User:Viking1808/War in the North

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translations and notes that might eventually become parts of an article
Initially, this is a translation from "Fra Krigens Tid" - I have much more Danish/Norwegian material not yet studied which will modify or augment the following text.

Translation

1809

During the course of the year there were three gun-brigs – Snake (18), Nightingale (16) and Gallant (14) stationed on Norway’s northern coast, where they interfered with the fisheries and trade and the import of necessary goods from Russia. They plundered and ravaged at every opportunity and performed with violent excess. Skipper Peder Hjort Graa from Christiansund on the sloop Fortuna of 18 what measure belonging to the grocer W Dahl of the same town, tells it as follows: During a journey to Archangel on 20 june 1809 he was captured by the brig Snake which had a crew of 100 and was commanded by Captain Thomas Wang. His sloop [smaller than an English sloop] was given a crew of 10 men and used as a pirate/privateer. Skipper Graa and two of his seamen stayed on board the English brig until 10 July when they were put on a boat that had in the meantime been taken from some fishermen near Sørøen and in which they approached Hammerfest tells as follows: Our small ship, now that it was being used as a privateer, came back with a couple of prizes, one of which was a Norwegian Jagt (yacht, small boat) based in Christiansund, and the other a Russian brig, neither with any cargo. With the cutter-brig they patrolled the North Cape where they met another cutter-brig of 14 guns which had taken a Norwegian galleas. The two brigs signalled each other and approached land near Maaasø and Ingøen [???] = Hammerfest Parish = continuing patrols until 3 July when they parted company. In the evening the brig – in which Skipper Graa was – sent two armed boats to capture two fishingboats, and used one fisherman as a local pilot. On 4 July two Finns came in a boat to the brig, offering fresh fish, and the captive pilot talked Finnish with them and afterwards they all left the brig.

Late on 5 July (1809) the brig came to Hasvig [modern Hasvik, to the west of Hammerfest] where grocer Killengren lives, but before it anchored it fired off some shots with its cannon, and as soon as the anchor had fallen, crews were sent inland and came back with reindeer pelts, deer skin, cow hides, and two silver castings with feet [ornaments? Church items?] In the following days the crew were always coming on land and taking back skins, small animals, 3 pigs, ropework (tarred or not tarred), kitchenware, fishing lines, an eiderdown-filled duvee, wool, biscuits, meat, butter, and other foodstuff, one chest of tea, sugar, tallow and some copper coins and banknotes, and a barrel of tar. Whether the crew took more out of Hasvig, he did not know, but he did see that the brig’s crew, while on land, shot at cattle and wounded some of them. The brig left Hasvig on 9 July (1809) and came to Hammerfest the same day. When it was within cannon range of the town and had “cleared ship” [clear for action??] but then turned and patrolled until the next day, when Skipper Graa left them.

The brig Gallant ran in close to Hammerfest and engaged two small batteries that had been prepared by the townsfolk and were defended with the so much determination that Gallant had to withdraw, but she returned a few weeks later in company with Nightingale. This anchored a pistol shot from the largest battery on the righthandside of the inlet, and Gallant placed herself likewise before the lesser battery on the lefthandside. Both opened a stream of fire with the result that the batteries, after a brave resistance [all Danish resistance is brave, in the face of overwhelming odds, and finally has to surrender to the enemy force – cynical!! - ] , surrendered and with them the town also fell to the enemy’s force.

The English had hoped to find huge storehouses and other riches, but found instead just another poor little town, and in wrath mishandles the towns inhabitants, destroyed houses and took away whatever they found. Even the town’s church was plundered, and wild excesses took place [imagine!!]. With the taking of Hammerfest the British had secured a good harbour, from where piratical excursions along the coast were undertaken bringing so little honour to the British flag that the captain of the Gallant was reported by the then Bishop of Nordland and Finmark (name = Krogh) to the British Admiral at Leith, and was court-martialled for his actions.

