The message was to inquire the particular object of Lord Nelson’s note. The latter replied that he consented to stay hostilities from motives of humanity. He wished the Danish wounded to be taken on shore; to take his prisoners out of the prizes; and to burn or carry off the latter, as he should think fit. He also expressed a hope for reconciliation between the two countries; a bitter thing, under the circumstances.
Sir Frederick Thesiger, who had returned with the Danish Adjutant-General, was again sent with this reply, and he was referred to the Crown Prince for a final adjustment of terms. It is said that the populace were so excited that the flag-of-truce officer was in danger of his life. The interval was taken advantage of to get the leading British ships, all of whom were much crippled in rigging and sails, out of their very precarious position. The Monarch led the way out, but touched on the shoal; but the Ganges, striking her amidships, pushed her over it. The Glatton passed clear, but the Elephant and the Defiance grounded about a mile from the formidable Trekroner battery, and there remained fixed, for many hours, in spite of every exertion. The Désirée also grounded, close to the Bellona. Soon after the Elephant grounded Lord Nelson left her, and followed the Danish Adjutant General to the London, Sir Hyde Parker’s flag-ship.
Here an important conference was held. It is said that Nelson remarked to the Danish officer that “the French fight well, but they would not have borne for one hour what the Danes have borne for five. I have been in many battles, but that of to-day is by far the most terrible.”
During the whole of the night of April 2d the British were occupied getting out their prizes, and in floating their grounded ships. On the morning of the 3d all of the latter but the Désirée were got off.
The negotiations lasted five days, and during that time all the prizes, except the 60-gun ship Holstein, were set on fire and destroyed. Most of those so destroyed were not worth carrying away.
On the 9th of April an armistice of fourteen weeks was agreed upon; Denmark agreeing, in that time, to suspend all proceedings under the treaty of armed neutrality which she had entered into with Sweden and Russia.
The prisoners were sent on shore, to be accounted for in case hostilities should be renewed; and the British fleet had permission to purchase fresh provisions and supplies at Copenhagen, and along the coast adjoining.
In the action before Copenhagen the loss, in killed and wounded, of the British fleet, was about twelve hundred. The Danish loss is put down at between sixteen and eighteen hundred, and, with prisoners taken, at about six thousand.
Although the affair, as a mere fight, might be considered a drawn battle, the first overture having come from the English, the victory clearly remained with the latter, for they got almost everything they demanded. The Danes were much inferior in number of guns, and are entitled to every credit for the splendid resistance they made.
On the 12th of April Admiral Parker despatched to England the prize ship Holstein, of 60 guns, conveying most of his wounded men, and also one or two of his own ships which had been much disabled. He then transhipped the guns of his heavy ships into chartered vessels, and managed to get his fleet into the Baltic in this way, instead of going round by the Belts. This feat astonished the Swedes, Russians, Danes and Prussians, who had not imagined that such ships could be brought into the Baltic by that channel.