive, perhaps because of adverse winds. The Prussians had only minimal naval forces and also could not assist. On 30 March, the British force passed through the narrows between Denmark and Sweden, sailing close to the Swedish coast to put themselves as far from the Danish guns as possible; fortunately for the British, the Swedish batteries remained silent.
Attacking the Danish fleet would have been difficult as Parker's delay in sailing had allowed the Danes to prepare their positions well. Most of the Danish ships were not fitted for sea but were moored along the shore with old ships (hulks), no longer fit for service at sea, but still powerfully armed, as a line of floating batteries off the eastern coast of the island of Amager, in front of the city in the King's Channel. The northern end of the line terminated at the Tre Kroner forts armed with 68 guns (equal to twice the broadside of a typical ship-of-the-line). North of the fort, in the entrance to Copenhagen harbour, were two ships of the line, a large frigate, and two brigs, all rigged for sea, and two more hulks. Batteries covered the water between the Danish line and the shore, and further out to sea a large shoal, the Middle Ground, constricted the channel. The British had no reliable charts or pilots, so Captain Thomas Hardy spent most of the night of 31 March taking soundings in the channel up to the Danish line. Even so, the British ships were not able to locate the deepest part of the channel properly and so kept too far to seaward.
Battle
Preparations
Parker gave Nelson the twelve ships of the line with the shallowest drafts, and all the smaller ships in the fleet. Parker himself stayed to the north-east of the battle with the heavier ships – whose deeper drafts did not allow them to safely enter the channel – screening Nelson from possible external interference and moving towards Copenhagen to engage the northern defences.William Bligh, of Bounty fame, commanded Glatton, one of Nelson's ships. Nelson transferred his command from the large 98-gun to the shallower-draft 74-gun for this reason.
On 30 March, Nelson, and his second-in-command, Rear-Admiral of the White Thomas Graves, accompanied by Captain William Domett and the commanding officer of the troops, Lieutenant-colonel William Stewart, sailed in the hired lugger Lark to reconnoitre the Danish defences at Copenhagen.James (1837), Vol. 3, pp. 65–66 They found the defences to be strong and so spent the evening discussing the plan. Fixed batteries had a significant advantage over ship borne cannon owing to their greater stability and larger guns, and the Danes could reinforce their ships during the battle.Danish reinforcement included the replacement of a captain at one point. On the other hand, their ships were a motley collection, many of them small, and out-gunned if engaged by the whole of Nelson's force.
Nelson's plan was for the British ships to approach the weaker, southern end of the Danish defences in a line parallel to the Danish one. As the foremost ship drew alongside a Danish ship, it would anchor and engage that ship. The remainder of the line would pass outside the engagement until the next British ship drew alongside the next Danish ship, and so on. The frigate , together with small gun-brigs, would rake the Danish line from the south, and a force of frigates, commanded by Captain Edward Riou of , would attack the northern end of the line. Troops would land and assault the Tre Kroner fortress once the fleet had subdued the Danish line of ships.Pocock, p. 235 Bomb vessels would sit outside the British line and bombard the Danes by firing over it. Should the British be unable to subdue the stronger, northern defences, the destruction of the southern ships would be enough to allow the bomb vessels to approach within range of the city and force negotiations to prevent the bombardment of the city.
Action
With a southerly wind on 2 April, Nelson picked his way through the shoals. However, ran aground before entering the channel, and took no part in the battle. Then and ran aground on the Middle Ground, severely restricting their role in the battle. The loss of the three vessels required hurried changes in the line and weakened the force's northern end.
The Danish batteries started firing at 10:05 am, the first half of the British fleet was engaged in about half an hour, and the battle was general by 11:30 am.Clarke and McArthur, p. 606 Once the British line was in place there was very little manoeuvring. The British ships anchored by the stern about a cable from the line of Danish ships and batteries, which was relatively long range, and the two exchanged broadsides until a ship ceased firing. The British encountered heavy resistance, partly because they had not spotted the low-lying floating batteries, and partly because of the courage with which the Danes fought. The northern Danish ships, which were rigged and manned, did not enter the battle but remained on station as reserve units, even though the wind direction forced Parker's squadron to approach only slowly.
At 1:00 pm, the battle was still in full swing. Prøvesteenens heavier fire would have destroyed if it had not been raked by Desirée, assisted by . suffered badly from the combined fires of and Sjælland.A midshipman sent to the magazine on an errand said "When I arrived on the maindeck, along which I had to pass, there was not a single man standing the whole way from the main mast forward, a district containing eight guns, some of which were run out ready for firing; others lay dismounted; the others remained as they were after recoiling... I hastened down the fore ladder to the lower deck and felt really relieved to find someone alive." Pocock, p. 236
Signal to retreat
Parker's view of the battle was heavily obscured by gun smoke, but he could see the signals on the three grounded British ships, with Bellona and Russell flying signals of distress and Agamemnon a signal of inability to proceed.Clarke and McArthur, p. 607 Thinking that Nelson might have fought to a stand-still but might be unable to retreat without orders (the Articles of War demanded that all ranks "do their utmost" against the enemy in battle), at 1:30 pm Parker told his flag captain:I will make the signal of recall for Nelson's sake. If he is in condition to continue the action, he will disregard it; if he is not, it will be an excuse for his retreat and no blame can be imputed to him.Pocock, p. 236Nelson ordered that the signal be acknowledged, but not repeated. He turned to his flag captain, Thomas Foley, and said "You know, Foley, I only have one eye – I have the right to be blind sometimes," and then, holding his telescope to his blind eye, said "I really do not see the signal!"Pocock, p. 237 Rear Graves repeated the signal, but in a place invisible to most other ships while keeping Nelson's "close action" signal at his masthead. Of Nelson's captains, only Riou, who could not see Nelson's flagship Elephant, followed Parker's signal. Riou withdrew his force, which was then attacking the Tre Kroner fortress, exposing himself to heavy fire, which resulted in his death and the deaths of several crew members onboard Amazon.
End of the battle
It was at this time that the battle swung decisively to the British, as their superior gunnery took effect. The guns of the dozen southernmost Danish ships had started to fall silent owing to the damage they had sustained, and the fighting moved northward. According to British eyewitness accounts, much of the Danish line had fallen silent by 2:00 pm.Clarke and McArthur, p. 608Some Danish historians contest the timing, stating that the entire Dano–Norwegian line continued to resist until 2:30 pm. The cessation of firing left the way open for the British bomb vessels to approach Copenhagen. In addition, the reinforcements of the ships from the shore batteries were causing the latter to become ineffective.