Pictured: a built model of this ship — not the historical vessel.

Norske Løve (1765)

Type

Ship of the Line

Period

18th Century

Nation

Denmark

Overview: Norske Løve was a 70-gun Danish-Norwegian third-rate ship of the line built at the Nyholm dockyard in Copenhagen, the second of a three-ship class alongside Printz Friederich and Dronning Caroline Mathilde. The name "Norwegian Lion" honored the lion on the Dano-Norwegian royal coat of arms and had already been used for several earlier warships going back to the 1600s, so this vessel is one of many ships of the same name and should not be confused with its predecessors or successors. Specifications: Designed by shipbuilder F. M. Krabbe, she measured about 167 Danish feet in length and 45 feet in beam, with her keel laid in May 1764 and launch on 30 April 1765, finishing fitting-out by October 1767. She mounted 70 guns across three decks (26 24-pounders, 26 18-pounders, and 18 8-pounders) with a normal crew complement of 667. Service History: She served principally as a guard ship in the Øresund and other Danish coastal waters, being renamed Øresund in 1772, and received a major refit in 1779. In 1789 she was equipped to help safeguard neutral shipping in Danish waters during the Russo-Swedish War, and by 1795, no longer rigged for sea, she sheltered families made homeless by the great fire of Copenhagen before being struck from the naval register in 1798. Notable Facts: Her stern carvings depicted a fisherman and a farmer, emblematic of Norway's two chief livelihoods at the time. No contemporary painting or draught of this specific 1765 ship is known to survive in open collections; the most detailed modern reference is the Billing Boats 1:75 scale kit, developed from surviving original construction drawings, with an oversized display model by company founder Ejnar Billing exhibited at Copenhagen's Admiral Hotel.