1.
Copenhagen
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Copenhagen, Danish, København, Latin, Hafnia) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark. Copenhagen has an population of 1,280,371. The Copenhagen metropolitan area has just over 2 million inhabitants, the city is situated on the eastern coast of the island of Zealand, another small portion of the city is located on Amager, and is separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the strait of Øresund. The Øresund Bridge connects the two cities by rail and road, originally a Viking fishing village founded in the 10th century, Copenhagen became the capital of Denmark in the early 15th century. Beginning in the 17th century it consolidated its position as a centre of power with its institutions, defences. After suffering from the effects of plague and fire in the 18th century and this included construction of the prestigious district of Frederiksstaden and founding of such cultural institutions as the Royal Theatre and the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. Later, following the Second World War, the Finger Plan fostered the development of housing, since the turn of the 21st century, Copenhagen has seen strong urban and cultural development, facilitated by investment in its institutions and infrastructure. The city is the cultural, economic and governmental centre of Denmark, Copenhagens economy has seen rapid developments in the service sector, especially through initiatives in information technology, pharmaceuticals and clean technology. Since the completion of the Øresund Bridge, Copenhagen has become integrated with the Swedish province of Scania and its largest city, Malmö. With a number of connecting the various districts, the cityscape is characterized by parks, promenades. Copenhagen is home to the University of Copenhagen, the Technical University of Denmark, the University of Copenhagen, founded in 1479, is the oldest university in Denmark. Copenhagen is home to the FC København and Brøndby football clubs, the annual Copenhagen Marathon was established in 1980. Copenhagen is one of the most bicycle-friendly cities in the world, the Copenhagen Metro serves central Copenhagen while the Copenhagen S-train network connects central Copenhagen to its outlying boroughs. Serving roughly 2 million passengers a month, Copenhagen Airport, Kastrup, is the largest airport in the Nordic countries, the name of the city reflects its origin as a harbour and a place of commerce. The original designation, from which the contemporary Danish name derives, was Køpmannæhafn, meaning merchants harbour, the literal English translation would be Chapmans haven. The English name for the city was adapted from its Low German name, the abbreviations Kbh. or Kbhvn are often used in Danish for København, and kbh. for københavnsk. The chemical element hafnium is named for Copenhagen, where it was discovered, the bacterium Hafnia is also named after Copenhagen, Vagn Møller of the State Serum Institute in Copenhagen named it in 1954. Excavations in Pilestræde have also led to the discovery of a well from the late 12th century, the remains of an ancient church, with graves dating to the 11th century, have been unearthed near where Strøget meets Rådhuspladsen
2.
Flag of Denmark
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The Flag of Denmark is red with a white Scandinavian cross that extends to the edges of the flag, the vertical part of the cross is shifted to the hoist side. A banner with a cross is attested as having been used by the kings of Denmark since the 14th century. An origin legend with considerable impact on Danish national historiography connects the introduction of the flag to the Battle of Lyndanisse of 1219, the elongated Nordic cross reflects the use as maritime flag in the 18th century. The flag became popular as national flag in the early 19th century and its private use was outlawed in 1834, and again permitted in a regulation of 1854. The flag holds the record of being the oldest continuously used national flag. A red field charged with a white cross extending to the edges, in 1748, a regulation defined the correct lengths of the two last fields in the flag as 6⁄4. This regulation is still in effect today and thus the legal proportions of the National flag is today 3,1,3 in width, no official nuance definition of Dannebrog rød exists. The private company Dansk Standard, regulation number 359, defines the red colour of the flag as Pantone 186c, the white-on-red cross emblem originates in the age of the Crusades. In the 12th century, it was used as war flag by the Holy Roman Empire. In the Gelre Armorial, dated c, 1340–1370, such a banner is shown alongside the coat of arms of the king of Denmark. This is the earliest known undisputed colour rendering of the Dannebrog, at about the same time, Valdemar IV of Denmark displays a cross in his coat of arms on his Danælog seal. In this version, the lions are holding a Danebrog banner, the reason why the kings of Denmark in the 14th century begin displaying the cross banner in their coats of arms is unknown. Caspar Paludan-Müller suggested that it may reflect a banner sent by the pope to the Danish king in support of the Baltic countries, adolf Ditlev Jørgensen identifies the banner as that of the Knights Hospitaller, which order had a presence in Denmark from the later 12th century. The legend attributing the origin of the flag to the campaigns of Valdemar II of Denmark were recorded by Christiern Pedersen. The flag was lost in a defeat at the Battle of Hemmingstedt on 17 February 1500. In 1559, King Frederik II recaptured it during his own Dithmarschen campaign, in 1576, the son of Johan Rantzau, Henrik Rantzau, also writes about the war and the fate of the flag. He notes that the flag was in a condition when returned. In a letter dated 22 February 1500 to Oluf Stigsøn, King John describes the battle, in fact, the entire letter gives the impression that the lost battle was of limited importance
3.
