Frantz Hohlenberg

Frantz Christopher Henrik Hohlenberg (16 February 1764 9 January 1804) was a Danish naval officer who specialised in ship design and had little seagoing experience. He succeeded Ernst Wilhelm Stibolt as Master Shipbuilder (fabriksmester) at the Royal Danish Dockyards in 1796. His ships included five ships of the line (one constructed posthumously) and 18 frigates (five constructed posthumously). Three of the ships of the line and nine of the frigates were captured at the 1807 Battle of Copenhagen and subsequently added to the Royal Navy. He resigned after a controversy in 1803.

Early life and family

Hohlenberg was born on 16 February 1764 ) in Åbenrå, the son of Christopher Carl Henrik Hohlenberg (1728–73) and Øllegaard Hedevig Grabow (1739–1807). His father was a captain in the navy. He became a junior lieutenant in the Danish Navy at the age of 18 and began an apprenticeship with the Danish Construction Commission. Soon after his appointment, he made a study tour of naval establishments of southern Europe, and later of Sweden and Russia. He was considered the most gifted of Henrik Gerner's pupils when Gerner was fabrikmester at Copenhagen and inherited all of Gerner's papers on the latter's death. One of her sisters was married to Jens Michelsen Beck. Frantz and Elise Hohlenberg had three children. Their eldest son (17971845) would become a professor of theology at the University of Copenhagen. His younger brother Johannes Søbøtker Hohlenberg (17951833) served as governor of Serampore in Danish India from 1828 until his death.

Career

In 1795 he became a lecturer in shipbuilding at the Naval Cadet Academy and at the same time a fully fledged member of the Construction Commission. Promoted to the most senior lieutenant's rank in 1796, he became interim fabrikmester (master shipbuilder to the Royal Danish-Norwegian Navy) as his predecessor E W Stibolt retired on health grounds, ) in the Mediterranean the year after it was commissioned.

Ships-of-the-line (1800, captured in 1807) (1803, captured in 1807) (1803, destroyed in March 1808 at the Battle of Zealand Point) (65, captured in 1807)

Frigates; Of the thirteen Hohlenberg frigates built prior to 1807, nine were captured by the British Royal Navy at the Battle of Copenhagen (1807). All were commissioned into the Royal Navy.

(1798) (1800) (1800) (1801) (1802) (1802), a little frigate.

(1802) (1804) (1805) (1807) (1811) (1812) (1812) (1913) (1815)

Lesser ships 3 brigs

(1802)

4 schooners

1 royal yacht 7 artillery prams (barges) 1 mortar vessel

Under construction Ships still under construction in 1807 were to Hohlenberg's designs, but were destroyed on the stocks during the Battle of Copenhagen (1807). A later frigate, became a victim of British naval action at the Battle of Lyngør