page_title: Battle of Zealand Point
section_title: Course
hierarchical_section_title: Battle of Zealand Point / Course
caption_attribution_description: English: Commemorative stone for the Battle of Zealand Point
context_page_description: The Battle of Zealand Point was a naval battle of the English Wars and the Gunboat War. Ships of the Danish and British navies fought off Zealand Point on 22 March 1808; the battle was a British victory.
context_section_description: In the hours before the battle Prins Christian Frederik was within sight of Quebec and Lynx. At 2 [pm] the sloop, Falcon, who recorded the signal from Quebec "Danish Line-of-battle-ship to windward", joined them and cleared for action. During the afternoon the Danish ship had reversed course and sailed northward round the reef at the west of Sjællands Odde (that long tongue of land at the northwest of Zealand), and was now headed eastward again, to the north of the land.
  Shortly after 4 [pm] Stately and Nassau were sighted to the North East, and the signal, "inforced with a (signal) gun", of the presence of the enemy led to all ships making "all sail, in chace".
  Falcon and Nassau's logs record that at 7:50pm Prinds Christian Frederik fired the first shots when she fired  her stern chasers at Nassau, the foremost of her pursuers.  By 8:05pm Nassau had drawn level and began returning broadsides, but forty minutes later she was in danger of blocking Stately's field of fire. Nassau made more sail and moved ahead out of the way as Stately entered the fray. Action continued with the two British ships-of-the-line alternating their attacks until Prinds Christian Frederik struck. At this point Prinds Christian Frederik was aground 300 meters from the shore.
  Throughout the morning of 23 March the squadron's boats transported prisoners, and the ships' companies knotted, spliced, and ran new rigging. At noon, orders were sent to set fire to Prinds Christian Frederick as soon as all the wounded had been removed. The fire was set between 7:30 and 8:00pm and Prinds Christian Frederik blew up shortly before 9:00 pm.
  Stately had four men killed, and 31 officers and men wounded. Nassau lost one man killed, 17 officers and men wounded, and one man missing. Prins Christian Frederik lost 55 men killed and 88 men wounded. In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal with clasps "Stately 22 March 1808" and "Nassau 22 March 1808" to any still surviving crew members of those vessels that chose to claim them.
caption: Danish Commemorative stone for the Battle of Zealand Point
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