Burmeister & Wain
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Burmeister & Wain was a large established Danish shipyard and leading diesel engine producer headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark. Founded by two Danes and an Englishman, its earliest roots stretch back to 1846, over its 150-year history, it grew successfully into a strong company through the end of the 1960s. In the 1970s, global competitive pressures, particularly from the far east, in 1980, B&W became MAN B&W Diesel A/S, part of MAN B&W Diesel Group, a subsidiary of the German corporation MAN AG, with operations worldwide. The company still maintains operations at three sites in Denmark for manufacturing, servicing, and licensing of its two-stroke engines. Hans Heinrich Baumgarten was from the town of Halstenbek near Pinneberg, in Schleswig-Holstein and he was apprenticed as a coffin maker by a farmer whose livestock he cared for. Later he was a carpenter before becoming a machine minder at the Danish newspaper Berlingske Tidende, shortly thereafter, in 1843 he was granted a Danish Royal Charter and what would later become Burmeister & Wain was launched with the opening of a mechanical workshop in Copenhagen. Carl Christian Burmeister was born into poverty, the son of a cook and restaurant keeper, he studied at the Polytechnical Institute in Copenhagen from 1836–1846, now the Technical University of Denmark. He had been awarded a scholarship abroad after recommendation following an assistantship to Hans Christian Ørsted who was there at the time. Burmeister joined the H. H. Baumgarten Company in 1846, which became a partnership with the opening of its engineering works, with Baumgarten as a co-owner, in 1865, William Wain joined what then became B&W. In 1872 the company became A/S B&W, a limited liability corporation and that same year saw the founding of the Refshale Island shipyard. At this point, Baumgarten, as the first founder, became a director of the board of what he would see become Burmeister & Wain Maskin- og Skibsbyggeri in 1880. Wain, from Bolton, England had apprenticed as an engineer in his youth and he had worked for the Royal Danish Navy and the Royal Dutch dockyards. He came to have several designs to his credit within the company, production of stationary paraffin engines began in 1890. Then, in 1898, a year after introducing it to the world, a test engine was built that same year. The 1903-1904 year saw delivery of their first diesel engine to the N. Larsen Carriage Factory, 1911-1912 saw the worlds first ever ocean-going diesel-powered ship, M/S Selandia, start her maiden voyage from Copenhagen to Bangkok with two B&W four-stroke main engines. The larger Teglholmen iron foundry was established in the 1920-1921 year to provide capacity for growth in the years of business acquisition. William Elmgreen worked at Burmeister & Wain in Copenhagen as a 20 year old apprentice in 1922 and his father Jens Peter Elmgreen had worked there in the 1890s. He later recalled that at that time some 12,000 workers were engaged to build ships, manufacture diesel engines and he was one of 2,500 men on Refshale Island, building and repairing ships
4.
