Peter Tordenskjold

Vice-Admiral Peter Jansen Wessel Tordenskiold (28 October 1690 – 12 November 1720) was a Royal Dano-Norwegian Navy officer. Born in Trondheim, he travelled to Copenhagen in 1704 and eventually join the Dano-Norwegian navy, rising to the rank of vice-admiral for his actions during the Great Northern War. He won a name for himself through audacity and courage and was ennobled as Peter Tordenskiold by Frederick IV of Denmark in 1716. His greatest exploit came later that year, as he destroyed a supply fleet of the Swedish Navy at the Battle of Dynekilen, ensuring the siege of Fredriksten would end in failure. In 1720, he was killed in a duel. He ranks among the most famous naval captains in Denmark and Norway. He experienced an unusually rapid rise in rank and died when he was only 30 years old.

Name

His birth name was Peter Jansen Wessel. His name occurs with spellings as Peder and Pitter. Upon his ennoblement in 1716, he received the name Tordenskiold meaning 'thunder shield'. This was also the orthographical form which he used. In newer times, the form Tordenskjold has become usual.

Biography

Born in Trondheim in Norway, he was the tenth child of alderman Jan Wessel and the brother of later Rear-Admiral Caspar von Wessel. Peter Wessel was a wild, unruly lad who gave his pious parents much trouble, eventually stowing away on a ship heading for Copenhagen in 1704. In Copenhagen, he unsuccessfully sought to become a navy cadet. He befriended the king's chaplain, Peder Jespersen, who sent Wessel on a voyage to the West Indies and finally procured a vacant cadetship for him. After further voyages, this time to the East Indies, Wessel was appointed second lieutenant in the Royal Danish-Norwegian Navy on 7 July 1711 and went on to serve on the frigate Postillion. While on Postillion, he befriended Norwegian admiral baron Waldemar Løvendal, who was the first to recognize the young man's potential as a naval officer. Løvendal soon made Peter Wessel the captain of the four-gun sloop Ormen (HMS Serpent).

Early service

Wessel started his navy service during the Great Northern War against Sweden, cruising about the Swedish coast in Ormen picking up useful information about the enemy. In June 1712, Løvendal promoted him to the 18-gun warship Løvendals Galej, against the advice of the Danish admiralty, who considered Wessel unreliable. After officially complaining about his dreary commanding officer Daniel Jacob Wilster in Norway, Wessel was transferred to the Baltic Sea command of Ulrik Christian Gyldenløve, who appreciated and utilized Wessel's courage. Wessel was already renowned for two things: the audacity with which he attacked any Swedish vessels he came across regardless of the odds and his unique seamanship, which always enabled him to evade capture.

The Great Northern War had now entered its later stage when Sweden, beset on every side by foes, employed her fleet principally to transport troops and stores to the distressed Swedish Pomerania provinces. The audacity of Wessel impeded her at every point. He was continually snapping up transports, dashing into the fjords where her vessels lay concealed and holding up her detached frigates. He was a part of Gyldenløve's fleet which succeeded in destroying a large number of Swedish transport ships at Rügen on 29 September 1712, and was promoted from second lieutenant to captain lieutenant. His successes compelled the Swedes to post a reward for his capture, while his free and easy ways also won him enemies in the Danish navy, who deplored his almost privateer-like conduct.

Court-martial

In June 1714, Wessel, commanding Løvendals Galei, began cruising off the Norwegian coast in search of a Swedish privateer spotted near Bergen. Unable to locate the privateer, Wessel sailed southwards to intercept Swedish privateers in the North Sea bound for Gothenburg. On 26 July at 2pm, Løvendals Galei, flying a Dutch ensign, encountered a frigate flying a British ensign off Lindesnes. The two ships saluted each other and sailed away before the other ship abruptly turned and fired two shots at Løvendals Galei. Wessel quickly ordered his crew to raise the Dano-Norwegian ensign and fire three shots at the unknown ship, which had raised a Swedish ensign. The unknown ship, which was the 28-gun Swedish privateer Olbing Galley (purchased in England and captained by the Irishman Samuel Blackman) fired a broadside at Løvendals Galei, initiating a full-scale engagement.

