Wapen of Hamburg (1722)


Modern model of the Wapen of Hamburg (III).
Ship data
Surname:	Wapen of Hamburg (III)
Builder:	Hamburg
Launching ( ship christening ):	1722
Crew:	135 sailors
Technical specifications
Type:	Convoy ship , two-decker
Length over all:	approx. 50 m
Width:	approx. 14.5 m
Drive:	sail
Draft:	5.5 m
Armament ( cannons )
18 pounder	6th
12 pounder:	16
8 pounder:	26th
3 pounder:	4th
Total:	52 cannons (up to max. 60)

The Wapen von Hamburg (III) from 1722 was a Hamburg convoy ship. It was commissioned by the Hamburg Admiralty and the Hamburg Merchants' Union and had the task of accompanying ship convoys to Hamburg's overseas trading partners and protecting them from enemy attacks or attacks by corsairs or pirates .

Historical background

Hamburg and the mouth of the Elbe around 1721

Arctic whaling in the 17th century

This slave figure was intended to draw attention to the fate of enslaved Hamburg seamen and thus stimulate the citizens' willingness to donate in order to buy them out.

After the power fall of the Hanseatic League in the 16th century, Hamburg gained increasing economic importance. Due to immigration and the associated gain in trading partners, the Free Imperial City of Hamburg grew in the middle of the 17th century, alongside London and Amsterdam, to become one of the most important urban trading centers, today quite comparable to a global city , whose trading relationships stretch from Greenland to the Middle and White The sea . The most important starting points were the Iberian Peninsula , England , the Netherlands , the northern Arctic Ocean (with reference to whaling) and Arkhangelsk .

The expansion of the trading areas as well as the violent expansion of the sphere of influence of Christianity, especially in the Mediterranean area, inevitably led to confrontations, which ultimately also resulted in loss-making attacks by Muslim corsairs . These operated with their ships from the barbarian states and hit the heavy and often almost defenseless merchant convoys, usually consisting of 20 to 50 merchant ships . Even equipping merchant ships with cannons (so-called armed merchant ships) could not do much to change this, as the cargo-related clumsiness remained. The ships were taken as prizes , the cargoes confiscated, and the ship's crews were often enslaved or imprisoned under the worst conditions until a ransom was paid. In order to buy back their captains and helmsmen who had been captured, skippers and helmsmen set up the "Casse of the Pieces of Eighth", a ransom insurance that served as the basis for ransom payments. So that those who could not afford contributions to this insurance could also be bought back, the slave fund was founded in 1623 , which consisted of compulsory contributions from shipowners and crews as well as grants from government organizations and the admiralty tax. Since the funds were insufficient, collecting basins were also set up in the churches and house collections were organized.

In the course of the 17th century the corsairs even expanded their radius of operation from the Mediterranean via Gibraltar and the English Channel to the mouth of the Elbe , after England, France and the Netherlands tried from 1665 to 1687 to counter the raids with punitive expeditions , as these nations also joined had to fight sensitive losses from corsair attacks. As a result of the expansion of the area of operations of the corsairs, the supply of Hamburg by sea sometimes came to a standstill, so that at times there were even goods bottlenecks in the city. In addition, more and more Christian warring nations became an economic problem for Hamburg. → see the main articles:

For example, France sent more privateers from Dunkirk to intercept the Hamburg and Dutch Greenlanders who transported goods from whale and seal fishing and processed them in Hamburg. Other affected parties such as the Netherlands , England , France, Norway , Denmark , but also the Hanseatic city of Bremen and Brandenburg-Prussia had to struggle with piracy problems on their trade routes and, as a countermeasure, granted their traders escort by accompanying the merchant convoys with warships .

