HDMS Kronprindsens Lystfregat (1785)

HDMS Kronprindsens Lystfregat (literally, "the crown prince's pleasure frigate") was a yacht launched in Britain in 1785. George III gave it to his nephew Frederick, the Crown Prince of Denmark. Kronprindsens Lystfregat cost £10,347 to build and furnish.[1]

The Prince of Denmark's Yacht (fl.1785)
History
Denmark-Norway
Name: Kronprindsens Lystfregat ("Crown Prince's Pleasure Yacht")
Builder: M/Shipwright Adam Hayes, Deptford Dockyard[1]
Laid down: March 1785
Launched: 20 August 1785
Acquired: By gift
Commissioned: 4 October 1785 (sailed for Denmark)[1]
Fate: Given back to the British after the Battle of Copenhagen
United Kingdom
Name: Prince Frederick
Acquired: Gift from Denmark in 1807
Renamed: HMS Princess Augusta in 1816
Fate: Sold August 1818
General characteristics [1]
Class and type: Royal yacht
Tons burthen: 218 (bm); 220 by calculation
Length:
  • 89 ft 5 in (27.25 m) (gundeck)
  • 74 ft 10 1⁄4 in (22.816 m)(keel)
Beam: 23 ft 6 in (7.16 m)
Depth of hold: 10 ft 0 in (3.05 m)
Complement: 59 officers and crew (Danish service)[2]
Armament: 10 × 4-pounder guns (Danish service)[2]
For other ships with the same name, see HMS Princess Augusta.

Then in 1807 Britain attacked Copenhagen. After their victory, the British took whatever vessels they hadn't destroyed, but made a conscious and conspicuous exception of Kronprindsens Lystfregat. In a gesture of contempt, the Danes manned her with a crew of 17 captured British sailors, put one of them in command and sent her back to Britain.

The Royal Navy took her into service as the royal yacht, HMS Prince Frederick, succeeding a previous ship of that name - it is unclear whether in the yacht's case this was after George's nephew, father or second son, all called Frederick. On 25 July 1816 the Admiralty registered her as a third rate and renamed the yacht HMS Princess Augusta after Augusta, George's second daughter.[Note 1] Captain Thomas Hardy commanded Prince Frederick/Princess Augusta for three years prior to her sale.

The Admiralty put her and her predecessor, also named Princess Augusta, up for sale and sold her to Thomas Pittman on 13 August 1818 for £500.[3][1] It is not clear that she got much use, either in Denmark or the United Kingdom.

Notes, citations, and references

Notes

  1. Re-rating Princess Augusta as a third rate meant her commander would be a post captain. This in turn gave the Royal Navy a post that it could offer to senior captains as a sinecure.

Citations

  1. Winfield (2008), p.400.
  2. Balsved's Danish Naval History website
  3. "No. 17385". The London Gazette. 4 August 1818. p. 1400.

References

  • Winfield, Rif (2008). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth. ISBN 1-86176-246-1.
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