At roughly 9:15pm, after over seven hours of combat, Olbing Galley raised her sails and attempted to flee, with Løvendals Galei in hot pursuit. By 10:30pm, the skirmish resumed, but ceased at 11:45pm due to nightfall. At 6:00am on 27 July, the two ships met again and another skirmish ensued until 9:30am. By now, both ships were severely damaged and running low on ammunition. Wessel sent an envoy to Olbing Galley, thanking her crew for a good duel and requesting more ammunition to continue the fight. His request was denied and Wessel and Blackman drank a toast to each other's health before parting.

When he heard about the incident, an infuriated Frederick IV of Denmark ordered the Admiralty to court-martial Wessel. In November 1714, Wessel stood trial, accused of disclosing vital military information (his lack of ammunition) to the enemy, as well as endangering a ship of the Crown by engaging a superior warship. Wessel defended himself vigorously and blamed his comrades, impressing Frederick IV; arguing that a section of the naval code mandated attacking fleeing enemy ships no matter their size, he was acquitted on 15 December. Wessel subsequently requested a promotion from the King and was made captain on 28 December.

Greatest exploits

When, in 1715, the return of King Charles XII of Sweden from Turkey to Stralsund put new life into the dispirited Swedish forces, Wessel distinguished himself in numerous engagements off the coast of Swedish Pomerania, under the command of Admiral Christian Carl Gabel. He did the enemy considerable damage by cutting out their frigates and destroying their transports. During a battle at Kolberg on 24 April 1715, Wessel captured the Swedish Rear-Admiral Hans Wachtmeister, as well as the frigate Hvita Örn (White Eagle), which he was granted as his new flagship under the name Hvide Ørn. He then transferred to the main fleet under the command of Peter Raben.

On returning to Denmark at the beginning of 1716, he was ennobled by Frederick IV under the name of Tordenskiold. In 1716, Charles XII invaded Norway and laid siege to the fortress of Fredrikshald. Tordenskiold compelled Charles to raise the siege and retire to Sweden. Tordenskiold did so by pouncing upon the Swedish transport fleet, laden with ammunition and other military stores, which rode at anchor in the narrow and dangerous Dynekil Fjord. With two frigates and five smaller ships, he conquered or destroyed around 30 Swedish ships, with minor damage to himself during the Battle of Dynekilen on 8 July 1716.

For this his greatest exploit, he was promoted to the rank of post-captain, commanding the Kattegat squadron – but at the same time incurred the enmity of Christian Carl Gabel, whom he had failed to take into his confidence. Tordenskiold's first important command was the squadron with which he was entrusted at the beginning of 1717 to destroy the Swedish Gothenburg Squadron, which interrupted the communications between Denmark and Norway. Owing to the disloyalty of certain of his officers who resented serving under the young adventurer, Tordenskjold failed to do all that was expected of him. His enemies were not slow to take advantage of his partial failure. The old charge of criminal recklessness was revived against him at a second court-martial before which he was summoned in 1718. Nevertheless, his old patron Ulrik Christian Gyldenløve intervened energetically on his behalf, and the charge was quashed.

In December 1718, Tordenskiold brought Frederick IV the welcome news of the death of Charles XII and was, in turn, made Rear-Admiral. Tordenskiold captured the Swedish fortress of Carlsten at Marstrand in 1719. The last feat of arms during the Great Northern War was Tordenskiold's partial destruction and partial capture of the Gothenburg Squadron, which had so long eluded him, on 26 September 1719. He was rewarded with the rank of vice-admiral.

Death

Tordenskiold did not long survive the termination of the war. On 12 November 1720, at the age of 30, he was killed in a duel by Livonian colonel Jakob Axel Staël von Holstein. During a trip to Hannover, Tordenskiold got in a fight with von Holstein, who had been in Swedish military service. The confrontation ended in a duel on the Sehlwiese in Gleidingen near Hildesheim, in which the sword of von Holstein ran through Tordenskiold. The circumstances around the death of Tordenskiold were set in a conspiratorial light, as summed up in the contemporary three-volume Tordenskiold biography (1747–1750) by C. P. Rothe.