Danish warship sunk by British admiral discovered

Copenhagen: Over 200 years after being sunk by Adm Horatio Nelson and the Briti­sh fleet, a Danish warship has been discovered on the seabed of Copenhagen Har-b-our by marine archaeologists.

Working in thick sediment and almost zero visibility 15 metres beneath the waves, divers are working against the clock to unearth the 19th-century wreck of the Dannebroge before it becomes a construction site in a new housing district being built off the Danish coast.

Denmark’s Viking Ship Museum, leading the monthslong underwater excavations, announced its findings on Thursday, 225 years to the day since the Battle of Copenhagen in 1801.

“It’s a big part of the Danish national feeling,” said Morten Johansen, the museum’s head of maritime archaeology.

A great deal has been written about the battle “by very enthusiastic spectators, but we actually don’t know how it was to be on board a ship being shot to pieces by English warships and some of that story we can probably learn from seeing the wreck", Johansen said.