The Danish Navy 1850-1943: Through The Lens

Snapshots from the Danish navy's history

With a coastline of more than 7,300 kilometers, Denmark has always been a proven maritime nation, and the Royal Danish Navy is an essential part of Danish history. The invention of the camera during the mid-1800s allowed this history to be documented in a novel way and to an extent not previously seen. The resulting photographs were not only of the beautiful frigates and corvettes, with their towering masts, or portraits of highly decorated naval officers. Also, life on board the ships, the workers on shore and the daily life of the sailors could now be depicted in a way that paintings had been unlikely to capture, but which the camera could reproduce with unprecedented realism.

From the earliest photographs in the 1850s and until the Navy was scuttled in 1943, this book tells the story of one of the most important periods in the Royal Danish Navy's history. It tells of rapid technological developments from the wooden sailing ships to the steamship era and onward to the modern-day screw-ships. It tells the story of the crews, their training and everyday life on board the Navy's ships, about the workers at the Royal Dockyard, and about the royal family's close ties to the Danish fleet. Last but not least, the book tells the story about the changes in weapons and tactics and about the Danish Navy and nation at war.