Monument at Odden Churchyard

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Fallen sailors' churchyard monument

By Jan Steen Jacobsen, Cand.phil. i europæisk etnologi. (5 stories)

Odden Churchyard has a memorial to the fallen sailors from the ship of the line Prins Christian Frederik. They died during the dramatic Battle of Zealand Point on 22 March 1808. The ship left Elsinore on 21 March with a crew of 576 men. Two thirds of the crew were Norwegian and one third was Danish. Captain C.W. Jessen had orders to sail to the Great Belt to protect a Spanish-French auxiliary corps heading for South Sweden. During the voyage, British ships were spotted in the area. And the battle began late that day. After heavy fire, the ship sank at 10.30 pm. taking 69 crew members with it and leaving another 137 wounded.

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Grundtvig described the Battle of Zealand Point

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Story written by Jan Steen Jacobsen

Time / Periode 1808

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The Odden Churchyard monument was erected by Lorentz Fribert for Annebjerggård. Denmark's greatest poet and theologian N.F.S. Grundtvig wrote the inscription: THE VESSELS MET AT NIGHT AT SEA AND THE AIR BEGAN TO GLOW THEY PLAYED ALL OVER THE OPEN GRAVE AND THE WAVES TURNED RED AS BLOOD HERE I AM SET AS A MONUMENT TO WITNESS FOR FAMILIES IN THE NORTH DANISH THEY WERE WHOSE TENDER BONES UNDER ME CRUMBLE TO EARTH DANISH OF TONGUE OF BIRTH AND SOUL FOR THEY SHALL BE MENTIONED FOR EVER WORTHY SONS OF THEIR FATHERS The monument was designed by fountain master Peder Friis and created by sculptor C.F. Køppen. King Frederik VI approved the monument in Copenhagen on 4 March 1810.

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Comments to the story (2)

Mette Bom , 10 months ago

Dear Desmond -you can manage notifications on your profile page. Unfortunately we've had some spam-problems on the UK-version and have now installed a new filter- hope it improves the website.

Desmond , 10 months ago

When I originally commented I clicked the "Notify me when new comments are added" checkbox and now each time a comment is added I get three e-mails with the same comment. Is there any way you can remove people from that service? Thanks!