1807?1814 war between Denmark?Norway and the United Kingdom
The
Gunboat War
(
Danish
:
Kanonbadskrigen
,
Norwegian
:
Kanonbatkrigen
,
Swedish
:
Kanonbatskriget
; 1807?1814) was a naval conflict between
Denmark?Norway
and
Great Britain
supported by
Sweden
during the
Napoleonic Wars
. The war's name is derived from the Danish tactic of employing small
gunboats
against the materially superior
Royal Navy
. In Scandinavia it is seen as the later stage of the
English Wars
, whose commencement is accounted as the
First Battle of Copenhagen
in 1801.
Background
[
edit
]
The naval conflict between Britain and Denmark-Norway commenced with the
First Battle of Copenhagen
in 1801 when
Horatio Nelson
's squadron of Admiral
Hyde Parker
's fleet attacked the Danish capital. This came as a basis of Denmark-Norway's policy of
armed neutrality
during the latter stages of the
French Revolutionary Wars
, where Denmark used its naval forces to protect trade flowing within, into and out of the Danish-Norwegian waters. Hostilities between Denmark-Norway and the United Kingdom broke out again by the
Second Battle of Copenhagen
in 1807, when the British attacked the Danish capital to ensure that the Danish-Norwegian fleet did not fall into the hands of
Napoleon
.
Danish boat design
[
edit
]
As a result of the British capture or scuttling of large parts of the Danish-Norwegian fleet during the assault on
Copenhagen
, the Dano-Norwegian government decided to build gunboats in large numbers to compensate for the loss. The gunboats were originally designed by a Swede,
Fredrik Henrik af Chapman
, and the strategic advantage of gunboats lay in the fact that they could be produced rapidly and inexpensively throughout the kingdom. The tactical advantages were that they were highly manoeuvrable, especially in still and shallow waters and presented small targets. On the other hand, the boats were vulnerable and likely to sink from a single hit. They therefore could not be used in rough seas, and they were less effective against large warships. Still, the Danish-Norwegian government produced more than 200 gunboats in two models: the
shallop
gunboat which had a crew of 76 men, with an 18- or 24-pounder
cannon
in the bow and another in the stern, and the smaller
barge
type that had a total crew of 24 men, armed with a single 24-pounder.
The Danish Commodore (later, Admiral)
Steen Andersen Bille
(1751?1833) is credited with being the driving force behind the post-1807 Dano-Norwegian strategy of gunboat warfare. Below
[2]
is a description of each of the four classes of gunboats according to Junior Lieutenant Hans Georg Garde, himself a commander of one of the larger types of gunboats.
[3]
- Kanonchaluppen
: These were the larger type of
gunboat
. Each was armed with two 24-pounder cannon and four 4-pounder
howitzers
and had a wartime establishment of 69 ? 79 men.
- Kanonjollen
: These were the smaller type of gunboat. Each was armed with one 24-pounder cannon and two 4-pounder howitzers, and had wartime establishment of 41 men.
- Morterchaluppen
: These were the larger, mortar-armed gunboats. Each was armed with one 100-pounder
mortar
and two 4-pounder howitzers, and had a wartime establishment of 40 men.
- Morterbarkasserne
: These were smaller, mortar-armed gunboats. Each was armed with one mortar and had a wartime establishment of 19 men. They were little more than ordinary ships' boats into which a mortar had been set. They had a tendency to leak badly after 5 ? 7 mortar shells had been fired. Their crews then had to bring them back into harbour, remove the mortar, and
recaulk
their vessels.
Reserve crew who could not be accommodated on board were quartered in buildings on land or in the
frigate
Triton
which was
in ordinary
. Battle-ready gunboats had their crews on board.
Defences on the Norwegian coast in 1808 are listed at
Royal Dano-Norwegian Navy order of battle in Norway (1808)
. Ten
schooner-rigged gunboats
capable of operating in the rougher Norwegian Sea were built in Bergen and Trondheim in the years 1808 to 1811.
