HNoMS Axel Thorsen (1810)

Plan of the schooners Axel Thorsen and Skiøn Valborg
Class overview
Name	Norwegian gun-ships (Norske Kanonskonnert)
Operators	Dano- Norwegian Navy
In commission	1808–1814
Completed	10
Lost	2
Retired	8 (transferred)
Class overview
Name	Norwegian gun-ship (Norske Kanonskonnert)
Operators	Norwegian Navy 1815–1844: 1844–1905:
In commission	1814–1872
General characteristics
Type	Schooner
Displacement	70 tons approx.
Length	18.3 meters
Beam	5.2 meters
Depth of hold	1.8 meters
Complement	45–50
Armament	2 × 24-pounder guns + 2 × 12-pounder carronades + 4 or 6 × 4-pounder howitzers

Axel Thorsen (1810/1814–1863) was a Norske Kanonskonnert built in Trondheim, and launched on 28 April 1810. She was one of ten such ships built in either Bergen or Trondheim for the Danish-Norwegian navy before the end of the Napoleonic Wars (and English Wars) when Norway became independent of Denmark at the Treaty of Kiel in 1814.

Origin of Name

Axel Thorsen is a character in very old Danish folk tales and poetry

Danish Service

Axel Thorsen, along with her sister gunships Nornen and Valkyrien joined Müller's Finmark Squadron in 1810

Norwegian Service

Axel Thorsen was used in fisheries protection until 1839, and commercially thereafter.
In 1864 this ship took part in the Swedish expedition to Spitzbergen led by Baron Nordenskiöld.

Fate

She was lost in the Arctic Ocean off Novaya Zemlya in August 1872.

References

• Fra Krigens Tid (1807 -1814) (From the wartime) edited by N A Larson, Christiana (Oslo) 1878. (Title page and Chapter headings Archived 2016-05-22 at the Wayback Machine)
• Oehlenschläger: Gamle danske Folkeviser, Kiøbenhavn 1840 Berlingske Bogtrukkeri (on Google Books)