Diesel engine
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Diesel engines work by compressing only the air. This increases the air temperature inside the cylinder to such a degree that it ignites atomised diesel fuel that is injected into the combustion chamber. This contrasts with spark-ignition engines such as an engine or gas engine. In diesel engines, glow plugs may be used to aid starting in cold weather, or when the engine uses a lower compression-ratio, the original diesel engine operates on the constant pressure cycle of gradual combustion and produces no audible knock. Low-speed diesel engines can have an efficiency that exceeds 50%. Diesel engines may be designed as either two-stroke or four-stroke cycles and they were originally used as a more efficient replacement for stationary steam engines. Since the 1910s they have used in submarines and ships. Use in locomotives, trucks, heavy equipment and electricity generation plants followed later, in the 1930s, they slowly began to be used in a few automobiles. Since the 1970s, the use of engines in larger on-road and off-road vehicles in the US increased. According to the British Society of Motor Manufacturing and Traders, the EU average for diesel cars accounts for 50% of the total sold, including 70% in France and 38% in the UK. The worlds largest diesel engine is currently a Wärtsilä-Sulzer RTA96-C Common Rail marine diesel, the definition of a Diesel engine to many has become an engine that uses compression ignition. To some it may be an engine that uses heavy fuel oil, to others an engine that does not use spark ignition. However the original cycle proposed by Rudolf Diesel in 1892 was a constant temperature cycle which would require higher compression than what is needed for compression ignition. Diesels idea was to compress the air so tightly that the temperature of the air would exceed that of combustion, to make this more clear, let it be assumed that the subsequent combustion shall take place at a temperature of 700°. Then in that case the pressure must be sixty-four atmospheres, or for 800° centigrade the pressure must be ninety atmospheres. In later years Diesel realized his original cycle would not work, Diesel describes the cycle in his 1895 patent application. Notice that there is no longer a mention of compression temperatures exceeding the temperature of combustion, now all that is mentioned is the compression must be high enough for ignition. In 1806 Claude and Nicéphore Niépce developed the first known internal combustion engine, the Pyréolophore fuel system used a blast of air provided by a bellows to atomize Lycopodium
5.
Scania AB
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Scania AB, formerly AB Scania-Vabis, is a major Swedish automotive industry manufacturer of commercial vehicles – specifically heavy trucks and buses. It also manufactures engines for motive power of heavy vehicles, marine. Today, Scania has production facilities in Sweden, France, Netherlands, India, Argentina, Brazil, Poland, in addition, there are assembly plants in ten countries in Africa, Asia and Europe. Scanias sales and service organisation and finance companies are worldwide, in 2012, the company employed approximately 42,100 people around the world. Scania was listed on the NASDAQ OMX Stockholm stock exchange from 1996 to 2014, Scanias logo shows a Griffin, from the coat of arms of the province of Scania. AB Scania-Vabis was established in 1911 as the result of a merger between Södertälje-based Vabis and Malmö-based Maskinfabriks-aktiebolaget Scania, Vabis was established as a railway car manufacturer in 1891, while Maskinfabriks-aktiebolaget Scania was established as a bicycle manufacturer in 1900. Both companies had tried their luck at building automobiles, trucks and engines, in 1910, Maskinfabriks-aktiebolaget Scania had succeeded in constructing reliable vehicles, while Vabis was at the brink of closing down. Development and production of engines and light vehicles were set to Södertälje, initially the headquarters were located in Malmö, but in 1912 they were moved to Södertälje. Prince Carl of Sweden owned a 1913 Scania-Vabis 3S, a type which was fitted with in-car buttons so the passenger could communicate with the driver, Scania-Vabis also built two-seat sports cars. For the next few years the companys profits stagnated, with around a third of their orders coming from abroad, the outbreak of the First World War, however, changed the company, with almost all output being diverted to the Swedish Army. By 1916, Scania-Vabis was making enough profit to invest in redeveloping both of their production facilities, following the war, in 1919, Scania decided to focus completely on building trucks, abandoning other outputs including cars and buses. However, they were hurt by the swamping of the market with decommissioned military vehicles from the war, after some economic difficulties in 1921, new capital came from Stockholms Enskilda Bank owned by the Wallenberg family, and Scania-Vabis became a solid and technically, high standing, company. Denmark Towards the end of 1913, the established a subsidiary in Denmark. The following year the first Danish-built car, a four-seater Phaeton, was built at the companys Frederiksberg factory in Copenhagen, in 1914, the factory produced Denmarks first Scania-Vabis truck, and following this developed a V8 engine, one of the first in the world. In 1921, having sold around 175 trucks, and 75 cars, Norway In 1917 an agreement was established with the newly formed Norwegian company Norsk Automobilfabrik A/S about production under license of Scania-Vabis cars and lorries. Production began in 1919, but was ended in 1921 after production of only 77 lorries, during the Second World War Scania produced a variety of military vehicles for the Swedish Army, including Stridsvagn m/41 light tanks produced under licence. During the 1950s, the company expanded its operations into new segments, becoming agents for the Willys Jeep and the Volkswagen Beetle. It also started to become a competitor to Volvo with their new L71 Regent truck which was introduced in 1954
6.
