Norske Løve[1] was a ship with 36 cannons owned and operated by the Danish East India Company.
History[]
The bell of the Norske Løve in Tórshavn Cathedral.
The ship's bell is dated to 1704, although a Norske Løve was recorded as running a cargo of slaves for the Danish East India Company in the Indian Ocean in 1682. Similarly, a Norske Løve is recorded calling at the Danish colony of Tranquebar in 1690 and 1706,[2] although this may have been one of the numerous Dano-Norwegian navy vessels of that name.
Dahl[3] tells that the ship left Copenhagen December 4, 1707. She was hit by lightning on December 18. On the 19th, her master Roluf Meincke decided to cut the main mast, which brought the mizzen mast down with it. By noon the same day, she was hit by a breaker, killing 14 men and damaging the ship further. On December 31, 1707, the ship sank in Lambavík in the Faroe Islands. 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, where it still resides. A model of the ship was also constructed and hung as one of three votive ships within the church. (On the model, the name is spelled Nordishe Løwe.) A model ship in the church of Eiði is supposed to be a copy of the model in Tórshavn.
See also[]
- List of ships of the Dano-Norwegian navy
- Danish East India Company
References[]
- ↑ Also known as the Nordische Löwe and the Norska Løva, all variants on the Danish or Swedish for "Norwegian Lion"
- ↑ Foreningen Trankebar. "Historie". Accessed 26 May 2012. (Danish)
- ↑ Dahl, Árni. Søga og stev 2, p. 160. ISBN 99918-49-08-4.
Coordinates: 62°08′06″N 6°40′12″W / 62.135°N 6.67°W
The original article can be found at Norske Løve (1704) and the edit history here.