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Peter Wessel Tordenskjold, painted by Balthasar Denner (1719).
Danish-Norwegian admiral. Born Peter Jansen Wessel on 28 October 1690 in Trondheim, Norway, he was the fourteenth child of an alderman. In 1704 he ran away from home to Copenhagen, Denmark. He later went to sea and made several overseas voyages on merchant and slave ships during 1706–1710. Returning to Denmark, he was admitted to the Naval Academy in Copenhagen.
Because the Great Northern War (1709–1720) had just begun, Wessel received only an abbreviated theoretical education. In 1711 he was appointed a second lieutenant and received command of the four-gun sloop Ormen. Wessel quickly demonstrated a natural talent for naval tactics and soon became known for his daring attacks against larger Swedish warships. Soon he had command of the frigate Loewendahls Galley. After several hours of fighting a larger Swedish frigate on 26–17 July 1714, Wessel requested a cease-fire to ask the opposing captain to loan him ammunition and cannon balls, of which he was short, so that he could continue fighting. The Swedish captain refused and the two ships parted. Later Wessel was court-martialed but found not guilty.
King Frederick IV then promoted Wessel to commander at age 24. He took a leading part in the 24 April 1715 Battle of Fehmam against a Swedish fleet and captured the fastest ship in the Swedish navy, the frigate Hvide Örn.
On 24 February 1716 Wessel was ennobled under the name Tordenskiold (Danish for thundershield). On 8 July he and his squadron attacked and completely destroyed a large Swedish naval force in Dynekilen Fjord on the west coast of Sweden. The Swedish ships had been transporting supplies to army forces about to invade Norway. Tordenskiold’s feat led to the cancellation of the invasion. In 1719 Tordenskiold captured the important fortress of Karlsten on the west coast of Sweden and was rewarded with promotion to vice admiral. He was known as a capable, daring, and resourceful commander, and his successes rested in part in his embrace of melee tactics rather than the formal line-ahead tactics.
When the Great Northern War ended in 1720, Tordenskiold traveled in Europe, presumably to join either the British or Russian navies. He was killed in a duel on 12 November 1720 in Hildesheim, Hanover. Tordenskiold is considered a national hero both in Norway and Denmark.
References
Adamson, Hans Christian. Admiral Thunderbolt: The Spectacular Career of Peter Wessel. Philadelphia and New York: Chilton, 1959.
Bergersen, Olav. Viceadmiral Peter Tordenskiold. 2 vols. Trondheim, Norway: Forfatterens Forlag, 1925.
Bjerg, Hans Christian. Tordenskiold: Glimt af Wessel. Copenhagen: Bogan, 1990.
