The origins of the Danmark lie in efforts of the Confederate States of America to purchase warships in Europe, which is to say in the United Kingdom and France, during the American Civil War.

North proceeded to Britain, where the Whig government had adopted a laissez-faire attitude to American arms-buying.

By the summer of 1863, the Confederate agents in Europe were seeking to sell off North's ship, offering her to the Imperial Russian Navy.

Thompson's too were concerned that they would not be allowed to deliver the ship to the Confederates in the changed political climate and cancelled the contract in late 1863.

At sea with her armament aboard she rolled violently, and the coal consumption of her engines was extremely high.