DK: Christian den Syvende (90 guns), 1803-1838

The second ship to bear the name of Christian VII, this Second Rate was hastily constructed as part of the Danes' effort to replace the fleet lost to the British at the First Battle of Copenhagen. She was captured by the Royal Navy at the Second Battle of Copenhagen and entered service as Christian VII.

Her unusual stern is a hallmark of her designer, Frantz Hohlenberg, a rather revolutionary shipwright.

This model includes printable masts, yardarms, sails, staysails, boats/launches, fighting tops, an anchor and custom bases and nameplates.

Two files are included, with one being intended for resin printing alongside a "chunkier" FDM variant.

The ship's predecessor, Christian den Svyende (1767) was refitted as a 52 gun Fourth Rate in 1799 and renamed "Provesteen" before being lost at the First Battle of Copenhagen in 1801.

The danger of a colonial nation, positioned on a continent engulfed by war, with extensive trade interests and no fleet to protect them was not lost on the Danes and they immediately began rapidly rebuilding new ships.

Christian den Svyende (1803) was a part of this effort and one of the four ships-of-the-line that would be built by Frantz Hohlenberg.

She is notable for her stern, which possesses only a balcony and no galleries. Hohlenberg's intention with this design, which allows the hull to rapidly narrow toward the stern, was to strengthen the stern and make it more difficult for the ship to be raked.

This had first been tried on another of his ships, Norge, which was even more radical; the vessel's stern only had one deck with windows and the poop deck was entirely removed. This was very unpopular with naval officers, however, who resented the lack of space and light the new design afforded them. Additionally, it was felt that the absence of a poop deck hindered visibility.

Christian VII therefore represented a compromise between shipbuilders' desires to innovate and economise versus naval officers' wishes for comfort, functionality and tradition. Later Danish ships, under succeeding shipbuilders, would go back to Hohlenberg's initial radical approach, again removing poop decks, windows and external cabins.

The ship's Danish career was regrettably short. She was present at Copenhagen in 1807 and was one of only four ships-of-the-line, out of the fifteen captured, that were added to the Royal Navy.

She was decommissioned in 1834 prior to being broken up in 1838.
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Christian VII (1803) 1.05.zip50.0 MiB2024-02-28