1716 naval battle of the Great Northern War
Battle of Dynekilen
|
---|
Part of the
Great Northern War
|
Tordenskjold i Dynekilen
by Carl Neumann
|
Date
| June 28, 1716 (
O.S.
)
July 8, 1716 (
N.S.
)
|
---|
Location
| |
---|
Result
|
Dano-Norwegian victory
|
---|
|
Belligerents
|
---|
Swedish Empire
|
Denmark-Norway
|
Commanders and leaders
|
---|
Olof Stromstierna
|
Peter Tordenskjold
|
Strength
|
---|
1,284 men
[1]
13
warships
,
14
merchant vessels
,
1
land battery
with
40
heavy cannons
and
72
light cannons
in total
[2]
[a]
|
931 men
[5]
7
warships
with
97
heavy cannons
,
38
light cannons
and
2
howitzers
in total
[2]
|
Casualties and losses
|
---|
9
warships
captured,
4
warships
sunk,
5
merchants
captured,
9
merchants
destroyed
[b]
21 men or more captured,
unknown number of killed and wounded
[6]
|
19 killed,
57 wounded
[2]
|
|
---|
- Denmark and Holstein-Gottorp (1700)
- Swedish Baltic dominions
- Courland and Western Lithuania
- Poland
and
Saxony
- Russia
and Eastern Lithuania
- Sweden proper (including
Finland
)
- Moldavia
- Swedish German dominions
- Mecklenburg and Holstein-Gottorp
- Norway
- Naval battles
- Treaties
|
The naval
Battle of Dynekilen
(
Danish
:
Slaget ved Dynekilen
) took place on 8 July 1716 during the
Great Northern War
between a
Dano-Norwegian
fleet under
Peter Tordenskjold
and a
Swedish
fleet under
Olof Stromstierna
. The battle resulted in a Dano-Norwegian victory.
Background
[
edit
]
On 28 October 1709
Frederik IV of Denmark
, the Danish-Norwegian king declared war against Sweden. The war declaration came after the Swedish defeat at the
Battle of Poltava
, which resulted in a decisive victory for
Peter I of Russia
over
Charles XII of Sweden
.
In the naval enactment, a light
Danish-Norwegian
force of 7 ships under
Peter Tordenskjold
trapped and defeated a Swedish transport fleet of 44 ships in Dynekilen fjord, just north of
Stromstad
, on the west coast of Sweden. The Swedish transport fleet was transporting troops, ammunition and supplies from
Goteborg
, destined for the land forces under the command of Charles XII invading Norway.
[7]
Battle
[
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]
The
Danish-Norwegian flotilla
ambushed the Swedish fleet while it was positioned in the harbour of Dynekilen. In the process, it overcame and destroyed a small island fort equipped with six 12-pounder guns positioned in the harbour entrance. The largest Swedish ship,
Stenbock
, a former
ship of the line
converted into a cannon barge, surrendered, after which the lighter vessels were run aground, and an attempt made to destroy most of them. The Dano-Norwegian forces worked to put out fires and salvage as many of the ships as possible. They managed to save and capture 30 ships, while 14 ships, consisting of various galleys and transport ships, were successfully destroyed by the Swedish. Swedish land forces continued to fire muskets from the surrounding hills during these operations, eventually forcing Tordenskjold to leave, but not preventing him from taking with him all of 30 captured Swedish ships. The Dano-Norwegian force suffered 76 casualties, 19 killed and 57 wounded.
On account of the loss of this transport fleet at Dynekilen, Charles XII was forced to abandon the invasion of Norway and withdraw his troops to Sweden, where he was soon preoccupied with setting up defences against the expected combined Danish and Russian invasion force.
Ships involved
[
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]
Denmark-Norway (Tordenskjold)
[
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]
Sweden
[
edit
]
- Stenbock
24 (barge) - Surrendered
- Proserpina
5 (galley) - Captured
- Ulysses
5 (galley) - Captured
- Lucretia
12 (galley) - Captured
- Wreden
21 (galley) - Sunk, later salvaged by the Swedes.
- Achilles
5 (half-galley) - Captured
- Pollux
5 (half-galley) - Captured
- Hector
5 (half-galley) - destroyed.
- Castor
5 (half-galley) - Sunk, later salvaged by the Swedes
- Biorn
4 (double-sloop) - Captured
- Svarte Maeren
4 (double-sloop) - Captured
- Schelpade
n 12 (Gallioth) - Sunk, later salvaged by the Swedes
- TRANSPORTS - 5 captured, 3 destroyed
All according to Tordenskiolds own report. (printed at pages 229- 230, in the book, "Tordenskiolds Brev" (by Komandor, Olav Bergersen 1963)
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
The exact strength of the Swedish force is unknown. According to sources, there were between 12
[3]
and 15 warships
[4]
and 8
[3]
to 29 merchant vessels, with 13 warships and 14 merchant vessels being considered the most likely figure in modern literature.
[2]
- ^
According to a letter written by Tordenskjold, the Swedes lost 9 warships captured by the Norwegians and 4 sunk by their own crew, and 5 merchants captured and 3 destroyed and sunk by their own crew.
[2]
However, according to other sources, all of the Swedish ships were lost, resulting in a figure of 9 merchants destroyed.
[6]
Some sources speak of 44 Swedish ships lost, of which 30 captured.
[7]
- ^
Dan H. Andersen. Mandsmod og kongegunst: en biografi om Peter Wessel Tordenskiold. Aschehoug, 2004. p. 207
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
Nils Modig. Stromstad: Gransstad i ofred och krig. Warne forlag, 2013. pp. 74?86
- ^
a
b
Olav Bergersen. Tordenskiolds brev. Facsimile, 1963. pp. 229?230
- ^
Knut Lundblad. Georg Friedrich Jenssen-Tusch: Geschichte Karl des Zwolften, Konigs von Schweden, Band 2. Hamburg (1835). p. 491
- ^
William Coucheron?Aamot. Det norske folk paa land og sjø. Det norske aktieforlag, 1901. p. 233
- ^
a
b
Lars Ericson Wolke. Sjoslag och ryssharjningar : kampen om Ostersjon under stora nordiska kriget 1700-1721. Norstedts, 2012. pp. 229?234
- ^
a
b
Feldborg, Andreas Andersen (1807).
Great and good deeds of Danes, Norwegians, and Holsteinians, collected by O. Malling, and tr. by the author of A tour in Zealand
. Danske. p. 170.
Sources
[
edit
]
- Adamson, Hans Christian
Admiral Thunderbolt;: The spectacular career of Peter Wessel, Norway's greatest sea hero
(Chilton Co., Book Division. 1959)
- Andersson, R.C.
Naval Wars in the Baltic 1522?1850
( Francis Edwards Ltd. 1969)
ISBN
978-0-902476-00-4
- Bergersen, Olav
"Tordenskiolds Brev" (Universitetsforlaget, Trondheim 1963)
- Bjerg, Hans Christian
Tordenskiold: Glimt af Wessel
(Borgan. 1990)
ISBN
978-87-7466-181-8
- Christiansen, Per
Jeg vil synge om en helt: et biografisk skrift i anledning 300-arsjubileet for Peter Wessel Tordenskiolds fødsel
(Ringve museum. 1990)
ISBN
978-82-990305-5-7
- Kavli, Guthorm
I Tordenskjolds Kjølvann
(Schibsted. 1990)
ISBN
82-516-1352-3
59°00′30″N
11°13′18″E
/
59.00833°N 11.22167°E
/
59.00833; 11.22167