Wapen of Hamburg (1740)


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Ship data
Surname:	Wapen of Hamburg (IV)
Builder:	Grasbrook, Hamburg
Launching ( ship christening ):	October 25, 1740
Crew:	up to 300 (officer and crew grades as well as soldiers)
Technical specifications
Type:	Convoy ship ; Two-decker
Length over all:	m
Width:	m
Drive:	sail
Draft:	m
Armament:	50 cannons

The Wapen von Hamburg (IV) from 1740 is a frigate that sailed under the Hamburg flag and was called a convoy ship . It was commissioned by the Hamburg Admiralty and the Hamburg Trade 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. This ship marked the end of Hamburg's convoy shipping.

Historical background

Hamburg around 1750

Arctic whaling in the 18th century

Whaling off Greenland in the 18th century

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 Hamburggrew in themiddle 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 points of contact were the Iberian Peninsula , England , the Arctic Ocean (with reference to whaling) and Arkhangelsk . The expansion of the trade 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 led to 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 . 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 called the “Casse of the Pieces of Eights” into being, 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 extended their radius of operation from the Mediterranean via Gibraltar and the English Channel to the mouth of the Elbe . As a result, the supply of Hamburg from sea routes partially stalled, 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.

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 escorting the trader convoys with frigates or 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 ships 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 in the 17th and 18th centuries always tried to keep itself and its residents 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 official designation “Konvoischiff” or “Stadtkonvoischiff” was 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 frigates that protected Hamburg's convoy shipping from 1669 to 1747 and ensured trade to and from Hamburg, thus securing Hamburg's position as a trading metropolis in the long term.

construction

Since the Hamburg Admiralty acquired considerably smaller ships for representation purposes only after the Wapen von Hamburg (IV) , it is assumed that the Wapen von Hamburg (IV) was a two-decker like its predecessor .

The ship was a square sail with three masts ( mizzen mast , main mast and foremast ). Only on the mizzen mast was there a latin sail in the lowest position (undersan sail) . In addition, the blind could be seated at the bowsprit . At the bowsprit there was a Mars , on which a bowsprit mast was installed, on which the upper blind (Bouvenblinde) could be set.

When designing the ship, care had to be taken to ensure that it did not have an excessive draft, as otherwise the shallows of the Elbe, especially the Altonaer Sand, could not pass safely.

The Wapen von Hamburg (IV) ended in the stern area with a smooth transom . The large state coat of arms of Hamburg , an image of the castle in the form of a shield - held by two lions - was installed as a central eye-catcher and representative carving on the transom . Traditionally, the appearance of the transom ended above the upper frieze with three large stern lights.

The hull was planked in the Kraweel construction including the bulwark , which, in contrast to the clinker construction, was characterized by a relatively flat surface.

The Wapen von Hamburg (IV) was equipped with approx. 50 cannons , with the heavier calibers positioned on the lower weapon deck. The ship had more gun ports than guns, so that the armament and a possible payload could be handled more flexibly. At that time, these cannons were still provided with a balje , a water vessel that the operating team used to cool the pipes inside and out with appropriate wipers and plugs.

The cannons were usually imported from the Netherlands or Sweden.

history

The Wapen von Hamburg (IV) from 1740 is the fourth and last convoy ship with this name. It is also the last ship to perform convoy service in Hamburg.

Between 1729 and 1745 the Hamburg Admiralty stopped all convoy travel. In 1739, after war broke out between Spain and England, convoy shipping was discussed again in Hamburg and finally reactivated by commissioning a new ship. On October 25, 1740 was finally Wapen from Hamburg (IV) in the shipyard at Grasbrook in Hamburg from pile left by the Hamburg shipbuilder Michael Iven (* 1686 - † 1773) was built. He replaced the established master shipbuilder Mencke, who had built the predecessor Wapen von Hamburg (III) and who had fallen out of favor with his clients because of non-compliance with construction requirements for the predecessor ship and was exposed to great criticism.

The Ritzebüttel office in Cuxhaven - a Hamburg exclave

In 1741 it was equipped with cannons , but the new ship was initially misappropriated and moored in the port of Hamburg as a guard ship to protect the city from the waterside, instead of going in convoy.

Since the little salty Elbe water quickly had a bad influence on the underwater hull, the Wapen from Hamburg (IV) had to be relocated to the Elbe estuary in 1743 . The Hamburg office of Ritzebüttel with its lands in what is now Cuxhaven was at that time a Hamburg office headed by a Hamburg bailiff - usually a senator - and a base against piracy and also offered a safe haven where the ship could be moored. Since it was believed that the salty water of the North Sea off Ritzebüttel could conserve the hull, the ship initially remained in this Hamburg exclave .