Hamburg's rulers wanted to secure their important position in international trade as sustainably as possible and thus decided to protect their merchant convoys as well and to organize an escort by the so-called convoy ships ("convoyers"). In 1623 the Hamburg Admiralty was founded, which was responsible for the construction, equipment and maintenance of these ships. In 1665 merchants and boatmen finally founded the Commerzdeputation , whose task it was to follow the needs of traders for more security on the trade routes and to organize appropriate support. In fact, it was over 40 years after the establishment of the Admiralty that the construction of the first ships was decided and actually carried out. The main reason for this was disagreement over the financing of the "convoyer" and their maintenance. In the course of time, not least influenced by the constant arrests of Hamburg merchant ship crews by corsairs and the associated immense economic losses for individual merchants, those responsible finally saw themselves forced to find a financial consensus and to carry out the construction in order to prevent such attacks in the future.

Since Hamburg always tried in the 17th and 18th centuries to keep itself and its inhabitants out of armed conflicts that were harmful to trade and to take a position as neutral as possible towards conflicting parties, the term "warship" was expressly avoided. Instead, the designation "Konvoischiff" or "Stadtkonvoischiff" was officially used, which was supposed to designate a more passive type of ship designed for defense than attack. In fact, however, these ships can be called warships , as they were primarily designed to carry weapons. In terms of firepower, however, they could not keep up with the warships of the sea powers .

The convoy ships were thus warships with permanent escort orders, which protected the Hamburg convoy shipping from 1669 to 1747 and ensured trade to and from Hamburg and thus sustainably secured Hamburg's position as a trading metropolis.

Emergence

The Wapen von Hamburg (III) from 1722 was the third convoy ship with this name and replaced its predecessor, the Wapen von Hamburg (II) after 32 years of service and 25 convoy journeys, as the Hamburg treasury no longer approve the necessary repairs wanted to. The old ship was still seaworthy , but the repairs would have meant an increase in draft at the same time . They did not want to accept this, as it was discovered at the same time that the Elbe was getting shallower and in particular the Altonaer Sand, a shoal in the Elbe, posed a danger for ships with a deep draft. As a result, it was decided on March 31, 1719 to dismantle the old ship.

The elaborately decorated transom

The new Wapen von Hamburg (III) was designed by master shipbuilders Jacob Mencke and Gerd Gerdsen jr. designed and finally built by Mencke in a shipyard in Hamburg. Mencke decided to break with the previous Dutch building tradition of the predecessor ships and instead orientated himself on English construction models. The Hamburg Commerzdeputation made Mencke an obligation to construct a ship with a shallower draft so that she could easily pass the previously described shallows of the Elbe. The English method of construction spoke against this requirement, which resulted in a fundamentally greater depth. Mencke ignored this fact, was able to convince his client of the structural advantages of the English building method and put his ideas of the new "convoyer" into practice.

The ship was completed on July 18, 1722 and presented to the general public. The acceptance took place on September 5, 1722 by the convoy owner Beckhoff and his convoy college.

Construction details

The sculptor Johann Christopher von der Heide was assigned the artistic design of the transom and the galion of the new Wapen von Hamburg (III) with carving .

The richly decorated with gold transom contained a main between the windows fries , the Poseidon had on the subject and by numerous pilasters with intricately carved capitals were arranged harmoniously. In addition, the Great State Coat of Arms , the Hamburg coat of arms held by two lions, was attached to the upper transom area. This Hamburg coat of arms was later replaced by the coat of arms of the captain family Tamm.

Starboard side gallery

The Scheg with Poseidon as figurehead

The entire stern was optically supported by two eagle wings. As a figurehead carved von der Heide a bearded Poseidon bust that still further Beifiguren as dolphins and snail horns blowing Tritons was surrounded and thus antique style elements and allegories took up.

The hull tapered towards the stern and the palatial, two-storey baroque stern architecture looked like it had been pushed into the hull. To the side of the ship's stern were the windowed side galleries , which even from the cabin allowed a view towards the bow . The captain's cabin and the officers' cabin below were also integrated into the transom . Above the cabins and the Hamburg coat of arms, three large stern lights were attached, which rounded off the traditional appearance of the stern area.

The Wapen von Hamburg (III) was rigged with the three-masted Rahtakelage for large ships (according to today's parlance as a full ship ). On the mizzen mast the ship still had a latin sail . A blind person could also be seated at the bowsprit . On the tip of the bowsprit there was also a Mars and another small mast, the Sprietmast, on which a small square sail, the upper blind (Bouvenblinde), could also be set.