Royal Danish Navy
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The Royal Danish Navy is the sea-based branch of the Danish Defence force. The RDN is mainly responsible for defence and maintaining the sovereignty of Danish, Greenlandic. Other tasks include surveillance, search and rescue, icebreaking, oil recovery and prevention as well as contributions to international tasks. During the period 1509–1814, when Denmark was in a union with Norway, despite this, the navy is now equipped with a number of large state-of-the-art vessels commissioned since the end of the Cold War. This can be explained by its location as the NATO member controlling access to the Baltic. Danish Navy ships carry the prefix KDM in Danish, but this is translated to HDMS in English, Denmark is one of several NATO member states whose navies do not deploy submarines. The geographic layout of Denmark has a coastline to land area ratio of 1,5.9, by comparison, the figure for the Netherlands is 1,92.1 and for the United States,1,493.2. Denmark therefore naturally has long-standing maritime traditions, dating back to the 9th century when the Vikings had small, with time, the defence pacts gave rise to larger, more offensive fleets which the Vikings used for plundering coastal areas. In the period after the Vikings, and up to the 15th century, indeed, it is said that king Valdemar Sejr had more than 1,000 ships during the conquest of Estonia in 1219. Together they carried more than 30,000 soldiers with horses and supplies, records exist of a unified Danish navy from the late 14th century. Queen Margaret I, who had just founded the Kalmar Union ordered the building of a navy — mainly to defend the union against the Hanseatic League. Earlier the national fleet had consisted of vessels owned and operated by the nobility, the earlier monarchs therefore had to rely on conscription from the nobility, which was not always easy as the monarchy itself often had enemies within the nobility. Queen Margaret I gave instructions for a navy to be constituted and maintained under the control of the monarchy, the nobility still had to provide crews for these ships, though the core crew-members could be employed by the monarch. There were also education officers, mainly levied from the nobility, in the 15th century, especially during the reign of King Hans, Danish trade expanded appreciably, increasing the need for the delivery of merchandise. As shipping was the means of transport at the time. King Hans is credited with establishing a joint Dano-Norwegian fleet in 1509 and they were mainly petty criminals, who had to choose between working in the king’s navy or imprisonment. They received basic training in seamanship and carpentry, enabling them to sail the ships, responsibility for weaponry and combat was still in the hands of conscripted farmers. For these, the country was divided into a number of counties — known in Danish as skipæn and it was also during this period that dedicated naval bases and shipyards were founded
7.
Margrethe II of Denmark
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Margrethe II is the Queen of Denmark. She is also the authority of the Church of Denmark. Born into the House of Glücksburg, a house with origins in Northern Germany, she was the eldest child of Frederick IX of Denmark. She succeeded her father upon his death on 14 January 1972, having had become heir presumptive to her father in 1953, on her accession, Margrethe became the first female monarch of Denmark since Margaret I, ruler of the Scandinavian countries in 1375–1412 during the Kalmar Union. Having been on the Danish throne for 45 years, she is the second longest-reigning Danish monarch after her ancestor Christian IV, in 1967, she married Henri de Laborde de Monpezat, with whom she has two sons, Crown Prince Frederik and Prince Joachim. Princess Margrethe was born 16 April 1940 at Amalienborg Palace in Copenhagen as the first child of Crown Prince Frederick, later King Frederick IX and Crown Princess Ingrid and her birth took place just one week after Nazi Germanys invasion of Denmark on 9 April 1940. She was baptised on 14 May in the Church of Holmen in Copenhagen, since her paternal grandfather was also the King of Iceland, she was given an Icelandic name, Þórhildur. When Margrethe was four years old, in 1944, her first sister, Princess Benedikte later married Prince Richard of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg and lives some of the time in Germany. Her second sister Princess Anne Marie was born in 1946, anne-Marie later married Constantine II of Greece and now lives in Greece. Margrethe and her sisters grew up in apartments at Frederick VIIIs Palace at Amalienborg in Copenhagen and she spent summer holidays with the royal family in her parents summer residence at Gråsten Palace in Southern Jutland. On 20 April 1947, King Christian X died and Margrethes father ascended the throne as King Frederick IX. At the time of her birth, only males could ascend the throne of Denmark, as she had no brothers, it was assumed that her uncle Prince Knud would one day assume the throne. The process of changing the constitution started in 1947, not long after her father ascended the throne, the popularity of Frederick and his daughters and the more prominent role of women in Danish life started the complicated process of altering the constitution. The law required that the proposal be passed by two successive Parliaments and then by a referendum, which occurred 27 March 1953, Princess Margrethe therefore became heir presumptive. On her eighteenth birthday,16 April 1958, Margrethe was given a seat in the Council of State and she subsequently chaired the meetings of the Council in the absence of the King. Margrethe was educated at the private school N. Zahles School in Copenhagen from which she graduated in 1959 and she is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London. Queen Margrethe is fluent in Danish, French, English, Swedish and German, Princess Margrethe married a French diplomat, Count Henri de Laborde de Monpezat,10 June 1967, at the Church of Holmen in Copenhagen. Laborde de Monpezat received the style and title of His Royal Highness Prince Henrik of Denmark because of his new position as the spouse of the heir presumptive to the Danish throne, Margrethe gave birth to her first child 26 May 1968
8.