On September 2, 1746, the Wapen was ordered from Hamburg (IV) on the first and last convoy trip in the direction of Spain and the Mediterranean .

At that time, the ship's captain was Joachim Wilhelm Brockes .

As it turned out, however, the ship was quite sluggish and therefore hardly suitable for attacking or fighting the agile and fast ships of the pirates, so that the function of the ship was actually limited to military deterrence .

On August 28, 1747, the Wapen of Hamburg (IV) reached home waters again and sailed up the Elbe . When she arrived in Hamburg, she was moored again and was supposed to herald the end of the city convoy here. Instead of continuing to protect convoys, it could only be kept in the port as a guard ship and Hamburg landmark. It was allowed to be visited by guests of the city, and some services were also held on it .

The state yacht built in England for Hamburg with 12 salute cannons, which together with some other yachts replaced the Wapen von Hamburg (IV) as the state ship

After almost 30 years as a guard ship, an appraisal by the campaign master took place in 1774. He found the trunk to be in a dangerously poor condition, so that services were not even allowed to be held on it. Apparently, the wood structure was progressively decomposed to such an extent that it had almost only a sponge-like strength, as an expert from the combing found at the time.

In 1777 the condition was already so bad that the ship could no longer even lie on the bank without endangering the surrounding ships, so that the hull was released for sale on November 19, 1777.

In the context of a public auction, the ship then brought in 3450 marks, despite its poor condition .

With the sale of the Wapen von Hamburg (IV) , the Hamburg Admiralty decided not to commission any further convoy ships; the cost-benefit factor was disproportionate, as there were hardly any convoys to protect.

In addition, Hamburg concluded trade agreements with France, so French corsair attacks did not materialize. Instead, French warships took over the protection of trade against the corsairs off their own coasts. Furthermore, peace treaties were concluded with the Algerians, which led to a toleration of trade.

Instead of a new convoy ship with full armament, several smaller ships were purchased which, as "state yachts", only fulfilled predominantly representative purposes.

literature

Kurt Grobecker: Hamburg's proud frigates against the corsairs - convoy shipping 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
Heinrich Reincke , Bernhard Schulze: The Hamburg convoy ship "Wapen von Hamburg" III. Model and history (messages from the Museum of Hamburg History, NF). Hamburg 1952
Georg Dietrich von der Groeben : Explanations for understanding shipping and naval warfare according to alphabetical order . Breßlau 1774.

Web links

Convoy system. Hamburg Chamber of Commerce

References and comments

↑ 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 described in this way.
↑ Shortly before the Commerzdeputation was founded, eight armed Hamburg drivers and their goods were captured from just two barbarian galleys . This hijacking ultimately caused economic damage of around 1.5 million Courantmarks for the Hamburg merchants.
↑ The city council occasionally referred to the ships in its writings as "Orlog" ships, meaning 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.
↑ The method of cooling cannon barrels with water was questioned from around 1794 onwards, as they could take structural damage as a result of cooling. For this reason, the Royal Navy in England first switched to stop cooling them.
↑ Because of the good quality of Swedish artillery and the good transport infrastructure, the Hamburg Admiralty was prepared to accept longer transport routes. After initial quality defects, Swedish cannons were 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.)
↑ A shipbuilder Joen is also mentioned in some literature sources.
↑ In some literature sources an operation against Turkish pirates in the Mediterranean is mentioned , in others an operation along the Iberian Peninsula .
↑ 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.
↑ Hamburg has apparently bought several state yachts. After a single-masted ship of Dutch construction was initially used in 1748, a yacht was commissioned in England, which was launched in 1787 and met Hamburg's demands after a model built in Hamburg turned out to be unusable.

[1] 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 described in this way.

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

[3] The city council occasionally referred to the ships in its writings as "Orlog" ships, meaning 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.

[4] The method of cooling cannon barrels with water was questioned from around 1794 onwards, as they could take structural damage as a result of cooling. For this reason, the Royal Navy in England first switched to stop cooling them.

[5] Because of the good quality of Swedish artillery and the good transport infrastructure, the Hamburg Admiralty was prepared to accept longer transport routes. After initial quality defects, Swedish cannons were 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.)

[6] A shipbuilder Joen is also mentioned in some literature sources.

[7] In some literature sources an operation against Turkish pirates in the Mediterranean is mentioned , in others an operation along the Iberian Peninsula .

[8] 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.

[9] Hamburg has apparently bought several state yachts. After a single-masted ship of Dutch construction was initially used in 1748, a yacht was commissioned in England, which was launched in 1787 and met Hamburg's demands after a model built in Hamburg turned out to be unusable.