The hull was planked in the Kraweel construction including the bulwark .

The ship was armed with 52 to 60 cannons, with the heavier calibers (18 and 12 pounders) on the lower and the lighter (8 and 3 pounders) on the upper battery deck and the superstructure. The cannons were usually imported from the Netherlands or Sweden.

In order to counter the progressive flattening of the Elbe , the ship was originally supposed to be constructed in such a way that it had a draft of only ten feet. Due to the high number of cannons and due to the British design, the ship had a considerably larger draft, which led to problems.

period of service

Starboard bow view

The Wapen von Hamburg (III) , commanded by Captain Martin Tamm , was in active convoid service for only two years. During this time she only made two convoy trips, which in both cases led the ship to the Iberian Peninsula .

The short period of use had several reasons:

Apparently, shipbuilder Mencke had designed the draft so tight that the new ship had multiple contact with the Elbe river during its service. Due to structural conditions and the high number of cannons and the associated weight, the ship had to wait for an above-average high tide due to the considerably higher draft than 10 feet in order to be able to pass the Elbe without running aground. So there was always the risk of losing the ship in unfavorable conditions. The Wapen of Hamburg (III) to send with fewer guns on the journey would indeed have been an alternative, but the most fundamental purpose contradicted a convoy ship.

The extremely limited operational capability of the ship due to the too high draft led to a considerable dispute over the shipbuilding skills of Mencke, who was ultimately denied permission to build the commissioned successor Wapen von Hamburg (IV) .

View of the outside deck

There was also the fact that Great Britain, like some other nations, was able to agree with the corsairs and their clients on tribute payments and thus on the unmolested voyage of their merchant ships . Even if Hamburg ships joined a British convoy, they were not necessarily protected and were occasionally attacked, while contractually protected ships were partially spared. Hamburg could not show such a pact, so that from now on many merchandise no longer with Hamburg convoys, but z. B. were transported with English ships, which were largely safe from attacks by the corsairs thanks to the permits they carried with them (so-called Turkish passports). Since hardly any goods were transported on Hamburg ships, there were also no convoys to accompany, as this failure inevitably also eliminated the need for protection.

The Wapen von Hamburg (III) was moored in the Port of Hamburg in 1724 and was waiting for new convoy orders.

Since this did not happen at first and the low-salt Elbe water would damage the ship's hull sooner or later, the Hamburg Admiralty decided to sell the ship for more than possible. Spain showed interest, so the ship should finally be transferred. However, off the Dutch coast it was badly damaged in a severe storm and had to call at the port of Hamburg again for repair work.

German youth postage stamp depicting the Wapen of Hamburg (III)

Here it was finally to be sold for 100,000 marks Courant - but no buyer was found for this price.

In addition, the Admiralty disputed with the city council about a new convoy ship, so that the sale should only take place when a replacement was available.

The Wapen von Hamburg (III) thus acted as a floating battery in front of the Johannis bollwerk .

It was not until 15 years after its commissioning that the warring parties agreed on the acquisition of a new convoy ship, so that the Wapen von Hamburg (III) could finally be sold to a Hamburg consortium in 1737 - well below the targeted price and only after several costly repairs.

After the sale, the ship was converted into an armed merchant ship and there is evidence that it was active in this function until 1757.

In total there were four convoy ships with the name Wapen von Hamburg , which worked for the city of Hamburg from 1669 to 1747 until the convoy escort by convoy ships was discontinued.

