Fredensborg (slave ship)
The Fredensborg was a frigate of the Danish West India Company ( Vestindisk - Guineisk Kompagni ). The ship was built in 1752 or 1753 in Copenhagen and first put into service under the name " Cron Prindz Christian " and used in the transatlantic trade triangle.
In 1756 the ship was renamed " Fredensborg " and came under the command of Captain Espen Kiønigs.
The ship stood out in June 1767 by Copenhagen in the lake to a renewed drive on the transatlantic triangle route. The ship had on this trip 40 -man crew, including the ship's wizard Christian Andreas Hoffman as Accounting Officer of the Company and yoke Christopher Sixtus as a ship's doctor. The ship was equipped with ten 4- pounders and several kleinerkalibrigen firearms. In the hold still 40 more boxes of handguns, 32000 flints, iron bars, shoes, textiles, occupied with Caribbean coral necklaces as well as large quantities of spirits, wine and gunpowder were.
The drive took us first to Christiansborg ( Accra ) on the Danish Gold Coast. For seven months the ship lay at anchor off the Accra, with several crew members died of tropical fever or in connection with accidents, among them Captain Kiønig and his first officer. The helmsman Johan Frantzen Ferentz then took over command of the ship. On April 23, 1768 we lifted anchor and stood out again towards Saint Croix ( Danish West Indies ) in the lake. Besides gold and ivory were now 265 slaves on board. The team was decimated by deaths, to ensure safe navigation, some slaves had been taken as slaves deck. Also, the ship had some passengers on board, including a woman.
They drove first to the east, then to sail from São Tomé from taking advantage of the equatorial ocean currents to the north and west. On 17 or 18 July 1768 it was then in Christiansted on St. Croix, where all the slaves were sold.
On the return trip to Europe, however, the " Fredensborg " was launched on December 1, 1768 in a storm off the southern coast of Norway at Tromøya near Arendal aground and sank. The charge at the time of loss consisted mainly of ivory and timber ( brazilwood and other exotic woods ).
The Wreck of the " Fredensborg " was discovered in September 1974 by divers. Over the last voyage of the " Fredensborg " there is an exhibition in the Cultural History Center of Aust -Agder ( Aust- Agder kulturhistoriske center) in Arendal, but also the Nationalmuseun of Ghana and the Museum of St. Croix remember their exhibitions to the " Fredensborg ".