End of 1809

1810

And so it was decided to station a naval force along this section of coast, and command over it (which in 1810 comprised Lougen, Langeland and three gun-schooners, and in 1811 of 4 gun-schooners and 4 armed provision ships and a command vessel) was entrusted to Captain Müller who was successful in driving the enemy ships from the coast, thereby he, - just as also the passage of convoys between Tromsø and Vardø – protecting commerce and fisheries. About twenty merchant ships were captured and brought to the prize court in Trondheim during this time. It will be easily seen that this command here described had many difficulties. The climate was often extreme, severe storms had to be overcome, and the navigable waters were unknown and difficult. It was expressly required of Müller to go inside of skerries even devoid of good sea charts or pilots notes. He had no maps other than Pontopidans land maps and the so-called expert sailors whose expertise could navigate, with a favourable wind, their small boats between the islands of the coast between Trondheim and Vardø, but not a squadron of deeper draft ships. Often he had to patrol in the dark and stormy seasons in fog, sleet and at night to reach a safe haven for the ships – which haven was probably poorly supplied with necessary provisions. Müller watched the situation get steadily worse. The expedition of 1810 was naturally both the most difficult and the most interesting – the fourth officer on Lougen, Junior Lieutenant Bodenhof recorded the cruise in writing as follows –

Early in the spring of 1810 the brigs Langeland and Lougen were ordered to Frederiksværn

• (nb F’værn near Stavern on west side of Oslo Fjord - do not confuse with
• F’stad to east, or with
• F’havn on east side of Jutland, formerly Fladstrand)
  

to prepare with everything that might be needed for an expedition to Finmark. Lougen was commanded by captain Müller and Langeland by Senior Lieutenant Thomas Lütken. In F’værn both vessels were well prepared and provisioned for three months. They sailed on 30 April (1810) from that place, calling at Bergen, Christiansund, Bodø, arriving at Hammerfest on 28 June.

At Christiansund they met up with the three gun-schooners Nornen, Valkyrien and Axel Thorsen (launch date of Valkyrien still gives me some qualms) each armed with a 24 pound cannon fore and aft, and each manned by an acting lieutenant and 50 crew. They had a fixed deck of 60 feet (Danish) long by 16 feet wide, and drew 6 or 7 feet of water. They could be rowed with thirty oars, and the nasts could be lowered – even if this was seldom done. They had a low Banjerdeck where the men could meet and have their sleeping places, together with a poor cabin aft. Considering the heavy weight on their decks, they were very seaworthy. The schooner Axel Thorsen survived ten days of patrolling off Finmark, and two (other) gun-schooners which were taken by the frigates Belvedera (spelling) and Nemesis in July 1810 near Stadt (of which, more later) were not just the first to be brought over the North Sea to the Shetlands, and later to England, but were much praised by the British naval officers who had command of them, and even though he had an accident one night when the cannon aft – by reason of lack of knowledge of the lashings in a stiff breeze, was thrown out of its cradle by a following wave – and was then secured on the deck to the great inconvenience of the schooner.

Captain Müller made his second-in-command of the Lougen, senior lieutenant Wigelsen, officer i/c of the three schooners and sent two of them to Vardø fortress with a few merchant ships laden with provisions and ammunition for the defence work. Shortly afterwards Müller received news that the British brigs had again been seen off the coast; he weighed anchor from Hammerfest and sought a harbour close under the North Cape from where he hoped, with lookouts on the hills, to determine the enemy strength and numbers. As the Norwegian brigs lay on the west side of the cape, the two British brigs (Nightingale and Gallant) lay on the east, and a report from Lt. Wigelsen indicated that his convoy was nearly captured by the enemy brigs which had been mistaken for Norwegian ships! He reported that they had completely blockaded the passage between North Cape and Nordkyn, and that several Russian ships laden with foodstuffs were held up to the east, not daring to make the passage. With this news Captain Müller set out to seek the enemy; but some American ships that had seen (the Danish) brigs had brought the information to the (British) and both HMS Nightingale and HMS Gallant disappeared suddenly. After the vain search for the enemy east of North Cape, captain Müller turned back and anchored near Ingøen (modern Norwegian = Ingøya, some 40 km north of Hammerfest on the edge of the islands) west of the Forbjerg. On 8 July (1810) one of the Lougen’s boats caught a tiny sloop loaded with fish oil and flour that had a home port of Bergen – it had been first captured by HMS Nightingale off Nordkyn, and had a prize crew of one midshipman and four sailors who told othat these two British brigs had recently patrolled off Nordkyn and that there should be two frigates in these latitudes which together with the brigs were soon to go to Greenland to convoy the whaling fleet home.

