Leopoldus Primus
1668
(Aquarius AQ-1401a)
- Class: Convoy ship (54 gun)
- Displacement: tons
- Dimensions: 130 x 36 ft.
- Armament: 26 x 18pdr, 18 x 8pdr, 4 x 6pdr, 6 x 4pdr
- Complement: 150-250
- Designer: unknown Dutch shipwright
- Built: Hamburg
- Keel laid: 1667
- Launched: 1668
- Service: The first convoy ship of the Free City of Hamburg, built for use against pirates on the trade routes to Spain, Portugal, and West Africa, and to protect the Greenland whaling fleet. Named for the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I. Captained by Berend Jakobsen Karpfanger in successful actions against French privateers on the Dogger Bank in 1673, and against three Turkish pirates off Cape St. Vincent in 1674. Her biggest action was the defense of the returning Greenland whaling fleet of 50 ships which were attacked by five French ships off the Elbe estuary on 11 Sep 1678; in a twelve-hour battle she sank two of the attackers and drove off the remainder, suffering only slight damage herself and losing none of the convoy. In 1681 she helped defend the Spanish silver fleet from Turkish pirates, and in 1686 she helped defend the City of Hamburg from a threatened Danish occupation. She continued in service until 1705 when the cost to repair her was deemed too great and she was broken up. In all, she made 22 trips to the Iberian peninsula, three to England, and nine to Greenland.
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