Berlin (ship, 1674)
 |
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
.svg){kind=small}
The Berlin , also city of Berlin , was from 1675 to 1684 a frigate of the Kurbrandenburg Navy or a merchant ship of the Brandenburg-African Company . During the Brandenburg Caper War against Spain , it also operated in the Caribbean . It was named after the Brandenburg city of Berlin . Her final fate is unknown.
Technical specifications
The three-master, built in 1674, was 80 feet (22.65 m) long and 22 feet (6.23 m) wide. As armament he carried a total of 15 cast iron cannons ( muzzle loaders ) in 1676 : ten 4-pounders ( caliber 8.5 cm), two 3-pounders (caliber 8.2 cm) and three 2-pounders (caliber 6.1 cm). The crew numbered 50 to 100 men. Pillau was probably the home port around 1680 , and Emden probably in 1684 .
description
As far as is known and as far as can be inferred from the only known contemporary illustration (see below), the Berlin was built according to the Dutch model. The transom was blue. In the middle of the mirror was the city coat of arms of Berlin, a black bear in a white field, above the Kurhut in red and gold with ermine trimmings .
history
The Berlin was built in 1674 in the Dutch province of Zeeland . It was put into service in the summer of 1675. The commandant was the Dutch captain Cornelius Reers from 1675 to 1679 . Already in September 1675 it was used on the Unterweser as part of the Swedish-Brandenburg War against the Swedish fortress Karlsburg , which was located in what is now the city of Bremerhaven . In November, the frigate followed North Sea vain the French Kapers La Royale de Dunquerque who, after Hamburg escaped. Out of consideration for France, the Hanseatic city did not hand over the ship, but paid Elector Friedrich Wilhelm compensation for the lost booty.
From mid-May 1676, the Berlin was in action against Sweden in the Baltic Sea . On June 4th, she conquered the Swedish Brander Leopard (22 cannons) and Diederik (4 cannons) together with the King of Spain and Galiot Cleve . Unclear when, the Berlin took the war galiot Maria (4 cannons), who carried out the postal service between Sweden and the then Swedish Stralsund . On August 2, 1677, the war galiot Enhorn (12 cannons) brought them up.
On September 23, 1678, as part of the invasion of Rügen with Brandenburg and Danish units, it covered the transition of the Brandenburg troops from Peenemünde to Rügen . In October / November she took part in the conquest of the Swedish cities of Stralsund and Greifswald .
In 1679 it operated with five other units in the North Sea to collect outstanding aid money from Hamburg. Several Hamburg merchant ships were brought up and auctioned in Copenhagen . Hamburg finally paid the aid amounting to 125,000 thalers .
On August 14, 1680, the Berlin left Pillau under Captain Claes Sibrantz (German: Klaus Sybrandts) as part of Claus von Bevern's squadron . The aim was the pirate war against Spanish ships in Western European waters. At that time the frigate had a crew of 50 men and 16 cannons. In addition, 20 soldiers from the Kurprinz regiment were de facto embarked as informal marine infantry : 1 ensign , 1 non-commissioned officer , 1 drum and 17 musketeers . (Petsch, p. 30) On September 18, the frigate took part in the capture of the Spanish warship Carolus Secundus off Ostend , which was later put into service as Margrave of Brandenburg and was the largest unit of the Brandenburg fleet.
Subsequently, part of the association including the Berlin sailed under the command of the former captain of the Berlin , Cornelius Reers, to the Caribbean, where only three Spanish ships were taken. One of the prizes was sold in Port Royal , Jamaica , England .
In 1681 the frigate was back in Pillau. Her last military operation took place at the end of 1681, when she was supposed to capture Spanish ships in the Hoofden together with the Schnauen Falke and St. Johann Batist . Due to the small amount of booty, the company was closed.
Nothing is known about the period of service from 1682 to 1684. In 1684 the ship was in Emden . It is unclear when Berlin was transferred to the Brandenburg-African Company. In 1687 she traveled from Emden to West Africa . On January 7, 1688, it was confiscated by the Dutch West India Company (WIC) near Fida on the coast of Guinea because it was allegedly wrongly equipped in the Netherlands. The final fate is so far unknown (as of 2018), but it cannot be ruled out that the process is documented in the WIC archive.
Pictorial representation
In contrast to most ships of the early modern period, there is a contemporary image of the Berlin . She is shown together with other units of the Brandenburg fleet in a painting by the Dutch marine painter Lieve Verschuier from 1684. The Berlin is shown in the background on the left in a rear view.
In the early 2000s, the marine painter Olaf Rahardt made a painting that depicts Berlin around 1680 in front of Port Royal / Jamaica.
literature
- Hans Szymanski: Brandenburg-Prussia at sea 1605 to 1815. Leipzig 1939.
- Hans Szymanski: Frigate "Berlin" 1674. In: Lothar Eich (ed.): Cracks of ships of the 16th and 17th centuries. 5th edition Rostock (VEB Hinstorff Verlag) 1979, p. 39f.
- Kurt Petsch: Seafaring for Brandenburg-Prussia 1650-1815. History of Naval Battles, Overseas Offices and State Trading Companies. Osnabrück (Biblio-Verlag) 1986. ISBN 3-7648-1192-7