So this cast was again free (of enemy), the harbours lay full of Russian vessels, trade was booming again and the inhabitants were getting the necessary winter provisions to stave off the threat of starvation. Captain Müller now detached the squadrons on various patrols with orders to bring in to Hammerfest all suspicious merchant ships and designated 11 August as the gathering time for the convoy to sail south. On 13 August the convoy, 16 ships in total, set sail – and a couple of days later two British frigates appeared before the town with the intention of destroying the Norwegian forces in these waters (of which they had been informed by the two British brigs that had relieved them at Greenland) A few days earlier, or a slight delay in , Captain Müller’s departure, would have altered the fate of the squadron which would certainly have been destroyed as there was sufficient depth of water for the British warships to run into Hammerfests harbour.

Müller had also foreseen the possibilities of just such a meeting before he sailed and had taken defensive measures to prepare gun emplacements on land which would have held cannon from the brigs, and planned the use of the gun-schooners as floating, moveable batteries.

On the journey south Lougen led the squadron, towing a heavy three-masted ship from Bremen. Langeland brought up the rear of the convoy, while the gun-schooners were interspersed in the centre. It would be far too longwinded to detail the squadrons course. On 7 september they arrived on Bodø, on 19th at Fleinvær (where they were stormbound for 17 days) (Fleinvaer fjord is one of the outer passages between the multitude of islands).

On sailing further south, Lougen ran aground on an uncharted reef, but by urgent signalling, Captain Müller avoided the same fate befalling the towed Bremer-ship.

HDMS Lougen was stranded with its bow high on the reef, listing steadily more as the tide fell. The ship was much lightened by transfer of cannon and part of her crew to accompanying ships, and supports built to prevent her capsizing. After much effort, on the next high tide, she was eventually kedged clear. It took two days to reinstate the ship to seaworthyness. (translation much abbreviated)

Meanwhile HDMS Langeland had escorted most of the rest of the convoy on its southward journey. Lougen met up again with the convoy, which was much delayed by contrary winds.

Trying to make up lost time, Lougen led the convoy out in dark and rain, but lost the fairway and nearly ran aground again. (translation much abbreviated)

The convoy, which by now had spread out , was again collected and continued to Christiansund (effectively Trondheim) where it anchored on 23 October.

So ended a difficult expedition whose happy outcome was the result of Captain Müllers leadership etc. And so he was granted the command of the next years task force which comprised eight lesser warships.

the gun-schooners

there is a lot of material available on this class of ship
Two small affairs concerning the Nornen and the Valkyrien stationed between Sværholt and Nordkinn need to be told. (Acting Lieutenants Fasmer and Fæster)

Translation to be continued

Citations

Fra Krigens Tid (1807-1814) Bidrag til den norske Marines Historie Samlede og udgivne af N. A. Larsen. Christiania. 1878. Den norske Forlagsforening. H. Aschehoug & Co. Alb. Cammermeyer. J. W. Cappelen. P. T. Mallings Boghandel. Det mallingske Bogtrykkeri. http://www.idi.ntnu.no/~anders/books/Fra_Krigens_Tid/