HDMS Kronprindsens Lystfregat (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 |
| Fate: | Sold August 1818 |
| General characteristics [1] | |
| Class & type: | Royal yacht |
| Tons burthen: | 218 (bm); 220 by calculation |
| Length: |
|
| 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] |
HDMS Kronprindsens Lystfregat was a yacht launched in Britain in 1785. King George III gave it to his nephew, the Crown Prince of Denmark. Kronprindsens Lystfregat cost £10,347 to build and furnish.[1]
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. The Danes, in a gesture of contempt, manned her with a crew of 17 captured British sailors, put one of them in charge, and sent her back to Britain.
The Royal Navy took her into service as the royal yacht, HMS Prince Frederick. On 25 July 1816 the Admiralty registered her as a third rate and renamed the yacht HMS Princess Augusta.[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.
Footnotes
- Notes
- ↑ 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 2 3 4 5 Winfield (2008), p.400.
- 1 2 record card at the Danish Orlogsmuseet
- ↑ The London Gazette: no. 17385. p. 1400. 4 August 1818.
References
- Winfield, Rif (2008). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth. ISBN 1-86176-246-1.