File:View of the River Nid (JW Edy plate 20).jpg

The rocks to the east of Arendal command a view of a portion of the river Nid, which takes its rise in Upper Tellemark, and falls into the ocean south-west of Arendal. Immense quantities of timber, perpetually conie down this river to supply the saw-mills and dock-yards, of which there is a considerable number at Arendal.

Ship-building is carried on here upon a scale which must be very beneficial to the country at large, and with a degree of spirit, judgment and skill, highly honourable to the merchants and mechanics of all descriptions and classes engaged in this most important branch of industry. The natives of Arendal, in fact, appear to be endowed with a peculiar talent for ship-building, in the application of which very little aid is derived from art and education. The most eminent ship-builder at Arendal is known to be wholly incapable of making the draft of a vessel, yet the want of mathematical knowledge is not to be perceived in the ships built by him.

In noticing the subject of Danish ship-building, it is impossible to pass by in silence the curious, most useful, and inimitable system of naval architecture invented by a Dane, the late Mr. Hohlenberg, a captain in the Danish navy. Of the merits of this extraordinary system it is sufficient to say, that it has been adopted by England, and, of course, received that high sanction, which, bad the illustrious inventor now been in existence, would have afforded ample compensation for the hostility, disapprobation, and even persecution, which the daring efForts of his mighty genius provoked in his own country.

The rotundity of the stem forms the distinguishing, and most prominent feature in the Danish system of naval architecture. A74 gun-ship, built on Mr. Hohlenberg's plan, will be able to point 16 guns right aft, and of course possesses great advantages over ships of the usual construction, in case of being attacked when the vessel cannot be worked. Hence the utility of the Danish system is abundantly manifest in regard to defence and offence. With respect to sailing, Mr. Hohlenberg's plan has likewise been found to be attended with very eminent advantages. The Christian den Syvende, the Norge, the Prindsesse Caroline, line-of-battleships, and the Najaden, Frederikssteen, Rota, Perlen, Venus and Nymphen frigates, built on Mr. Hohlenberg's plan, are universally admitted to be among the best sailers in the British service.

Captain Hohlenberg rendered himself most eminently worthy of the thanks and support of his country, not merely on account of his system of naval architecture; he introduced into the royal dock-yards a degree of industry, and a spirit of emulation, till then utterly unknown in the Danish service. His efforts to repair the losses sustained in the battle off Copenhagen, and to make good the ordinary decays of the Danish Navy, appear to have been of the most expeditious and splendid description. He seems, in fact, to have been the very man, both in a theoretical and a practical sense, to whom the country could have looked with the most perfect confidence for the maintenance of its favourite branch of defence. But the very qualities, which so strongly recommended the possessor to universal esteem and admiration, as frequently happens, most effectually tended to accelerate his downfall from that towering eminence, to which he had not been led by the gentle hand of favour, but to which he had forced his way by genius, labour and merit. Among the most useful studies which had engaged his attention, and among the most valuable acquisitions, by which he was distinguished, this illustrious man had not the good fortune, it has been alleged, to reckon the Art of pleasing. In the courtly phraseology of sycophants and drivellers, he was pronounced to be quite intractable, and not unlike the Roman, who said of his countrymen :

"I had rather be their servant my way,

Than sway with them in theirs."

He, in consequence, found it expedient to relinquish the important situation of Constructor of the Danish Navy, and went to the West Indies, where he died soon after his arrival.

Yielding, however, as Mr. Hohlenberg did to the machinations of his enemies ; he had the pride and satisfaction to possess the approbation of his present Danish Majesty, then Prince Royal. Mr. Hohlenberg also counted among his most strenuous supporters Admiral Steen Bille, Commodores Lövenörn, Sölling, Sneedorff, Rosenvinge, Captain Höyer, and Mr. Smith, the Secretary to the Danish Admiralty; all of them men distinguished by scientific, literary and professional accomplishments of the very first order. Mr. Hohlenberg's exertions were moreover duly commended by a very large majority of his countrymen, who were capable of appreciating the genius by which his efforts were suggested, and willing to acknowledge the public spirit by which they were guided. The lofty patriotism and unbending disinterestedness of this most invaluable character, among various honourable instances were most strikingly exemplified by his steady refusal of the tempting offers frequently repeated by Russia to induce him to enter her service. He may be said to have Kved on the purest principles for his country only; and when he could no longer serve her, fate, as if in compassion to the sufferings of so great and good a man, put a speedy period to a life, which had been invariably devoted to an illustration of Thomson's admonition :

" Then be this truth the star by which we steer,

Above ourselves our country should be dear."

To Sir Joseph Yorke belongs the honour of having introduced Mr. Hohlenberg's system into England. The gallant Admiral held for some time the command of the Christian the Seventh, the largest ship built by Mr. Hohlenberg, and naturally had the best opportunities of judging of the excellencies or defects of the Danish system. That the result of the AdmiraTs observations has proved highly creditable to that system, is abundantly manifest from its adoption. An 84 gunship, named the Cambridge, is now in a very forward state in the King's Yard at Deptford, and two other vessels on smaller scales have been laid down. The favourable notice thus conferred on Mr. Hohlenberg's invention by a country so competent to decide on such a subject, forms a pleasing addition to the public honours paid in England to the merits of illustrious Danes : at Hampton Court, to the royal virtues of Christian the Fourth; at Greenwich, to the scientific attainments of Tycho Brahe ; at Oxford, to the literary accomplishments of Holberg ; and at Woolwich, to the military talents of Mollman. The tribute which England has paid to Hohlenberg may be considered by Denmark as not the least interesting legacy bequeathed by her worthies, and as a most grateful oblation to the manes of an individual, now as much lamented at home as he is honoured abroad.