Royal yacht
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A royal yacht is a ship used by a monarch or a royal family. If the monarch is an emperor the proper term is imperial yacht, most of them are financed by the government of the country of which the monarch is head. The royal yacht is most often manned by personnel from the navy and used by the monarch, some royal yachts have been/are small vessels only used for short trips on rivers or in calm waters, but others have been/are large seaworthy ships. Depending on how the term is defined royal yachts date back to the days of antiquity with royal barges on the Nile in ancient Egypt, later the Vikings produced royal vessels. They followed the pattern of longships although highly decorated and fitted with purple sails, in England, Henry V sold off the royal yachts to clear the Crowns debts. The next royal vessels in England were built in the Tudor period with Henry VIII using a vessel in 1520 that was depicted as having cloth of gold sails, james I had Disdain, a ship in miniature, built for his son Prince Henry. Disdain was significant in that she allowed for pleasure cruising and as a result can be seen as a move away from royal ships as warships. The first ships to qualify as royal yachts were those owned by Charles II of England Scotland and Ireland. The first was gift from the Dutch but later yachts were commissioned and this established a tradition of royal yachts in Britain that was later copied by other royal families of Europe. Through the 19th century royal yachts got larger as they became a symbol of national wealth. World War I brought this trend to an end and the families that survived found it harder to justify the cost with the result that there are only three royal yachts left in use in Europe. For the most part royal yachts have been superseded by the use of warships in this role, in addition most monarchies with a railway system employ a special set of royal carriages. Most monarchies also employ aircraft as a mode of transportation. The Danish royal family have had several royal yachts, two of them have been named Dannebrog. HMDY Sophia Amalia HMDY Elephanten HMDY Kiel HDMY Ægir HMDY Slesvig HDMS Jylland – a frigate which served as a yacht on occasion. HDMY Dannebrog HDMY Dannebrog Dubai is the yacht of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, ruler of Dubai. Completed in 2006, she is the third largest yacht currently in service at 524 feet long and she came to world media attention when she sailed out to welcome the retired ocean liner, RMS Queen Elizabeth 2 to Dubai in November 2008. Another personal yacht of the Sheikh, is the 40-metre Alloya, mahroussa was built for Ismail Pasha, the Khedive of Egypt
9.