Remarks

↑ This model in the International Maritime Museum in Hamburg was based on the example of the old model in the Museum of Hamburg History.
↑ In sources and secondary literature, some of Hamburg's convoy ships are sometimes referred to as frigates , even if the ships were relatively large two-deckers (that is, two gun decks). But they were not frigates in the newer sense of the type of lighter, very seaworthy warships with only one gun deck introduced from the middle of the 18th century. In the 17th and first half of the 18th century the term "frigate" was used for a number of different types of ships, so that many ships from very small "single decks" to relatively large "double deckers" could be called this.
↑ In some sources / literature and in more modern usage, the first ship Wapen von Hamburg (I) was also called "Wappen von Hamburg", but in some documents from that time it was also called "Das Wapen von Hamburg"; Accordingly, the spelling "Wapen" is historically correct, which also applies to the successors
↑ In June 1662, shortly before the Commerzdeputation was founded, eight armed Hamburg drivers and goods were captured from just two barbarian galleys . This hijacking ultimately caused economic damage of around 1.5 million Courantmarks for the Hamburg merchants.
↑ In its writings, the city council sometimes referred to the ships as "Orlog" ships, that is to say warships. The Admiralty as well as the merchants asserted externally that the ships would always serve the protection and defense of merchant goods and were not commissioned for acts of war in Hamburg.
↑ In the times when the ships were in Hamburg at roadstead and waiting for new convoy orders, some of the guns were brought into the convoy arsenal and used to defend the city on the city walls if necessary. Towards the end of the Hamburg convoy, however, the guns mostly remained on the ships, so that the entire ship could then be used as a floating battery / guard ship for port-side defense / security
↑ The Museum für Hamburgische Geschichte names the shipbuilder on an information board as Jakob Mencken, so that this spelling also seems conceivable. In the following, however, the spelling of the majority of the literature will continue to be used.
↑ In particular because of the good quality and good infrastructure for transporting Swedish artillery, the Hamburg Admiralty was prepared to accept longer transport routes. After initial quality deficiencies, Swedish cannons were successfully manufactured according to Dutch know-how, so that Sweden became one of the leading arms manufacturers in Europe from 1639 onwards. In 1668 a total of 1,346 cannons left the Swedish manufactories on the export route (to Mondfeld / Bayerlein / Klingenbrunn, p. 170 and Cipolla, p. 61 ff.)
↑ At that time it was common in Hamburg to buy into the role of captain. In addition to numerous advocates, the applicant had to have a not insignificant amount of money to be able to take up a position. A captain of a convoy ship was paid 150 thalers a month , so it took a certain amount of time before the work was amortized. The selection of the captains was made by the convoy college. A convoy ship captain received a fixed salary and pension for life.
↑ These so-called Turkish passports, however, did not necessarily guarantee the integrity. On paper, the merchant ships gained safe conduct, but some corsairs did not adhere to the agreements and still hijacked the ships or demanded a special tribute. As a result, between 1665 and 1687, the nations of England, the Netherlands and France carried out punitive expeditions in order to enforce compliance with the contractual obligations.
↑ Page no longer available , search in web archives: One source states that the tea-laden ship coming from India is said to have stranded off the coast of Dhofar in ( Oman ) in 1796 . This statement has not been proven in other literature.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.hk24.de

literature

Kurt Grobecker: Hamburg's proud frigates against the corsairs - convoy ship (f) is sailing in the 17th century. Medien-Verlag Schubert, Hamburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-937843-12-4
Jörgen Bracker: Hamburg Portrait 1/76, Wapen von Hamburg (III)… a floating baroque palace. Museum of Hamburg History, Dingwort Verlag, Hamburg-Altona 1976.
Jörgen Bracker: God's friend - the world's enemy / From piracy and convoy travel / Störtebeker and the consequences. Zertani printing and publishing house, Bremen 2001, ISBN 3-9805772-5-2
Wolfgang Quinger: "Coat of Arms of Hamburg" I. A 17th century convoy ship . Delius Klasing Verlag, Hamburg 1980, ISBN 3768803295 , ISBN 978-3768803298
Werner von Melle: Karpfanger, Berend Jacobsen (1623-1683) Hamburg sea captain and admiral. Biography. General German Biography Volume 15, 1882
Georg Dietrich von der Groeben : Explanations on understanding shipping and naval warfare according to alphabetical order , Breßlau 1774. Reprint of the original edition: Neufahrn / Percha 1984, ISBN 3-88706-235-3
Carlo M. Cipolla: Sails and Cannons - The European Expansion at Sea. Verlag Klaus Wagenbach, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-8031-3602-4
W. zu Mondfeld, A. Bayerlein, M. Klingenbrunn: Ship guns 1350-1870. Volume 1, Herford 1988
Herman Langenbeck: Comments on the Hamburg ship and sea law. Hamburg 1727
Klaus Weber: German merchants in the Atlantic trade, 1680-1830, companies and families in Hamburg, Cádiz and Bordeaux. CH Beck, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-406-51860-5
Carl W. Reinhold, Georg Nikolaus Bärmann: Hamburg chronicle of the development of the city up to our days. Hamburg 1820
Peter Hessel: Heart-flowing considerations / From the Elbe river. Altona 1675