In the first three years of the Gunboat War, these boats were on several occasions able to seize enemy cargo ships from their convoys and to capture British
brigs
, though they were not strong enough to overcome larger
frigates
and
ships of the line
. The British had control of Danish waters during the whole of the 1807?1814 war, and when the season was suited to navigation they were regularly able to escort large merchant convoys out through
the Sound
and the
Great Belt
. Although the discussion below focuses on armed encounters involving an exchange of fire, one must keep in mind that the British also captured numerous Danish privateers without firing a shot, and regularly seized Danish
merchant vessels
as
prizes
. The British also conducted
amphibious landings
on several Danish islands,
[4]
[5]
many populated but lacking garrisons. British warships frequently landed to replenish their stocks of firewood, fresh water and livestock, which were purchased or seized to augment their provisions.
The war overlapped, in time, the
Anglo-Russian War
. As a result, the British expanded their trade embargo to Russian waters and the British navy conducted forays northwards into the
Barents Sea
. The British navy conducted successful raids on
Hasvik
and
Hammerfest
and disrupted the
Pomor trade
, the Norwegian trade with Russia.
1807?08
[
edit
]
On 12 August 1807, even before the war had been declared, the British
sixth-rate
HMS
Comus
took part in a one-sided
single-ship action
when she captured the 32-gun Danish frigate (
fregat
)
Friderichsværn
. In the engagement the British suffered only one man wounded; the Danes lost 12 men while 20 were wounded, some mortally.
[6]
Lloyd's List
described the Danish vessel as a "Danish Frigate, of 32 Guns, late Guardship", and reported that the action, near Elsinor, had been short.
[7]
The Royal Navy took
Frederiksværn
into service as
HMS
Frederickscoarn
.
On 23 August, the British
HMS
Prometheus
fired
Congreve rockets
from her decks against a Danish gunboat
flotilla
, but the attack had little effect.
[9]
The British were instead more successful on 11 September when
HMS
Carrier
brought to the
British Admiralty
the despatches from Admiral
Thomas McNamara Russell
announcing the capitulation of the small island of
Heligoland
to the British.
[10]
Heligoland later also became a centre for smuggling and for espionage against Napoleon.
In the
East Indies
, troops from the
14th Regiment of Foot
landed from
HMS
Russell
on the
Coromandel Coast
on 13 February 1808 and took over the Danish possessions at
Tranquebar
. On 14 March, the 14-gun
HMS
Childers
and the Danish 20-gun sloop
HDMS
Lougen
engaged in an inconclusive
single-ship action
.
[11]
Childers
lost two men killed and nine wounded before she could escape and return to Leith.
[12]
On 22 March the British
ships of the line
HMS
Nassau
and
HMS
Stately
destroyed the last Danish ship of the line,
HDMS
Prinds Christian Frederik
, commanded by Captain
C.W. Jessen
, in the
Battle of Zealand Point
.
Nassau
was herself a former Danish warship.
Nassau
had one man killed and 16 men wounded, while
Stately
had four killed and 27 wounded. The Danes lost 55 men killed and 88 wounded.
[12]
Boats from
HMS
Daphne
and
HMS
Tartarus
, supported by the brig
HMS
Forward
, drove ashore a Dano-Norwegian convoy at Flodstrand, near
The Skaw
on 22 April. The convoy was taking supplies to Norway as a result of supply shortages that had occurred there after the British had begun their
naval blockade
between Denmark and Norway in 1807. The British went in under heavy fire from the shore and a castle there and brought out five brigs, three galliots, a schooner, and a sloop (totalling some 870 tons burthen), for the loss of five men wounded.
[13]
The British
frigate
HMS
Tartar
also approached
Bergen
under
Dutch
colours
on 15 May in order to attack the
Dutch
frigate
Guelderland
, which had been undergoing repairs there. Unfortunately for the British the
Guelderland
had already sailed, so during the night the British sent in boats in an attempt to capture Danish shipping in the harbour. When the boats came under heavy fire,
Tartar
came in to cover them, only to come under attack by the schooner
Odin
and five gunboats. During the
Battle of Alvøen
Tartar
'
s captain and another seaman were killed and twelve men were wounded before
Tartar
was able to make her escape.
