Danish river heavy frigate Stormarn 1703 – safeguarding the inland part of the business

[-Waldemar-]

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The plan of this ship, because of its uniqueness (notably in terms of its main proportions, as well as its peculiar functions, especially since it is about such an early period), is a real gem among the constantly exploited themes, probably already in zillions of variants, such as the pirate ships, Bounty, Victory, Sovereign, Constitution, Santa Maria and a few more.

The ship in question is the Danish heavy 44-gun frigate Stormarn, built in 1703 by M. von Paulsen at Altona to protect and patrol the inland waters of the region. Due to its highly specialised characteristics, optimising the ship for inland navigation, this vessel would have been at the same time completely unsuitable for the open sea. Figuratively speaking, the project can be quite aptly compared to a war raft.

In contrast, the very concept used to design this water craft has nothing special about it, as the designer employed a perfectly typical 17th century North Continental/Dutch method of ship design, particularly suitable for such specimens of extreme proportions (notably the shallow draught combined with the considerable breadth of the vessel). This design method has already been demonstrated in my threads, including Pinas 1671 by Nicolaes Witsen – the backbone of the fleets and Samuel 1650 – a Dutch mid-17th century trader. For the sake of clarification, it may also be added that a double master frame, only recently introduced into general use, was applied in this design.

Somewhat paradoxically, however, it is this only recently recognised method of ship design that has made it possible to credibly, and fully, reproduce the hull shapes of the frigate Stormarn 1703, since the information contained in the original plan itself, due to certain elements missing from it, would not make this possible. Moreover, the original plan also contains some errors and inaccuracies that would make the commonly applied today method of iteratively adjusting waterlines, buttock lines and cross-section lines (hopelessly inappropriate for this period by the way), to only lead a potential redesigner astray, that is, it would only generate some fancy hull shape.

Below is a reproduction of the original plan of this exquisitely interesting vessel (Danish archives), as well as some renders, showing visually the rather unusual nature of the shapes for a heavy 44-gun frigate.

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[-Waldemar-]

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It is extremely fortunate that, in addition to the as-designed ship plan itself, a schematic of the platform on which the frigate has been repaired after a decade of operation of the ship was also made and preserved. This additional diagram also includes a side view of the frigate itself.

Interestingly, if the general arrangement of the ship is quite in line with the original plan of the ship as designed, the number of gun ports is already different, and even on the main gun deck. It is very possible that the frigate Stormarn 1703 was already originally built with a different configuration of gun ports compared to her design, as a later re-arrangement of the gun ports would necessarily entail a rather extensive rebuilding of the ship.

Below is a juxtaposition of the silhouettes of the frigate Stormarn 1703, on the as-designed plan from 1703 and on the diagram of repair platform made in 1713:

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Be that as it may, already in the description of the original 1703 plan (mostly unreadable to me due to the less than perfect copy I am using) two variants of the frigate's armament are included. One variant assumes the following number and size of guns:

18 x 18 lb
8 x 12 lb and 10 x 8 lb (mixed battery on the second deck)
4 x 4 lb and 4 x 3 lb

Whereas the second variant:

18 x 24 lb
18 x 12 lb
8 x 6 lb

The total number of cannons in both cases is 44.

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As a graphic supplement to this entry, below are a few more graphics depicting a selection of Danish cannons of the period, both bronze and iron. All illustrations presented so far are reproduced, respectively, from:

Hans Christian Bjerg, John Erichsen, Danske orlogsskibe 1690–1860, Copenhagen 1980,
Egon Eriksen, Ole Louis Frantzen, Dansk artilleri i Napoleonstiden. Forudsætninger og udvikling 1760–1814, Copenhagen 1989,
Niels M. Probst, Den Danske Flådes Historie 1588–1660. Christian 4.s flåde, Copenhagen 1996,
Jørgen H. Barfod, Den Danske Flådes Historie 1660–1720. Niels Juels flåde, Copenhagen 1997.

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[-Waldemar-]

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To conclude this thread, one more graphic – a now vintage artist's impression of the frigate Stormarn 1703, created in 1917 by H. Schiøler, and arguably based on the original plan of this vessel presented above.

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Thank you for your attention,
Waldemar Gurgul

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