Sunday 4 October 2015

The Danish Warship Tre Løver (Three Lions)

"Tre Løver" using Langton's Anglo-Dutch 1:200 range.

Returning this week to one of my favorite subjects, naval warfare.
I’m continuing the expansion of my Danish navy for the Scanian War, with the overall goal of representing the 3 squadrons of Danish admiral Niel Juel at a 1:4 ratio.

The Battle of Køge Bay.
A Danish Warship has caught fire.

Historically the squadrons contained around 12 warships, so with the 1:4 ratio, this means 3 model warships per squadron. With a total of three squadrons, that sets my goal at nine ships in total. 

Tre Løver, or Three Lions.
The Royal Danish Coat of Arms.

Nine models seems like a realistic target in terms of painting, but also a fair sized collection, enabling me to scale my games from the basic 2 player “squadron vs squadron” sized games, and up to games of 3 players per side, with each player commanding their own squadron.

Tre Løver (on the left) next to Churprindsen for size comparison.
She is a small but mean lady!

Based on the historical deployment of Niels Juel’s navy at the Battle of Køge Bay (probably the most prominent victory in Danish naval history), I’ve decided on the following ships for me three squadrons:


1. Squadron – Admiral Marquor Rodsten

Norske Løve (Eng; “Norwegian Lion”): crew 568 : guns 86

Fredericus Tertius: crew 260 : guns 52

Christianus Quartus: crew 272 : 54



2. Squadron – Admiral Niel Juel 

Christianus Quintus: crew 567 : guns 84

Churprindsen (Eng: “The Electoral Prince”): crew 454 : guns 74

Tre Løver (Eng: “Three Lions”): crew 286 : guns 58



3. Squadron – Admiral Jens Rodsten

Tre Croner (Eng: “Three Crowns): crew 420 : guns 68

Charlotta Amalia: crew 322 : guns 58

Gyldenløve (Eng: “Golden Lion”): crew 268: guns 56


With the addition of Tre Løver, I now have the complete 2. Squadron, commanded by Admiral Niels Juel. In the spirit of my blog, here is a short account of Tre Løver.

"The morning after"
Sailors are trying to salvage usable debris after the battle.



The warship Tre Løver

She was initially planned in 1656, just before the outbreak of war with Sweden.
The commission went to ship builder Master James Robbins, who would have the facilities of the Royal Danish Wharfs at Bremerholmen at his disposal for the construction. Finished in 1657, Tre Løver would measure a 139 feet and weigh just about 1.000 tons.

Another size comparing view of the two ships.

She was smaller than her fellow 2. Squadron warships Christianus Quintus and Churprindsen, but she was fast, manoeuvrable and dealt good damage during her engagements with the enemy. Tre Løver was present at both the Battle of Öland and the Battle of Køge Bay – both mayor naval victories, leading to continued Danish maritime supremacy during the Scanian War, preventing the Swedish Army to reinforce their German territories, while enabling continued Danish reinforcements to the not equally successful army operation in Scanian. 

The Naval bastion at Christiansø.

 Tre Løver was finally comdemned and sunk outside the Danish Naval bastion at Christiansø in 1686. She had served the Navy in over 30 years, seen action in two of Denmark's greatest naval victories. A good third addition to my Scanian War fleet.

Thank you very much for reading!

32 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Cheers Peter, and thanks for dropping by for a comment and a read!

      Delete
  2. Another great post, and some splendid ships!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Phil! I've been smitten with your fascination for the smaller scaled minis. These 1:1200 are really fun to work on, but the rigging....

      Delete
  3. Magnificently painted and based ships, Soren. Interesting history too, of course. You should take a picture of the ships next to a 28mm figures for scale - I can only imagine how you painted all the details.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you very much Dean, and your suggestion has been duly noted. Will be included in next naval posting!

      Delete
  4. You do have true talent for painting those ships! Excellent yet again.
    Sorry to see such talent wasted with an unnecessary focus on that unfortunate action at Køge Bay though... May I suggest Battle of Fehmarn of 1644 instead? ;-)
    /Mattias

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Haha, thanks Mattias - for some "unknown" reason the Battle of Fehmarn is not included in my Danish history book. I really wonder why ;0)

      Delete
    2. :-)
      To be honest it seems like the Swedes haven't been that successful in naval actions. I've read somewhere that the Danes viewed the Swedish crews as "peasants dipped in saltwater" (as opposed to real seamen). And with disasters like Wasa and Kronan one might tend to agree...

      Delete
    3. In all fairness; what the Swedes perhaps lacked at sea they had on land - and in abundance. The Danish army had their sweet behinds kicked around Scania in a number of battles. But it really all came down to the brilliant leadership on the Swedish side, and the amateur hour in the Danish high command after the sacking of the Duke of Plön as C-in-C. It was a good fight as they say in boxing, with great victories and terrible defeats depending on which side you take - but definitely one of our most memorable wars in the Nordics, perhaps because it essentially was a draw :0)

      Delete
  5. Replies
    1. Thanks buddy, we should get that naval game down sometime soon!

      Delete
  6. Man these look lovely! The vivid colours you used are great and your stunning basing sets them in scene wonderfully.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Nick, appreciate it! The cool thing about the Langton resin sea bases are the sculpted-in waves. You get a huge head start at painting a realistic sea base this way.

      Delete
  7. Fantastic, as usual
    More naval battles!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Jocke, I feel the same - more please! So, I'm looking at another naval period at the moment actually. Soon to be unveiled :0)

      Delete
  8. Replies
    1. Thanks Ray, appreciate the visit and the comment!

      Delete
  9. Your modeling skill is amazing. Each of these ships is a little gem.
    Beautiful collection forming up.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Jon, yeah its shaping up quite well. Good thing I have fellow period enthusiast Mark (http://wargameinsvergie.blogspot.se) to help me along, as he is currently taking care of all the Swedish vessels, allowing me to focus on the Danes.

      Delete
  10. The Tre Lover looks great as always! Great work. I am still working towards a full 1:1 scale squadron. This way I will have ships from the smallest to the big ships. We should play sometime soon. I now have a total of 4 ships done up out of the squadron that I plan to paint for the Swedish plus the few Swedish ships that you have. Hopefully we can battle again soon!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Absolutely, lets get a game booked in - I'll paint up another Danish ship allowing us to run a 4 vs 4 game. Perhaps with 2 players per side? I'll try and set something up once I'm back from this business trip (writing from a hotel near Verona, Italy at the moment)

      Delete
  11. Outstanding painting , lovely little ships Soren!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cheers Chris, like Dean suggested I'll try to post my next ship next to a 28 just for size comparison.

      Delete
  12. Very well done! Nice to see the fleet expanding :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you very much Jay! Yeah, its been nice to actually complete my first squadron. Now focus will be on Jens Rodsten's 3rd Squadron and the three ships from this I want to include!

      Delete
  13. Wow, the quality of your panting on these are insane – very impressive indeed!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks a lot Jonas - they really offer a completely different painting experience compared to the 28s, but also in terms of gaming. I'm still hoping to see you pick up the proud legacy of Claes Uggla sometime soon :0)

      Delete
  14. Someone know the armament about Tre Løver ?

    ReplyDelete