The
hired armed
cutter
Swan
found herself in action off the island of
Bornholm
with a Danish 8-gun cutter-rigged vessel on 24 May.
[14]
Swan
had been carrying despatches when she had spotted the Danish vessel and lured her out. The engagement ended with the Danish vessel exploding, while
Swan
suffered no casualties despite coming under fire both from the Danish vessel and batteries on Bornholm.
[14]
The fire from the batteries and the sighting of more Danish vessels forced
Swan
to withdraw after the battle without being able to make efforts to rescue survivors.
[14]
On 4 June four Danish gunboats attacked
HMS
Tickler
and captured her after a four-hour fight.
Tickler
had lost her captain and 14 other men killed, and 22 other officers and men killed and wounded out of her crew of 50 men; the Danes had one man wounded.
[12]
The Danes would later use
Tickler
as a cadet training ship.
[15]
The Danes were also victorious on 19 June, when the brig
HMS
Seagull
pursued and caught up with the Danish brig
HDMS
Lougen
, which was armed with eighteen short 18-pounder guns and two long 6-pounder guns.
[16]
About 20 minutes into the engagement six Danish gunboats arrived from behind some rocks and in two divisions of three each took up positions on
Seagull
'
s quarter and fired on her with their 24-pounder guns while
Lougen
fired on her larboard bow. Within half an hour the Danish fire had badly damaged
Seagull
'
s rigging and dismounted five of her guns. Eventually
Seagull
struck
, having lost eight men killed and 20 wounded, including her captain, R.B. Cathcart.
Seagull
sank soon after the Danes captured her, drowning several of her captors who were aboard.
[16]
The Danes later recovered
Seagull
and added her to their navy.
The Danes also captured
HMS
Tigress
. Sixteen Danish gunboats captured her off
Langeland
in the
Great Belt
on 2 August. In the engagement
Tigress
lost two men killed and eight wounded.
[17]
Immobilized by a dead calm,
HMS
Africa
, under Captain
John Barrett
, barely survived an attack by 25 Danish gunboats and seven armed launches under the command of
Commodore
J.C. Krieger
in an action in the
Øresund
on 20 October 1808.
[19]
[20]
Africa
lost nine men killed and 51 wounded; had night not descended the Danes might well have captured her.
[21]
The British, however, were less fortunate on 5 December, when the bomb vessel
HMS
Proselyte
was wrecked on Anholt Reef while caught in the ice. The reason that the vessel sank in that area was because the Danes had closed the lighthouse on the island of
Anholt
, in the
Kattegat
early during the war, and the Admiralty had ordered her to station herself off the island on 9 November to carry a light for the safety of passing convoys. All her crew was however saved.
1809?10
[
edit
]
The British 64-gun
third rate
Standard
, under Captain
Aiskew Paffard Hollis
, and the 18-pounder 36-gun frigate
HMS
Owen Glendower
captured the island of
Anholt
on 18 May 1809. A party of seamen and marines under the command of Captain William Selby of
Owen Glendower
, with the assistance of Captain
Edward Nicolls
of the
Standard
'
s marines, landed. The Danish garrison of 170 men put up a sharp, but ineffectual resistance that killed one
British marine
and wounded two before the garrison then surrendered and the British took immediate possession of the island. The principal objective of the mission was to restore the lighthouse on Anholt to its pre-war state to facilitate the movement of British men of war and merchantmen navigating the dangerous seas there.
[23]
On 9 June a Danish and Norwegian flotilla of twenty-one
gunboats
and seven mortar boats attacked a British convoy of 70 merchant ships off the island of
Saltholm
in
Øresund Strait
near
Copenhagen
. The Dano-Norwegian flotilla was able to capture 12 or 13 merchant vessels, plus
HMS
Turbulent
, one of the escorts. The Danes also captured
HMS
Allart
during the
Battle of Saltholm
on 10 August. During the battle
HMS
Allart
, a former Danish Navy brig, chased
Lougen
and
Seagull
into
Fredriksvern
only to find herself pursued by 15 Danish gunboats, arrayed in three divisions. After a three-hour chase the gunboats closed with
Allart
and an engagement began. After two hours
Allart
struck
, having had her rigging shot away and having lost one man killed and three wounded.