Web links

[1] This model in the International Maritime Museum in Hamburg was based on the example of the old model in the Museum of Hamburg History.

[2] In sources and secondary literature, some of Hamburg's convoy ships are sometimes referred to as frigates , even if the ships were relatively large two-deckers (that is, two gun decks). But they were not frigates in the newer sense of the type of lighter, very seaworthy warships with only one gun deck introduced from the middle of the 18th century. In the 17th and first half of the 18th century the term "frigate" was used for a number of different types of ships, so that many ships from very small "single decks" to relatively large "double deckers" could be called this.

[3] In some sources / literature and in more modern usage, the first ship Wapen von Hamburg (I) was also called "Wappen von Hamburg", but in some documents from that time it was also called "Das Wapen von Hamburg"; Accordingly, the spelling "Wapen" is historically correct, which also applies to the successors

[4] In June 1662, shortly before the Commerzdeputation was founded, eight armed Hamburg drivers and goods were captured from just two barbarian galleys . This hijacking ultimately caused economic damage of around 1.5 million Courantmarks for the Hamburg merchants.

[5] In its writings, the city council sometimes referred to the ships as "Orlog" ships, that is to say warships. The Admiralty as well as the merchants asserted externally that the ships would always serve the protection and defense of merchant goods and were not commissioned for acts of war in Hamburg.

[6] In the times when the ships were in Hamburg at roadstead and waiting for new convoy orders, some of the guns were brought into the convoy arsenal and used to defend the city on the city walls if necessary. Towards the end of the Hamburg convoy, however, the guns mostly remained on the ships, so that the entire ship could then be used as a floating battery / guard ship for port-side defense / security

[7] The Museum für Hamburgische Geschichte names the shipbuilder on an information board as Jakob Mencken, so that this spelling also seems conceivable. In the following, however, the spelling of the majority of the literature will continue to be used.

[8] In particular because of the good quality and good infrastructure for transporting Swedish artillery, the Hamburg Admiralty was prepared to accept longer transport routes. After initial quality deficiencies, Swedish cannons were successfully manufactured according to Dutch know-how, so that Sweden became one of the leading arms manufacturers in Europe from 1639 onwards. In 1668 a total of 1,346 cannons left the Swedish manufactories on the export route (to Mondfeld / Bayerlein / Klingenbrunn, p. 170 and Cipolla, p. 61 ff.)

[9] At that time it was common in Hamburg to buy into the role of captain. In addition to numerous advocates, the applicant had to have a not insignificant amount of money to be able to take up a position. A captain of a convoy ship was paid 150 thalers a month , so it took a certain amount of time before the work was amortized. The selection of the captains was made by the convoy college. A convoy ship captain received a fixed salary and pension for life.

[10] These so-called Turkish passports, however, did not necessarily guarantee the integrity. On paper, the merchant ships gained safe conduct, but some corsairs did not adhere to the agreements and still hijacked the ships or demanded a special tribute. As a result, between 1665 and 1687, the nations of England, the Netherlands and France carried out punitive expeditions in order to enforce compliance with the contractual obligations.

[11] Page no longer available , search in web archives: One source states that the tea-laden ship coming from India is said to have stranded off the coast of Dhofar in ( Oman ) in 1796 . This statement has not been proven in other literature.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.hk24.de