Denmark
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The term Danish Realm refers to the relationship between Denmark proper, the Faroe Islands and Greenland—three countries constituting the Kingdom of Denmark. The legal nature of the Kingdom of Denmark is fundamentally one of a sovereign state. The Faroe Islands and Greenland have been part of the Crown of Denmark since 1397 when the Kalmar Union was ratified, legal matters in The Danish Realm are subject to the Danish Constitution. Beginning in 1953, state law issues within The Danish Realm has been governed by The Unity of the Realm, a less formal name for The Unity of the Realm is the Commonwealth of the Realm. In 1978, The Unity of The Realm was for the first time referred to as rigsfællesskabet. The name caught on and since the 1990s, both The Unity of The Realm and The Danish Realm itself has increasingly been referred to as simply rigsfællesskabet in daily parlance. The Danish Constitution stipulates that the foreign and security interests for all parts of the Danish Realm are the responsibility of the Danish government, the Faroes received home rule in 1948 and Greenland did so in 1979. In 2005, the Faroes received a self-government arrangement, and in 2009 Greenland received self rule, the Danish Realms unique state of internal affairs is acted out in the principle of The Unity of the Realm. This principle is derived from Article 1 of the Danish Constitution which specifies that constitutional law applies equally to all areas of the Danish Realm, the Constitutional Act specifies that sovereignty is to continue to be exclusively with the authorities of the Realm. The language of Denmark is Danish, and the Danish state authorities are based in Denmark, the Kingdom of Denmarks parliament, with its 179 members, is located in the capital, Copenhagen. Two of the members are elected in each of Greenland and the Faroe Islands. The Government ministries are located in Copenhagen, as is the highest court, in principle, the Danish Realm constitutes a unified sovereign state, with equal status between its constituent parts. Devolution differs from federalism in that the powers of the subnational authority ultimately reside in central government. The Self-Government Arrangements devolves political competence and responsibility from the Danish political authorities to the Faroese, the Faroese and Greenlandic authorities administer the tasks taken over from the state, enact legislation in these specific fields and have the economic responsibility for solving these tasks. The Danish government provides a grant to the Faroese and the Greenlandic authorities to cover the costs of these devolved areas. The 1948 Home Rule Act of the Faroe Islands sets out the terms of Faroese home rule, the Act states. the Faroe Islands shall constitute a self-governing community within the State of Denmark. It establishes the government of the Faroe Islands and the Faroese parliament. The Faroe Islands were previously administered as a Danish county, the Home Rule Act abolished the post of Amtmand and these powers were expanded in a 2005 Act, which named the Faroese home government as an equal partner with the Danish government
10.
Hospital ship
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A hospital ship is a ship designated for primary function as a floating medical treatment facility or hospital. Most are operated by the forces of various countries, as they are intended to be used in or near war zones. Although attacking a ship is a war crime, belligerent navies have the right to board such ships for inspections. In the nineteenth century redundant warships were used as moored hospitals for seamen, Hospital ships possibly existed in ancient times. The Athenian Navy had a ship named Therapia, and the Roman Navy had a ship named Aesculapius, their names indicating that they may have been hospital ships. The earliest British hospital ship may have been the vessel Goodwill, however this experiment in medical care was short-lived, with Goodwill assigned to other tasks within a year and her complement of convalescents simply left behind at the nearest port. It was not until the mid-seventeenth century that any Royal Navy vessels were designated as hospital ships. In addition to their crew, these seventeenth century hospital ships were staffed by a surgeon. The standard issue of supplies were bandages, soap, needles. Patients were offered a beds or rug to rest upon, the quality of food was very poor. Hospital ships were used for the treatment of wounded soldiers fighting on land. An early example of this was during an English operation to evacuate English Tangier in 1683, an account of this evacuation was written by Samuel Pepys, an eyewitness. One of the concerns was the evacuation of sick soldiers. The hospital ships Unity and Welcome sailed for England on 18 October 1683 with 114 invalid soldiers and 104 women and children, arriving at The Downs on 14 December 1683. A1705 amendment provided for a further five male nurses, on 8 December 1798, unfit for service as a warship, HMS Victory was ordered to be converted to a hospital ship to hold wounded French and Spanish prisoners of war. According to Edward Hasted in 1798, two hospital ships, were moored in Halstow Creek in Kent. The creek is an inlet from the River Medway and the River Thames, the crew of these vessels watched over ships coming to England, which were forced to stay in the creek under quarantine to protect the country from infectious diseases including the plague. From 1821 to 1870 the Seamens Hospital Society provided HMS Grampus, HMS Dreadnought, in 1866 HMS Hamadryad was moored in Cardiff as a seamens hospital, replaced in 1905 by the Royal Hamadryad Seamens Hospital
11.
