Mighty Ships

Mighty Ships is a documentary television program produced by Exploration Production Inc. in Canada and aired on Discovery Channel Canada and also broadcast around the world. Each episode of the series follows a particular sea-going vessel and provides an insight into the ship and its crew.

Mighty Cruise Ships is a spin-off series focusing on cruise ships which began to air in late 2014.

Series overview

A typical episode follows the crew of a particular vessel as it prepares to embark upon a voyage and concludes at the end of the journey or once a particular job has been completed. The operational capabilities and technical aspects of the ship feature heavily in the series, whilst members of the ship’s crew provide an insight into life at sea and provide a human perspective. The series also makes use of computer-generated animation to show scenes which would otherwise be unobtainable, such as underwater operations.

The series was started after the success of a one-off special on the Discovery Channel entitled Inside Queen Mary 2. The series has featured an extensive range of different types of marine vessels, with cruise ships, an aircraft carrier, fishing boats, dredgers and various types of cargo ships, naval and specialist ships being shown.

Peter Willemoes

Peter Willemoes (11 May 1783 – 22 March 1808) was a Danish naval officer.

Biography

Willemoes was born on 11 May 1783 in Assens on the island of Funen, where his father was a public servant. At the age of twelve he was sent to the Naval Academy in Copenhagen, where he was a mediocre student who chafed under and rebelled against the harsh discipline. He became a cadet in 1795 sekondløjtnant in 1800.

At seventeen he commanded a floating battery, "Flaadebatteri Nr. 1", during the Battle of Copenhagen on 2 April 1801. He had 129 men and 20 cannon under his command and fought with such gallantry that the English Admiral Horatio Nelson commended him to the Crown Prince Frederick after the battle, supposedly recommending that he be promoted to Admiral. To this the Danish prince firmly answered: "If I were to reward all my men for their bravery, I would have a fleet of admirals". After the battle, Willemose became a celebrity and a member of the Danish Order of Freemasons before setting off to the Mediterranean Sea aboard the frigate Rota.

HDMS

HDMS may refer to:

HDMS Absalon (L16)

HDMS Absalon (L16) and her sister ship Esbern Snare are the 2.nd biggest ships ever to serve in the Royal Danish Navy (RDN), and are the two members of the Absalon class. The two ships in the Absalon class, named after Danish archbishop and statesman Absalon, received full operational status in 2007.

The ships are the first in a series of RDN vessels tasked with carrying out new types of missions, and are to form the backbone of the international operations that the RDN is increasingly focusing on.

The Absalon-class ships are primarily designed for command and support roles, with a large ro-ro deck, while the following three frigates of the Iver Huitfeldt class will be equipped for a combat role and potentially equipped with Tomahawk cruise missiles, a first for the Danish Navy. Although similar to the Absalon-class vessels, the frigates will not have a large ro-ro deck. the frigates received full operational status in 2010 and 2011, replacing the Niels Juel-class corvettes.

Niels Juel

Niels Juel (8 May 1629 – 8 April 1697) was a Danish admiral. He was the brother of the diplomat Jens Juel.

Biography

Niels Juel was born the son of Erik Juel and Sophie Clausdatter Sehested, both were descendant of Danish nobility, who lived in Jutland where the father had a career as a local functionary and judge. However, Niels Juel was born in Christiania in Norway, where his mother sought refuge during the 1627 invasion of Jutland in the Thirty Years' War, while his father took part in the defense of the country at home. The following year, ather the occupation had ended, the family was reunited in Jutland, but from the age of 6, Niels Juel was brought up by his aunt Karen Sehested at the Stenalt estate near Randers. He served his naval apprenticeship under Maarten Tromp and Michiel de Ruyter, taking part in all the chief engagements of the First Anglo-Dutch War (1652–54) between England and the Netherlands. During a long indisposition at Amsterdam in 1655-1656 he acquired a thorough knowledge of shipbuilding, and returned to Denmark in 1656 a thoroughly equipped seaman. He served with distinction during the Dano-Swedish Wars of 1658-60 and took a prominent part in the defence of Copenhagen against Charles X of Sweden.