Vita Örn/Hvide Ørn (White Eagle)
First of all, I posted a bit about this very frigate a while ago in a thread asking for frigates. Figured I'd like to dedicate an entire thread to it now.
Vita Örn was a frigate ahead of her time with features to be the norm in frigates from about 1740 and onwards for the next hundred years. She was built by the british shipsbuilder William Smith by commision of the Swedish state at Karlskrona, Sweden in 1711. She was armed with 30 12 pounder cannons and had a crew of 170.
She was already amongst the most legendary ships in the Swedish navy (being the fastest frigate in Scandinavia and having taken several prizes and defeated 2 Danish-Norwegian frigates while commanded by Swedish Captain Printz) at the battle of Colberger Heide between Sweden and Denmark-Norway in 1715 where she was captured as a prize by the rising star of the Danish-Norwegian army, Peter Jansen Wessel, later to be enobled and given the name Tordenskiold (Thunder Shield). While in tow, she was renamed to Hvide Ørn and Wessel was rewarded with the command of her. Shortly thereafter, Hvide Ørn was involved in the battle of Rügen. After the engagement had ended with the coming of the dark, Wessel managed to sneak up on the stern of two damaged Swedish SOL's Gotland(56) and Ösel(56). There, he stern rakes the Ösel, cuts the company flag hanging from the stern off before leaving with a full broadside along the ship. The Captain of the ship, Siøstierna, flees the ship and takes shelter in the Gotland. He is later condemmed to death by a swedish court martial but pardoned. By the time the Ösel has made her way back to Karlskrona she's on the absolute verge of sinking.
Hvide Ørn participated in lots of key naval engagements between Denmark-Norway and Sweden the years after and she along with her commander became famous at the top of his game, as a frigate commander. I hope to be able to sail the seas in Naval Action in this fine vessel someday.
Technical data:
Displacement: 600 tons
Length: 33 meters
Width: 9,42 meters
Guns: 30 12 pounders
Crew: 170 men