Greenland
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Greenland is an autonomous constituent country within the Danish Realm between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe for more than a millennium. The majority of its residents are Inuit, whose ancestors began migrating from the Canadian mainland in the 13th century, Greenland is the worlds largest island. Three-quarters of Greenland is covered by the permanent ice sheet outside Antarctica. With a population of about 56,480, it is the least densely populated country in the world, the Arctic Umiaq Line ferry acts as a lifeline for western Greenland, connecting the various cities and settlements. Greenland has been inhabited off and on for at least the last 4,500 years by Arctic peoples whose forebears migrated there from what is now Canada, Norsemen settled the uninhabited southern part of Greenland beginning in the 10th century, and Inuit peoples arrived in the 13th century. The Norse colonies disappeared in the late 15th century, soon after their demise, beginning in 1499, the Portuguese briefly explored and claimed the island, naming it Terra do Lavrador. In the early 18th century, Scandinavian explorers reached Greenland again, to strengthen trading and power, Denmark-Norway affirmed sovereignty over the island. Greenland was settled by Vikings more than a thousand years ago, Vikings set sail from Greenland and Iceland, discovering North America nearly 500 years before Columbus reached Caribbean islands. Though under continuous influence of Norway and Norwegians, Greenland was not formally under the Norwegian crown until 1262, the Kingdom of Norway was extensive and a military power until the mid-14th century. Thus, the two kingdoms resources were directed at creating Copenhagen, Norway became the weaker part and lost sovereignty over Greenland in 1814 when the union was dissolved. Greenland became a Danish colony in 1814, and was made a part of the Danish Realm in 1953 under the Constitution of Denmark, in 1973, Greenland joined the European Economic Community with Denmark. However, in a referendum in 1982, a majority of the population voted for Greenland to withdraw from the EEC which was effected in 1985, Greenland contains the worlds largest and most northernly national park, Northeast Greenland National Park. Greenland is divided into four municipalities - Sermersooq, Kujalleq, Qaasuitsup and it also retains control of monetary policy, providing an initial annual subsidy of DKK3.4 billion, which is planned to diminish gradually over time. Greenland expects to grow its economy based on increased income from the extraction of natural resources, the capital, Nuuk, held the 2016 Arctic Winter Games. At 70%, Greenland has one of the highest shares of renewable energy in the world, the early Viking settlers named the island as Greenland. In the Icelandic sagas, the Norwegian-born Icelander Erik the Red was said to be exiled from Iceland for manslaughter, along with his extended family and his thralls, he set out in ships to explore an icy land known to lie to the northwest. After finding an area and settling there, he named it Grœnland
12.
Faroe Islands
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The Faroe Islands, also spelled the Faeroes, is an archipelago between the Norwegian Sea and the North Atlantic, about halfway between Norway and Iceland,320 kilometres north-northwest of Scotland. Its area is about 1,400 square kilometres with a population of 49,188 in 2016, the Faeroe Islands is an autonomous country within the Danish Realm. The land of the Faeroes is rugged, and these islands have an oceanic climate, windy, wet, cloudy. Despite this island groups northerly latitude, temperatures average above freezing throughout the year because of the Gulf Stream, between 1035 and 1814, the Faeroes were part of the Hereditary Kingdom of Norway. In 1814, the Treaty of Kiel granted Denmark control over the islands, the Faroe Islands have been a self-governing country within the Kingdom of Denmark since 1948. The Faroese have control of most domestic matters, areas that remain the responsibility of Denmark include military defence, the police department, the justice department, currency, and foreign affairs. However, as they are not part of the customs area as Denmark, the Faroe Islands have an independent trade policy. The islands also have representation in the Nordic Council as members of the Danish delegation, the people of the Faroe Islands also compete as national team in certain sports. In Danish, the name Færøerne may reflect an Old Norse word fær, the morpheme øerne represents a plural of ø in Danish. The Danish name thus translates as the islands of sheep, in Faroese, the name appears as Føroyar. Oyar represents the plural of oy, older Faroese for island, the modern Faeroese word for island is oyggj. In the English language, their name is sometimes spelled Faeroe, archaeological evidence shows settlers living on the Faroe Islands in two successive periods prior to the arrival of the Norse, the first between 400 and 600 and the second between 600 and 800. Scientists from the University of Aberdeen have also found early cereal pollen from domesticated plants, archaeologist Mike Church noted that Dicuil mentioned what may have been the Faroes. He also suggested that the living there might have been from Ireland, Scotland or Scandinavia. A Latin account of a made by Brendan, an Irish monastic saint who lived around 484–578. This association, however, is far from conclusive in its description, Dicuil, an Irish monk of the early 9th century, wrote a more definite account. 800, bringing Old West Norse, which evolved into the modern Faroese language, according to Icelandic sagas such as Færeyjar Saga, one of the best known men in the island was Tróndur í Gøtu, a descendant of Scandinavian chiefs who had settled in Dublin, Ireland. Tróndur led the battle against Sigmund Brestursson, the Norwegian monarchy, a traditional name for the islands in Irish, Na Scigirí, possibly refers to the Skeggjar Beards, a nickname given to island dwellers
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Media related to Royal Yacht Dannebrog at Wikimedia Commons
