A Ship Builder

One of the main naval officers during the construction of the gun boats in the Gun Boat War mentioned yesterday was Vice-Admiral Andreas Schifter (1779 - 1852). A First Lieutenant and Lieutenant Commander during the war, he built gun boats in Norway, Holstein and Copenhagen in the first year, before he was commissioned to the ship of the line Pultusk, a commisioned not to his liking. After a travel around Europe, he came back to Holmen as ship master and more or less stayed there for the rest of his career.

Gun Boat Sheds

On the former naval base of Holmen in Copenhagen, rows of gun boat sheds line the island of  Frederiksholm. These where used for storing the canon boats used during the so-called Gun Boat War, 1807 - 1814 between Denmark-Norway and the UK. The use of gun boats on the Danish side was a necessity after the English had stolen the fleet after the bombardment of Copenhagen in 1807. Today the protected sheds are being converted into offices for mainly IT companies and architects.