On 12 August, Commander John Willoughby Marshall and
HMS
Lynx
were in the company of the gun-brig
HMS
Monkey
, Lieutenant Thomas Fitzgerald, when they discovered three Danish
luggers
off the Danish coast.
[25]
The water was too shallow for
Lynx
, so Marshall sent
Monkey
and boats from
Lynx
in to cut them out. The largest of the luggers, which had four guns and four howitzers, opened fire on
Monkey
before all three luggers ran ashore once
Monkey
and the launch's 18-pounder
carronade
returned fire. The British refloated the luggers and brought them out the next day, having taken no casualties. In their haste to escape the vessel, the Danes failed to fire the fuse on a cask of gunpowder they had left by the fireplace on the largest lugger.
[26]
Marshall thought the Danes' behaviour in leaving the explosive device disgraceful.
[25]
The Danish-Norwegian navy managed to capture another British vessel on 2 September, when a Danish gunboat flotilla from
Fladstrand
, North Jutland, under the command of Lieutenant Nicolai H. Tuxen, captured the gun-brig
HMS
Minx
. The engagement cost
Minx
two dead and nine wounded.
The British Royal Navy had stationed her off the
Skaw
Reef to show a warning light.
HMS
Sheldrake
reported the loss to the Admiralty.
[27]
Early in 1810, the Danes ceased sending provisioning ships to Norway because of British naval activity in Øresund and withdrew the naval officers that were so involved to Zealand. Meanwhile, there were difficulties in transporting grain from
Vordingborg
, in the south of Denmark, past
Møn
to Copenhagen. This was overcome by using gunboats to convoy the merchant vessels, as the gunboats were much more maneuverable in the shallow coastal waters, and restricting the cargo vessels to those which could pass inside of Møn. Larger seagoing ships which would have to go outside, i.e. east of
Møn
, were too liable to be caught by the British. These actions, together with a good form of coastal signalling, resulted in a steady supply of grain to the Danish capital.
[28]
On 13 April 1810, four Danish gunboats, under the command of First Lieutenant
Peter Nicolay Skibsted
, captured the British gunboat
Grinder
off the
Djursland
peninsula near
Grena
.
[15]
Grinder
was armed with one 24-pounder gun and one 24-pounder carronade. She was under the command of Master's Mate Thomas Hester and had over-wintered at Anholt. Of her crew of 34 men, two were killed and two wounded in the action.
On 23 May, seven Danish gunboats engaged the
Cruizer
-class brig-sloop
Raleigh
,
Alban
, and His Majesty's
hired armed
cutter
Princess of Wales
, off the
Skaw
. The engagement cost the Danes the loss of one gunboat, which blew up, and heavy damage to the rest.
The
Battle of Silda
was fought on 23 July near the
Norwegian
island of
Silda
. The British frigates
HMS
Belvidera
and
HMS
Nemesis
attacked the pilot's station on the island and defeated the three gun
schooners
Odin
,
Tor
and
Balder
and the gun barge
Cort Adeler
, which were stationed there.
On 12 September, six Danish gunboats captured a becalmed
Alban
after a four-hour battle during which she lost her captain and one man killed and three men wounded. The Danes then took her into service as
The Alban
.
1811?14
[
edit
]
Danish gunboats manned by nearly 1,000 men, including infantry forces attempted to recapture Anholt on 27 February 1811. The
Battle of Anholt
resulted in a Danish withdrawal to
Jutland
, with heavy losses. The Danes did however emerge victorious on 23 April when
Swan
encountered three Danish gunboats in
Sunningesund
.
A shot from one of the gunboats damaged
Swan
and resulted in the wetting of her powder
magazine
, forcing her surrender.
The Danes boarded her but were able to retrieve little before
Swan
sank off
Uddevalla
, on the Swedish coast north of
Gothenburg
.
