PIZ coke’s TRAVELS IN DENMARK -,

Navy. From their infular fituation, the Danes have always excelled as a maritime-people. In the earlier ages, when piracy was an honourable profeflion, they were arace of pirates, and iffued from the Baltic to the conqueft of England and Normandy .And though, fmce the improvement of navigation by the invention of the compafs,other nations have rifcn to a greater degree of naval eminence, dill, however, theDanes, inhabiting a duller of iflands, and poffeffmg a large trad of fea-coaft, are wellverfed in maritime affairs, and are the moll numerous, as well as the moll experiencedfailors of the North. During my flay at Copenhagen 1 vifited the dock, and iufpedted,with great attention, the fleet at anchor in the harbour.

The expence of building the hulk of each fhip amounted to 200I. per gun, and toI oool. when the veil'd is completely rigged, and ready to fail, with four months’ pro-vifions. The greater part of the oak is procured from Germany by contra.cl with theKing of Pruffia *. Ail the cannon, (hot, anchors and iron-work, are call in Norway .The Danes procure flax, hemp, and mafts from Ruflia, and pitch and tar from Sweden ;they have manufactories of cordage and fails, but not fufficient for the ufe of the fleet:the remainder is obtained from Ruflia and Holland.

The greater part of the Danilh navy is llationed in the harbour of Copenhagen ,which lies within the fortifications : the depth of water being only twenty-feet, theIhips have not their lower tier of guns on board, but take them in when they get outof port. Befides large magazines, each veffel has a feparate dorehoufe on the water’sedge, oppofite to which Are is moored when in harbour, and may by this means be in-llantly equipped. The number of regiftered feamen is fourteen thoufand fix hundred,divided into two claffes ; the firft comprifes thofe inhabiting the coafts, who are allow-ed to engage in the fervice /of merchantdhips trading to any part of the world. Eachreceives 8s. annually from the crown as long as he fends a certificate of his being alive;but is fubjefl to cecal in cafe of war. The fecond comprehends the fixed failors, whoare condantly in the employ of the crown, and amount to about four thoufand, rangedin four divifions, or forty companies : they are ftationed at Copenhagen for the ordinaryfervice of the navy, and work in the dock-yard. Each, when not at fea, receives 12s.per month, befide a quantity of flour and other provifions; every two years a completeiu.it of clothes, and every year breeches, (lockings, {hoes, and a cap. Some are lodgedin barracks. When they fail their pay is augmented to 20s. per month. The marineartillery confidsof eight hundred men, in four divifions.

In 1779 the navy.confided of thirty-eight fhips of the line, including nine of fiftyguns and one of forty-four, and twenty frigates ; but if we except thofe which are con-demned, and thofe which are allotted only for parade, we cannot eflimate the fleet fohigh as twenty-four {hips of the line, and fifteen frigates, fit for fervice: a number,however, fully adequate to the fituation of Denmark ; and, if we include the excellenceof the failors, it mull be edeemed as complete a navy as any in the North f.

A {hip of ninety guns, with its full complement, carries eight hundred and fifty men,of feventy guns feven hundred, of fixty four guns fix hundred, of fifty guns four hun-dred and fifty, and a frigate of thirty-fix guns two hundred and fifty. ' Mod part of this

* Holftein produces xiaks, but not a fufficient quantity; aud they are preferved in cafe of extreme ne-.ceffity.

-j- The author of the Voyage de Deux Francois, gives the ftate of the Danifh navy in 1791. It differslittle, as to number, from the lift in the Appendix to this volume ; and confifts of one fhip of ninety guns ;two of eighty : ten of feventy four; five of feventy ; fix of fixty-four; three of fixty ; and three of fifty ;befides five old men of war, with eighteen frigates from forty two to twenty guns. Of this numbertwelve flops of the line, and feven frigates were built lince 1774—Voyage de Deux Francois, vol. i p. 84.

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