The fight cost
Swan
two men killed,
as the same battle apparently also resulted in the damaging of the
hired armed cutter
Hero
.
[30]
[a]
On 11 May,
Rifleman
recaptured
Alban
from the Danes. The capture occurred after a 12-hour chase near
Shetland
. At the time of her capture
Alban
was armed with 12 guns and had a crew of 58 men, all under the command of a lieutenant of the Danish navy. She was three days out of
Farsund
in Norway and had taken no prizes.
[31]
On 31 July 1811,
HMS
Brev Drageren
and
Algerine
were cruising together in
Long Sound
, Norway, when they encountered and engaged three Danish brigs: the 20-gun
Langeland
, the 18-gun
Lugum
, and the 16-gun
Kiel
. Outnumbered and outgunned, the British vessels took flight.
[32]
The next day
Brev Drageren
unsuccessfully re-engaged first one and then two of the brigs. In the inconclusive engagement each British vessel sustained one man killed, and
Brev Drageren
also had three wounded.
[32]
On 17 August
HMS
Manly
sailed from
Sheerness
with a convoy for the
Baltic
. On 2 September, while she was cruising off
Arendal
on the Norwegian coast in the company of
Chanticleer
, three Danish 18-gun-brigs (
Alsen
,
Lolland
, and
Samsø
) engaged them.
[33]
Lolland
engaged
Manly
while the other two chased
Chanticleer
but she maintained a course away from the action and made good her escape.
In the engagement with
Lolland
,
Manly
had her spars and rigging cut to pieces. With only six guns left, and having lost one man killed and three wounded,
Manly
was forced to strike.
The last major fight between Danish-Norwegian and British warships took place on 6 July 1812 during the
Battle of Lyngør
, when a small squadron of British warships met a small squadron of Norwegian warships at
Lyngør
on the Norwegian coast. The British withdrew after destroying the Norwegian frigate
Najaden
. On 2 August the same year, boats of
HMS
Horatio
, which was under the command of Captain
Lord George Stuart
, captured two Danish vessels, under the command of Lieutenant Hans Buderhof, and their prize, an American vessel of about 400 tons
burthen
(
bm
). The two Danish vessels were schooner No. 114 (of six 6-pounders and 30 men), and cutter No. 97 (of four 6-pounders and 22 men). In the action the British lost nine men killed and 16 wounded, of whom two died of their wounds; the Danes lost ten men killed and 13 wounded.
[36]
Peace
[
edit
]
As a result of the Swedish invasion of
Holstein
in December 1813 during the
War of the Sixth Coalition
, Denmark-Norway was forced to seek peace, and the
Treaty of Kiel
ended the war on 14 January 1814. Denmark-Norway had to
cede
Heligoland
to
Britain
and the
Kingdom of Norway
(except for Greenland, Iceland and the Faroe Islands) to the
King of Sweden
, while Denmark did get back the island of Anholt and was compensated for the loss of Norway with the Duchy of
Saxe-Lauenburg
. However, this treaty was not accepted by the Norwegian people, who refused to be simply a bargaining chip, and a
war
between Norway and Sweden broke out on 26 July.
[37]
See also
[
edit
]
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
Gosset has
Hero
being sunk, but does not report any court date.
Other reports have
Hero
damaged, but continuing to serve until November 1811.
Citations
[
edit
]
- ^
Olesen, Jens E. (2008). "Schwedisch-Pommern in der schwedischen Politik nach 1806". In North, Michael; Riemer, Robert.
Das Ende des Alten Reiches im Ostseeraum. Wahrnehmungen und Transformationen
(in German). Bohlau. pp. 289.
ISBN
3-412-20108-1
.
- ^
Danish Naval Museum -
Nestved
Archived
18 March 2005 at the
Wayback Machine
but see note below
- ^
H G Garde
- ^
In Danish: Steffen Hahnemann og Mette Roepstorff: Endelave og den Engelske Fregat 1994
- ^
In Danish: Samsøs Historie samt Tunøs Historie" by J P Nielsen in 1946
- ^
"No. 16062"
.
The London Gazette
. 5 September 1807. p. 1157.
- ^
Lloyd's List
№4184.
- ^
Munch-Petersen, p.201.
- ^
"No. 16064"
.
The London Gazette
. 12 September 1807. p. 1192.
- ^
Cust (1862), Vol. 2, p. 132.
- ^
a
b
c
Brett (1871), p.256.
- ^
"No. 16146"
.
The London Gazette
. 17 May 1808. pp. 696?697.
- ^
a
b
c
James (1837), Vol 5, pp.33?4.
- ^
a
b
Wandell (1915), p.260.
- ^
a
b
"No. 16184"
.
The London Gazette
. 17 September 1808. pp. 1284?1285.
- ^
The United service magazine
, Volume 1849, Issue 2, p.419.
- ^
Royal Navy.org
Archived
22 July 2011 at the
Wayback Machine
Events of 1808
- ^
AFRICA in
Not ? der danische Kanonenbootkrieg 1808
(German)
- ^
Allen (1852), Vol 2, pp.251?2.
- ^
James (1827), 130.
- ^
a
b
"No. 16296"
.
The London Gazette
. 9 September 1809. pp. 1456?1457.
- ^
Norrie (1827), p.202.
- ^
"No. 16297"
.
The London Gazette
. 12 September 1809. p. 1471.
- ^
Wandel CF (1815) pages 265?267
- ^
Anderson (1910), p.344.
- ^
"No. 16486"
.
The London Gazette
. 18 May 1811. p. 921.
- ^
a
b
Naval Chronicle
Vol. 26 (Jul?Dec 1811), pp.284?6.
- ^
James (1837), Vol. 5, pp.347?8.
- ^
"No. 16637"
.
The London Gazette
. 22 August 1812. pp. 1710?1711.
- ^
Angell, Henrik
(1914). Syv-aars-krigen for 17. mai 1807?1814. Kristiania: Aschehoug. p. 219
- Individual record cards in Danish for ships of the Danish Royal Navy can be no longer (Feb 2013) found on the internet at
Orlogmuseet Skibregister.
The Danish Naval Museum is building
a new website
at which details, drawings and models may be available. For individual ships already listed, including Næstved, see
here
Archived
31 December 2012 at the
Wayback Machine
.
References
[
edit
]
- Allen, Joseph (1852).
Battles of the British navy
. Vol. 1. H.G. Bohn.
- Brett, John Edwin (1871)
Brett
'
s illustrated naval history of Great Britain, from the earliest period to the present time: a reliable record of the maritime rise and progress of England
. (Publishing Off.).
- Cust, Sir Edward (1862)
Annals of the wars of the nineteenth century
. (John Murray).
- Gosset, William Patrick (1986),
The lost ships of the Royal Navy, 1793?1900
, Mansell,
ISBN
0-7201-1816-6
- Grocott, Terence (1997),
Shipwrecks of the revolutionary and Napoleonic eras
, Chatham,
ISBN
1-86176-030-2
- (in Danish)
H G Garde : Den dansk-norske Sømagts Historie (Danish Norwegian Seapower) as reported
here
- Hepper, David J. (1994).
British Warship Losses in the Age of Sail, 1650?1859
. Rotherfield: Jean Boudriot.
ISBN
0-948864-30-3
.
- James, William
(1837),
The Naval History of Great Britain, from the Declaration of War by France in 1793, to the Accession of George IV.
, R. Bentley
- Munch-Petersen, Thomas (2007),
Defying Napoleon
, Sutton Publishing
- Norie, J. W. (1842).
The naval gazetteer, biographer and chronologist; containing a history of the late wars from ... 1793 to ... 1801; and from ... 1803 to 1815, and continued, as to the biographical part to the present time
. London: C. Wilson.
- (in Danish)
Wandell, C.F. (1815)
Søkrigen i de dansk-norske farvande 1807?14
(
War in Danish-Norwegian Waters 1807?14
), (Copenhagen: Carlsbergsfonden for Jacob Lund).
- Winfield, Rif (2008),
British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793?1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates
, Seaforth,
ISBN
978-1-86176-246-7
External links
[
edit
]